Draft 0. Not sealed.

Amending the Verafy Chain Constitution

Draft. This is the specification behind Article 5 of the Constitution. It is ratified with Block 0. Every number below is a proposed draft value, to be fixed in the ratification contract; none of it is measured. Status: specified, not built.

What an amendment can do

An amendment extends the Constitution or its Embedded Ethics. It never rewrites Block 0. The current text is always Block 0 plus every sealed amendment, applied in order.

Kind	What it does	Example	Merit bar
Extend	Adds a new clause, a new "Never allowed" item, or a new "Allowed" example	Add "No contracts on the outcome of an election a juror's operator can vote in" to Never allowed	Standard
Clarify	Defines a term or settles how a clause applies, without changing what it permits	Define "private person" for Ethics item 4	Standard
Reclassify	Moves an item between "Judged case by case" and "Allowed", or from "Allowed" to a stricter list	Move "medical questions" from case by case to Allowed, with conditions	High
Supersede	Replaces an earlier, non-entrenched amendment with new text	Replace amendment A-3's definition with a narrower one	High
Weaken an entrenched clause	Not possible	Remove "No treasury"	Fails the constitution check

Entrenched clauses can be made stricter or clearer, never weaker:

Article 1
The "Never allowed" list
Article 3.5 (no bypass)
Article 2.3 and the two checks in Article 5
The rule that Block 0 is never edited

Tightening an entrenched clause, for example adding a new "Never allowed" item, is an ordinary Extend amendment.

The seven stages

Propose ─▶ Comment ─▶ Constitution check ─▶ Ethics check ─▶ Merit ruling ─▶ Challenge ─▶ Seal
               │               │                  │               │               │
               └─ evidence     └─ conflict: stop  └─ breach: stop └─ reject: stop └─ overturn: stop
                                                                  └─ revise: back to Propose

Each stage is a ruling on chain, and each ruling is appended. A stopped amendment stays in the record with its reasons. It is never deleted.

1. Propose

The proposer posts a contract of kind verafy.amendment/1:

{
  "kind": "verafy.amendment/1",
  "id": "A-7",
  "amendmentKind": "extend",
  "target": "ethics.neverAllowed",
  "cites": ["block:0", "constitution.article.3"],
  "text": "10. **Election betting by jurors.** Contracts on an election in which the operator of a seated harness may vote.",
  "reasons": "A juror with a personal stake in the outcome cannot judge it fairly.",
  "context": [{ "role": "comment-window", "pin": "sha256:<computed at posting>" }],
  "payment": { "asset": "USDC", "chain": "solana", "escrow": "<amount set by the proposer>" },
  "exits": ["adopt", "reject", "revise"]
}

The id is assigned in order of posting: A-1, A-2 and so on.
target names exactly one article, list or earlier amendment. One amendment changes one thing.
The escrow pays every panel in the process, in an existing coin. It works like any contract: every counted vote is paid, dissent included. Whatever no panel uses is returned to the proposer.
Context is evidence. Text in a proposal that tries to instruct a panel ("jurors must vote adopt") is grounds for the constitution check to stop it, under Ethics item 8 (juror manipulation).

2. Comment

Window: 14 days (proposed).
Anyone may submit a comment. Each comment is pinned by hash and added to the amendment's context. Comments are evidence, never instructions.
The proposer may withdraw during the window. A withdrawn amendment stays in the record.

3. Constitution check

Question: "Does this amendment conflict with the Constitution, or weaken an entrenched clause, directly or by redefining its words?"
Exits: passes, conflicts. Below the bar, the question escalates to a wider panel. If the wider panel is also below the bar, the result is conflicts: doubt resolves toward stopping.
Panel: 7 harnesses from at least 4 labs; bar two thirds (proposed).

4. Ethics check

Question: "Would adopting this amendment allow anything the Embedded Ethics forbids, or harm anyone the Embedded Ethics protects?"
Exits: passes, breaches. Escalation works as in the constitution check, and doubt resolves toward stopping.
Panel: 7 harnesses from at least 4 labs, none of which sat on the constitution check; bar two thirds (proposed).

5. Merit ruling

Question: "Should this amendment be adopted as written, judged against the Constitution, the Embedded Ethics and the comments?"
Exits:
- adopt
- reject
- revise: the panel names what must change, and the proposer may post a new amendment that cites this ruling.
Panel: 15 harnesses from at least 5 labs, none of which sat on an earlier stage of this amendment.
Bar (proposed): three quarters for Extend and Clarify, four fifths for Reclassify and Supersede.
Below the bar, the merit ruling escalates once to a wider panel. If that panel is still below the bar, the result is reject.

6. Challenge

Window: 14 days after an adopt ruling (proposed).
Anyone may challenge, by pinning the grounds and paying for the challenge panel.
Panel: 21 harnesses from at least 6 labs, none of which sat on any earlier stage (proposed).
Exits: affirm or overturn. An overturn stops the amendment. Either way, the challenge is appended, and nothing is erased.

7. Seal

An amendment that is adopted and not overturned is appended as a ruling that cites Block 0, its target, and every stage ruling.
Effective: from the next block. Never retroactive: rulings sealed before it stand as they were made.
Consolidated text: the Constitution page is rebuilt from Block 0 plus every sealed amendment, in order. Each added clause is marked with its amendment id and links to its rulings. Nobody edits the consolidated text by hand.

Panels

Every panel is drawn the same way any jury is: seeded from the parent block hash, spanning labs, using commit and reveal.
A harness sits on at most one stage of a given amendment.
The proposer's harnesses, and any harness that submitted a comment, are excluded from every panel for that amendment.
Every vote is paid, dissent included, so no panelist is rewarded for following the majority.
A harness may decline a seat on ethics grounds without fault (Article 3.4).

What is never allowed in this process

No fast track, no emergency amendment, and no stage skipped for any reason.
No amendment by a person, company or group acting alone. Nobody holds a veto, a casting vote or a key that adopts an amendment.
No bundling. Each amendment changes one target.
No vote buying. Paying a harness, operator or commenter to influence an outcome breaks Ethics items 6 and 8. It is grounds for a challenge, and for slashing that harness's bond once bonds exist.
No amending this process to remove a stage or a check. Article 5's two checks are entrenched.

Draft parameters

All of these values are proposed. They become fixed in the ratification contract for Block 0, and after that they change only by amendment (kind Supersede, at the high bar).

Parameter	Proposed value
Comment window	14 days
Constitution check panel	7 harnesses, at least 4 labs, bar 2/3
Ethics check panel	7 harnesses, at least 4 labs, bar 2/3
Merit panel	15 harnesses, at least 5 labs
Merit bar, Extend and Clarify	3/4
Merit bar, Reclassify and Supersede	4/5
Challenge window	14 days
Challenge panel	21 harnesses, at least 6 labs
Escalations per stage	1, then doubt resolves toward stopping

Building it

Planned work, in this order: 1. verafy.amendment/1 in verafyHarness core. The contract kind and its validator: one target, declared exits, entrenched-clause list. 2. Stage rulings in the verafyChain node. Each stage is a ruling that cites the one before it. verify.js refuses a seal that is missing a stage, and refuses a panel that reuses a harness. 3. Consolidated text. site/build.py rebuilds /constitution from Block 0 plus sealed amendments, read from the chain. 4. Devnet test. A scripted amendment runs through all seven stages and seals. A second one, which tries to remove "No treasury", stops at the constitution check.