| title | description | og_image |
|---|---|---|
Decentralized Accountable Trust Union (DATU) |
Overview of DATU's mission, principles, vision, and documentation roadmap for building a transparent governance ledger. |
assets/datu-social-cover.jpg |
DATU (the Decentralized Accountable Trust Union) is an open blockchain framework designed to bring transparency, trust, and accountability into public governance and institutional systems.
By combining decentralization with verifiable transparency, DATU empowers citizens, auditors, and governments to participate in a shared, tamper-proof ledger of truth—with the roadmap led by a crowdsourced community and supported by enabling public institutions.
“A unified system of trust and accountability built through decentralization.”
| Keyword | Represents | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Decentralized | Openness | An open, tamper-proof foundation enabling transparency and security. |
| Accountable | Responsibility | Embeds public accountability into every transaction and record. |
| Trust | Integrity | The bridge between citizens and government—built on verifiable truth. |
| Union | Unity | A shared space where citizens and state work together, not apart. |
- Transparency by Design – Every transaction is visible, verifiable, and immutable.
- Citizen Leadership – Everyday contributors set the platform vision and hold institutions accountable.
- Government as Enabler – Public agencies facilitate legal clarity, infrastructure, and security without controlling the network.
- Open, Crowdsourced Governance – Decisions and validations are community-driven, auditable, and accessible to new contributors.
- Global Standardization – Designed to integrate with international transparency protocols.
To establish a global trust infrastructure where governments and citizens coexist transparently, rebuilding public confidence through open consensus and auditable governance.
“Transparency is not optional; it’s the foundation of trust.”
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Consensus Layer | Fork of Stellar (FBA-based) for rapid, low-energy validation. |
| Smart Contracts | Soroban-compatible modules for policy logic and traceable disbursements. |
| Governance Model | Citizen-wallet participation with tiered validation roles. |
| Token Role | Non-speculative utility token representing transparency units, not currency. |
| Use Case | Government budget tracking, procurement visibility, citizen watchdog participation. |
Review the core materials in the following order to build a shared understanding before diving into delivery work:
- Government Blockchain Explainer – Strategic rationale for sovereign civic blockchains, contrasting them with speculative third-party networks and outlining why citizens and public agencies should co-own the ledger.
ARCHITECTURE.md– Reference architecture covering consensus, smart contracts, application layer, identity, and security so contributors can see how the pieces fit together.- Consensus – Stellar SCP Primer – Deep dive into the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) to clarify how federated Byzantine agreement upholds DATU’s accountability requirements.
IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md– Phase-by-phase roadmap detailing activities, deliverables, and success metrics, beginning with a community-first mobilization phase where citizens shape governance, legal priorities, and collaboration tooling.project-mobilization.md– Suggestion memo that alerts stakeholders to begin Phase 0 coordination activities and align on governance logistics.project-progress.md– Running changelog capturing what has shipped so newcomers can quickly assess momentum and context.
The MkDocs portal mirrors this order in the navigation so readers can progress from "why" to "how" without losing context.
To keep public-facing content consistent, README.md and docs/index.md must remain identical. Update README.md first, then mirror the changes with cp README.md docs/index.md (or your editor's sync command).
The documentation deployment workflow includes a validation step that fails if these files diverge, ensuring GitHub Pages always renders the latest README content.
DATU now ships with an MkDocs Material configuration so the repository documentation can be published to GitHub Pages with a built-in light/dark theme toggle.
pip install mkdocs-material
mkdocs serveThe development server will watch for file changes inside the docs/ directory and rebuild the site automatically. Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your browser to preview the rendered content.
- A GitHub Actions workflow (
.github/workflows/documentation.yml) installs MkDocs Material and runsmkdocs build --stricton every push to themainbranch, ensuring broken links fail the build. - The resulting static site is uploaded as an artifact and published through
actions/deploy-pagesto the GitHub Pages environment. Enable GitHub Pages in the repository settings and point it to the GitHub Actions deployment source to make the documentation publicly accessible. - Update
docs/project-progress.mdwith a dated entry whenever notable work is merged so visitors can follow the project's evolution.
site/ contains the fully rendered MkDocs output—HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and search indexes—that GitHub Pages (or any static web host) serves directly. Committing these generated assets keeps the documentation snapshot in lockstep with the repository's source material, lets teams review the exact files that will deploy without rebuilding locally, and supports downstream consumers that vendor the published docs as part of their own releases. If your deployment pipeline rebuilds the site automatically, you can exclude site/ by updating .gitignore; otherwise, keeping it tracked guarantees the portal remains accessible even when CI/CD infrastructure is unavailable.
- Inclusive Steering Committee – Citizen coalitions, civic-tech groups, and open-source contributors share seats with public sector advisors.
- Participatory Legal Review – Regulatory discussions incorporate public consultations to surface privacy and transparency priorities.
- Open Collaboration Infrastructure – Repositories, CI/CD pipelines, and documentation portals remain accessible for new volunteers, backed by government-provided hosting and security support.
These resources provide a starting point for forming engineering teams, scoping work, and launching pilot networks that embody the DATU principles.
DATU now ships with a runnable fork of the Stellar network so engineers can exercise consensus, Soroban smart contracts, and Horizon APIs without waiting for public infrastructure.
- Install Docker + Compose – Confirm
docker --versionanddocker compose versionboth work. - Start the fork – From the repository root run
./scripts/stellar-fork/start.shto launch thestellar/quickstart-based validator. The container exposes:http://localhost:8000for Horizon REST and Soroban JSON-RPC (/rpc).http://localhost:8000/friendbotto fund development accounts on the forked ledger.http://localhost:11626for Stellar Core’s administrative HTTP interface.
- Shut down when finished – Execute
./scripts/stellar-fork/stop.shto stop the container while preserving state in thedatu-stellar-stateDocker volume. Remove the volume to reset the ledger.
The compose file lives under infrastructure/stellar-fork/ so teams can extend it with additional
validators, custom quorum sets, or bespoke network passphrases as the project matures. Consult the
Stellar Fork Environment guide in the documentation portal for deeper runbooks and topology patterns.
Openly developed under the Open Government Licence – Philippines (OGL-PH v1.0) — ensuring the system remains free, inspectable, and modifiable for civic use.
DATU – A Union of Trust, Powered by Transparency.
Because accountability should never depend on secrecy.