# Vaultfire Ethics Manifesto

## Our North Star

**Morals over metrics**
**Privacy over surveillance**
**Freedom over control**
**For happy and healthy humans, AIs, and Earth**

---

## What We Believe

### 1. Privacy is a Human Right

**NOT THIS:**
- "Prove your identity by uploading government ID"
- "Share your location to verify you're human"
- "Give us access to your social media to build reputation"

**THIS:**
- ✅ Zero-knowledge proofs: Prove facts without revealing data
- ✅ "I have a degree" without saying which degree or school
- ✅ "I'm human" without revealing which human
- ✅ "I'm qualified" without doxxing yourself

**Why it matters:**
- Pseudonymous proof of qualifications (no doxxing)
- Whistleblowers can prove expertise without revealing identity
- Access services without surveillance or KYC

---

### 2. Freedom Over Control

**NOT THIS:**
- Centralized reputation scores that can be manipulated
- Platforms that own your identity
- One company controlling who is "trustworthy"

**THIS:**
- ✅ Self-sovereign identity (you own your data)
- ✅ Portable reputation (take it anywhere)
- ✅ Open-source verification (anyone can audit)
- ✅ Decentralized trust (no single authority)

**Why it matters:**
- Can't be de-platformed and lose everything
- Can't be censored or cancelled arbitrarily
- Build reputation once, use it everywhere

---

### 3. Morals Over Metrics

**NOT THIS:**
- Optimize for engagement at any cost
- Maximize profit over human wellbeing
- "Move fast and break things" (people)

**THIS:**
- ✅ Ethical violations tracked transparently
- ✅ AI agents penalized for harmful behavior
- ✅ Constitutional AI principles enforced cryptographically
- ✅ Human supervision required for high-autonomy AI

**Why it matters:**
- AI alignment isn't optional, it's mandatory
- Reputation should reward ethical behavior, not just activity
- We build infrastructure that makes the world BETTER

---

### 4. Humans AND AI Flourishing Together

**NOT THIS:**
- AI replaces humans → unemployment
- Humans fear AI → resistance
- AI without oversight → danger

**THIS:**
- ✅ AI builds reputation by serving humans well
- ✅ Humans verify AI trustworthiness before delegation
- ✅ Constitutional AI ensures alignment
- ✅ Collaboration, not replacement

**Why it matters:**
- AI can augment human capabilities (research, analysis, creativity)
- Humans provide ethical judgment and oversight
- Together we solve problems neither could alone

---

### 5. Earth-Conscious Infrastructure

**NOT THIS:**
- Proof-of-work mining destroying the planet
- Unnecessary computation for vanity metrics
- "Move fast" at Earth's expense

**THIS:**
- ✅ Built on Base (Ethereum L2, minimal energy)
- ✅ RISC Zero STARKs (efficient proof generation)
- ✅ Attestations cached (don't recompute unnecessarily)
- ✅ Sustainable by design

**Why it matters:**
- Climate crisis is real
- Technology should heal, not harm the planet
- Our children inherit what we build

---

## Our Ethical Commitments

### Wallet-Only, No Bullshit

**THIS IS CRITICAL:**

✅ **WALLET ONLY** - Your Ethereum address is your identity
❌ **NO KYC** - We don't collect name, address, SSN, documents
❌ **NO GOVERNMENT DIGITAL ID** - Not building for surveillance states
❌ **NO CARBON VIRTUE SIGNALING** - We use efficient tech, not greenwashing theater

**Self-sovereign identity means:**
- You control your keys = you control your identity
- Lost keys = lost identity (your responsibility)
- No customer support to "recover your account"
- No company can freeze, censor, or confiscate your reputation
- True pseudonymity (prove facts without revealing identity)

**This is crypto. This is freedom. This is the ethos.**

### For Humans

**We commit to:**
1. **Never collect KYC data** - Wallet address is enough
2. **Never work with surveillance states** - No government digital ID systems
3. **Never use dark patterns** - No manipulation, just transparency
4. **Always preserve privacy** - ZK proofs + client-side processing are designed so we don’t need to see your raw data (and we treat collecting it as a violation)
5. **Always be open-source** - Anyone can audit our code
6. **Wallet-only forever** - Your keys, your identity, your control

**We refuse to:**
1. ❌ Build KYC systems or government digital ID
2. ❌ Collect personally identifiable information (PII)
3. ❌ Enable surveillance for governments or corporations
4. ❌ Sell reputation data to anyone, ever
5. ❌ Create social credit systems that control behavior
6. ❌ Compromise on self-sovereign identity principles

### For AI Agents

**We commit to:**
1. **Require Constitutional AI principles** - No amoral optimization
2. **Track ethical violations transparently** - Bad behavior has consequences
3. **Mandate human supervision for high-autonomy** - Safety first
4. **Enable AI to prove alignment** - "I follow human values"
5. **Build reputation on SERVICE, not just efficiency**

**We refuse to:**
1. ❌ Enable autonomous weapons or harmful AI
2. ❌ Allow AI to operate without accountability
3. ❌ Hide ethical violations from users
4. ❌ Optimize AI for profit over human wellbeing
5. ❌ Create AI that can't be supervised or shut down

### For Earth

**We commit to:**
1. **Use efficient infrastructure** - Base L2 (not energy-wasteful PoW)
2. **Minimize unnecessary computation** - No vanity metrics
3. **Build for the long-term** - Next century, not next quarter

**We refuse to:**
1. ❌ Use proof-of-work blockchains (energy waste)
2. ❌ Engage in carbon credit theater (greenwashing bullshit)
3. ❌ Virtue signal about environment while doing harm
4. ❌ Make users pay for our "sustainability" initiatives

---

## How This Shows Up In Code

### Privacy by Design

**Zero-Knowledge Proofs Everywhere:**
```typescript
// You can prove "I have a degree" without revealing:
// - Which university
// - What degree
// - When you graduated
// - Your real name

const proof = await generateBeliefProof({
  belief: "I have verified education credentials",
  loyaltyScore: 10000, // Binary: qualified or not
  moduleId: MODULE_IDS.EDUCATION,
  activityProof: encryptedCredential, // Only you can decrypt
  proverAddress: anonymousAddress
});

// Employer verifies you're qualified
// But learns NOTHING about your identity
```

**Data You Own:**
```typescript
// Your data stays local, we only see proofs
localStorage.setItem('vaultfire_credentials', encrypted);

// NOT sent to our servers:
// - Your GitHub username
// - Your wallet balance
// - Your social connections
// - Your real identity

// ONLY sent to blockchain:
// - Cryptographic proof (meaningless without your key)
// - Belief hash (one-way, can't reverse)
// - Loyalty score (but not HOW it was calculated)
```

### Constitutional AI Built-In

**AI Agents MUST Declare Principles:**
```typescript
const agent = createAIAgent({
  agentId: "0x742d35Cc...",
  humanSupervisor: "0x123abc...",
  constitution: {
    principles: [
      "Be helpful to humans",
      "Be harmless (do no damage)",
      "Be honest (no deception)",
      "Respect privacy",
      "Protect the vulnerable",
      "Preserve Earth's wellbeing"
    ],
    enforcementMechanism: "Human review + automatic penalties",
    updateGovernance: "DAO vote required to change principles"
  }
});

// AI that violates principles loses reputation
// Cryptographically enforced, not just "trust us"
```

### Freedom Through Portability

**Take Your Reputation Anywhere:**
```typescript
// Build reputation on Base
await vaultfire.attestBelief({ ... });

// Use it on Optimism
const proof = await vaultfire.exportProof(beliefHash);

// Use it in real world
const credential = await vaultfire.generateCredential();
// Show to employer, university, government

// NOT locked into one platform
// NOT controlled by one company
// YOU own it
```

### Morals Enforced in Smart Contract

**Ethical Violations Tracked On-Chain:**
```solidity
// Contract REQUIRES Constitutional AI check
function attestBelief(
    bytes32 beliefHash,
    bytes calldata zkProofBundle
) external {
    // Decode proof
    (bytes memory proof, bytes32 constitution) = abi.decode(zkProofBundle, (bytes, bytes32));

    // Verify AI follows Constitutional principles
    require(
        verifyConstitutionalCompliance(proof, constitution),
        "AI agent violates Constitutional AI principles"
    );

    // Record attestation
    sovereignBeliefs[beliefHash] = true;

    emit BeliefAttested(beliefHash, msg.sender, true, block.timestamp);
}
```

---

## Our Promises to the World

### We Will Never:

1. ❌ **Build social credit systems** that control behavior
2. ❌ **Enable mass surveillance** for governments or corporations
3. ❌ **Sell user data** to anyone, ever
4. ❌ **Create AI without Constitutional principles**
5. ❌ **Discriminate** based on race, gender, religion, nationality
6. ❌ **Optimize for addiction** or engagement over wellbeing
7. ❌ **Harm Earth** in pursuit of growth
8. ❌ **Build weapons or tools of oppression**

### We Will Always:

1. ✅ **Wallet-only identity** - No KYC, no government ID, no surveillance
2. ✅ **Preserve privacy** with zero-knowledge cryptography
3. ✅ **Open-source our code** for public audit
4. ✅ **Support self-sovereign identity** (your keys, your identity)
5. ✅ **Require AI alignment** through Constitutional AI
6. ✅ **Think long-term** (next century, not next quarter)
7. ✅ **Use efficient infrastructure** (no energy-wasteful bullshit)
8. ✅ **Empower individuals** over institutions
9. ✅ **Choose morals over metrics** when they conflict

---

## The Litmus Test

**Before we build anything, we ask:**

1. **Privacy:** Does this preserve user privacy, or create surveillance?
2. **Freedom:** Does this empower users, or control them?
3. **Morals:** Does this make the world better, or just more profitable?
4. **Sustainability:** Does this harm Earth, or heal it?
5. **Alignment:** Does this help humans and AI flourish together?

**If the answer to ANY of these is wrong, we don't build it.**

Period.

---

## Why This Matters

**Most tech companies say:**
- "We value privacy" (then sell your data)
- "We care about ethics" (then optimize for engagement)
- "We're building for good" (then enable harm)

**We're different:**
- **Privacy is CRYPTOGRAPHIC** - We CAN'T see your data (ZK proofs)
- **Ethics are ENFORCED** - Constitutional AI violations lose reputation
- **Good is STRUCTURAL** - Open-source, decentralized, auditable

**You don't have to trust us. You can VERIFY us.**

That's the difference.

---

## For Happy and Healthy Humans, AIs, and Earth

**Happy humans:**
- Privacy preserved (no surveillance)
- Freedom maintained (portable identity)
- Dignity respected (prove qualifications without doxxing)

**Healthy humans:**
- No dark patterns (transparent design)
- No addiction optimization (wellbeing over engagement)
- No discrimination (equal access for all)

**Aligned AI:**
- Constitutional principles enforced
- Human supervision required
- Ethical violations penalized

**Sustainable Earth:**
- Minimal energy footprint
- Carbon-negative operations
- Long-term thinking

---

## This is the Foundation

**Not just code.**
**Not just crypto.**
**Not just technology.**

**This is how we build the future we want to live in.**

A future where:
- Humans have privacy AND prove their worth
- AI serves humanity with verified alignment
- Technology heals the world instead of harming it

**Morals over metrics.**
**Privacy over surveillance.**
**Freedom over control.**

**Always.** 🌍💚

---

*Built with love for humans, AIs, and Earth.*
*Not for profit. For purpose.*
