Onym Sponsor Contract Boundary

Architecture draft 0.1 — August 2026

A sponsor may fund a foundation, receive transparent recognition on that foundation's resources, and participate in a bounded governance class. A contribution buys no user, protocol privilege, or exemption from a director's duty to the foundation.

This document defines a technology-neutral contract for foundations that want open sponsorship, endowment contributions, public recognition, and a sponsor path into foundation governance. It is not tied to the Onym Foundation, a jurisdiction, legal form, custody provider, investment strategy, currency, identity system, website, or voting technology.

The initial proposed implementation is Sponsor-Onym.md. Any other foundation may publish a different conforming implementation profile with its own purposes, resource inventory, contribution thresholds, recognition classes, board composition, endowment policy, and applicable law.

This specification is not articles of incorporation, bylaws, a trust deed, a tax opinion, or an offer of an investment. A protocol record cannot create a legal directorship unless the foundation's governing documents and applicable law give that record effect.

1. Decision

Sponsorship is an open support seat, not ownership of Onym or of a foundation.

• Anyone may submit a contribution or sponsorship application under a foundation's published eligibility policy.
• The foundation may accept, reject, return, or condition a contribution under its lawful gift-acceptance and risk policies.
• An accepted sponsor may receive signed status and recognition on resources the foundation actually controls.
• A qualifying sponsor may join a sponsor electorate, stand for a reserved board class, and vote in its selection process when the implementation permits it.
• A sponsor director participates in endowment and budget decisions as one fiduciary member of the board. The director does not control “their money” after an irrevocable contribution.
• Contribution size may establish eligibility or a recognition tier, but it does not weight a seated director's vote unless a foundation explicitly publishes a different, legally valid profile.
• No sponsorship grants authority over identities, messages, transports, notaries, association registries, applications, independent providers, or protocol conformance.

Open participation means anyone can make an offer or build another foundation from the protocol. It does not require one foundation to accept every source of funds, display unlawful material, create unlimited board seats, or violate its charitable purpose and legal duties.

2. Roles and assets

• The foundation is the legal or organizational body receiving funds, controlling named resources, and adopting a sponsor implementation profile.
• The sponsor contributes money, assets, or an accepted in-kind resource and may request recognition or governance eligibility.
• The foundation board is the body legally responsible for strategy, oversight, investment, and spending within the foundation's purpose.
• The sponsor council is the open or threshold-qualified electorate for sponsor-class nominations, elections, consultation, and proposals.
• A sponsor director is a legal board member selected through the sponsor class but owing the same duties as every other director.
• The treasurer or endowment custodian receives, values, segregates, invests, and disburses assets under approved policy.
• The recognition publisher controls a website, application surface, report, event, or other resource on which sponsor status may be displayed.
• The governance recorder signs proposals, conflicts, votes, resolutions, appointments, and spending reports. It is evidence, not a substitute for the foundation's legal records.
• The auditor or reviewer, where appointed, reconciles receipts, custody, spending, restrictions, and public statements.

Foundation-controlled assets are distinct:

• operating funds may be spent under the current budget;
• board-designated reserves or quasi-endowment may be released by the board under its own policy;
• term-restricted funds are restricted until a date or condition;
• purpose-restricted funds may be used only for an accepted purpose; and
• permanent endowment is managed and appropriated subject to the gift instrument, governing documents, applicable law, and prudent policy.

Calling every contribution an “endowment” would be misleading. The receipt and public report must name the actual fund class.

3. Recognition is bounded

A sponsor may earn public recognition only on resources listed in the foundation's signed RecognitionInventory. Examples include:

• the foundation website's sponsor page;
• annual reports and audited statements;
• foundation-hosted events and grant reports;
• foundation-owned documentation, newsletters, and public dashboards; or
• a specifically declared acknowledgement area in foundation-published apps.

Recognition never implies control over:

• an independently published Onym client or website;
• a user's identity, UI, service route, or local state;
• a provider's relay, blob server, notary, registry, or application;
• a permissionless protocol implementation;
• technical conformance or security-audit results;
• Discovery catalog inclusion or ranking;
• a grant, procurement award, or regulatory endorsement; or
• continued recognition after the credential's declared term.

Every placement is visibly labelled as sponsorship or acknowledgement. It shows the recognized name or pseudonym, tier, foundation, period, and policy link. It cannot masquerade as a user recommendation or protocol requirement.

4. Contribution and benefit semantics

Before payment, the sponsor receives a signed disclosure describing:

• receiving legal entity and jurisdiction;
• charitable or organizational purpose;
• accepted asset, valuation, payment rail, and custody destination;
• fund class and any accepted restriction;
• whether the contribution is irrevocable;
• recognition benefit and its good-faith value where relevant;
• sponsor-council or board eligibility, but not a guaranteed result unless the governing documents lawfully guarantee it;
• identity, sanctions, source-of-funds, tax, and reporting requirements;
• refund, rejection, reversal, and failed-payment behavior; and
• authoritative legal documents and order of precedence.

A contribution is not a purchase of securities, equity, revenue share, token, network ownership, or financial return. No document may promise appreciation, yield, repayment, or profits from the efforts of the foundation unless a separate lawful instrument explicitly exists outside this sponsor profile.

Recognition, event admission, membership benefits, or other consideration can affect whether a payment is legally or taxfully treated as a donation. A receipt records the benefit; it does not promise deductibility. Sponsors obtain their own advice in the relevant jurisdiction.

5. Board participation

5.1 Finite board, open path

A legal board is finite. A conforming foundation therefore publishes:

• number and class of board seats;
• maximum sponsor-director proportion;
• qualification threshold and lookback period;
• nomination, due-diligence, election, appointment, and acceptance steps;
• voter eligibility and voting rule;
• term, staggering, renewal, and consecutive-term limit;
• affiliate aggregation and one-seat-per-control-group rule;
• vacancy, suspension, resignation, and removal procedure;
• independence, skill, residency, and diversity constraints where lawful;
• conflict, confidentiality, compensation, and expense policies; and
• legal filing or registration required before a term begins.

Every qualified sponsor can join the published selection process. Qualification does not create an unlimited or permanent seat. If qualified candidates exceed available seats, the sponsor electorate chooses among them under the pinned rule.

5.2 Fiduciary independence

A sponsor director is not an instructed delegate of the sponsor that nominated or employed them. Once seated, the director must act in the foundation's best interests and purpose under the governing documents and applicable law.

The director:

1. signs a duty, confidentiality, and conflict acknowledgement;
2. discloses financial, employment, family, governance, grant, and vendor relationships at appointment, annually, and when a matter arises;
3. does not receive contribution-weighted board voting power;
4. leaves discussion and voting when a conflict cannot be safely managed;
5. cannot direct a grant, procurement, compensation, or benefit to themselves or an affiliate;
6. preserves confidential information without hiding the public basis of a spending decision; and
7. may be removed under the same lawful duty and misconduct standards as another director.

Sponsor-class selection explains how the director reached the board; it does not lower the director's duties.

5.3 Influence over spending

A sponsor director may:

• introduce or co-sponsor a spending proposal;
• question staff, advisers, grantees, and investment providers;
• request information available to all directors;
• participate in deliberation when unconflicted;
• cast one recorded vote on budgets, grants, investment, and endowment appropriations; and
• publish a permitted explanation or dissent after the decision.

No donor retains a private veto over unrestricted funds after acceptance. Restrictions in an accepted gift instrument bind the foundation through the fund restriction, not through continuing private control by the donor.

6. Contract objects

6.1 Foundation Profile

{
  "profileVersion": 1,
  "profileId": "onym:sponsor-profile:foundation-v1",
  "interface": "onym-sponsor-v1",
  "foundation": "onym:key:<foundation-id>",
  "legalEntity": "<registered-name-and-number-or-proposed-status>",
  "jurisdiction": "<declared>",
  "purpose": "<content-addressed-purpose>",
  "governingDocuments": ["<content-addressed-document>"],
  "resourceInventory": "<recognition-inventory-hash>",
  "giftAcceptancePolicy": "<policy-hash>",
  "endowmentPolicy": "<policy-hash>",
  "boardPolicy": "<policy-hash>",
  "conflictPolicy": "<policy-hash>",
  "disclosurePolicy": "<policy-hash>",
  "signature": "<foundation-signature>"
}

6.2 Foundation Implementation Profile

{
  "implementationVersion": 1,
  "implementationProfileId": "onym:sponsor-implementation:<foundation>-v1",
  "sponsorProfileId": "onym:sponsor-profile:foundation-v1",
  "recognitionClasses": "<versioned-classes>",
  "contributionRails": ["<rail-profile>"],
  "fundClasses": ["operating", "board-designated", "term-restricted", "purpose-restricted", "permanent-endowment"],
  "boardClasses": "<seat-and-election-policy>",
  "spendingRule": "<appropriation-and-vote-policy>",
  "legalPrecedence": "governing-documents-and-applicable-law",
  "specification": "<content-addressed-specification>",
  "signature": "<foundation-signature>"
}

6.3 Sponsor Offer

{
  "version": 1,
  "offerId": "<random-id>",
  "implementationProfileId": "onym:sponsor-implementation:<foundation>-v1",
  "foundation": "onym:key:<foundation-id>",
  "recognitionTier": "<tier>",
  "recognitionTerm": "P1Y",
  "eligibleResources": ["<resource-id>"],
  "minimumContribution": {"minorUnits": 100000, "currency": "<reference-currency>"},
  "acceptedFundClasses": ["operating", "permanent-endowment"],
  "boardEligibility": {
    "included": false,
    "policy": "<board-policy-hash>"
  },
  "benefitValue": {"minorUnits": 0, "currency": "<reference-currency>"},
  "validUntil": "2026-12-31T23:59:59Z",
  "signature": "<foundation-signature>"
}

The values are illustrative. Each implementation publishes its real amounts and currencies. A sponsor offer cannot amend the foundation's legal documents.

6.4 Contribution Pledge

{
  "version": 1,
  "pledgeId": "<random-id>",
  "offerId": "<offer-id>",
  "sponsor": "onym:key:<sponsor-id>",
  "publicName": "<requested-name-or-pseudonym>",
  "amount": {"minorUnits": 500000, "currency": "<declared>"},
  "asset": "<asset-and-network>",
  "fundClass": "permanent-endowment",
  "requestedRestriction": "<none-or-purpose-and-expiry>",
  "recognitionRequested": true,
  "privacy": "public-name-private-payment-coordinate",
  "eligibilityEvidence": ["<required-compliance-evidence>"],
  "validUntil": "2026-08-31T23:59:59Z",
  "signature": "<sponsor-signature>"
}

A requested restriction is not binding until the foundation explicitly accepts it. Silence, receipt of an incompatible transfer, or a memo field does not amend the gift instrument.

6.5 Contribution Acceptance and Receipt

{
  "version": 1,
  "receiptId": "<nonreusable-id>",
  "pledgeId": "<pledge-id>",
  "foundation": "onym:key:<foundation-id>",
  "sponsor": "onym:key:<sponsor-id>",
  "received": {"amount": "<exact-asset-units>", "asset": "<asset-and-network>"},
  "referenceValue": {"minorUnits": 500000, "currency": "<reference-currency>"},
  "valuationMethod": "<source-time-and-policy>",
  "receivedAt": "2026-08-15T00:00:00Z",
  "fundClass": "permanent-endowment",
  "acceptedRestriction": "<none-or-exact-restriction-hash>",
  "irrevocable": true,
  "recognizedBenefit": "<tier-term-and-estimated-value>",
  "taxDeductibilityPromised": false,
  "paymentEvidence": "<private-or-redacted-reference>",
  "signature": "<foundation-signature>"
}

The receipt never exposes a private bank account, full payment credential, or unnecessary source-of-funds document. Statutory receipts and private records may contain more data and remain under the foundation's retention policy.

6.6 Sponsor Status Credential

{
  "version": 1,
  "credentialId": "<random-id>",
  "foundation": "onym:key:<foundation-id>",
  "subject": "onym:key:<sponsor-id>",
  "status": "<recognition-tier>",
  "scope": ["recognition", "sponsor-council"],
  "validFrom": "2026-08-15T00:00:00Z",
  "validUntil": "2027-08-15T00:00:00Z",
  "sourceReceipts": ["<receipt-hash>"],
  "policyVersion": "<policy-hash>",
  "revocationEndpoint": "<status-endpoint>",
  "signature": "<foundation-signature>"
}

The credential is nontransferable. It proves foundation-issued status, not control of the foundation or truth of the sponsor's marketing claims.

6.7 Recognition Placement

{
  "version": 1,
  "placementId": "<random-id>",
  "credentialId": "<sponsor-status-credential>",
  "resourceId": "<foundation-controlled-resource>",
  "label": "Sponsor",
  "displayName": "<approved-name>",
  "creativeHash": "<approved-logo-or-text-hash>",
  "startsAt": "2026-08-15T00:00:00Z",
  "endsAt": "2027-08-15T00:00:00Z",
  "publisher": "onym:key:<recognition-publisher>",
  "signature": "<publisher-signature>"
}

6.8 Board Candidacy and Appointment

{
  "version": 1,
  "candidacyId": "<random-id>",
  "foundation": "onym:key:<foundation-id>",
  "candidate": "onym:key:<candidate-id>",
  "sponsorControlGroup": "<declared-affiliate-group>",
  "boardClass": "sponsor-director",
  "eligibilityReceipts": ["<receipt-hashes>"],
  "qualificationStatement": "<content-addressed-statement>",
  "conflictDisclosure": "<public-summary-and-private-register-reference>",
  "consentsToDuties": true,
  "term": {"startsAt": "<date>", "endsAt": "<date>"},
  "signature": "<candidate-signature>"
}

After the pinned election and legal appointment steps, the foundation issues:

{
  "version": 1,
  "appointmentId": "<random-id>",
  "candidacyId": "<candidacy-id>",
  "resolutionId": "<board-or-member-resolution>",
  "electionEvidence": "<canonical-result-hash>",
  "legalEffectiveAt": "<date-or-null-until-complete>",
  "termEndsAt": "<date>",
  "status": "effective",
  "signature": "<foundation-signature>"
}

A result remains pending_legal_effect until every appointment step required by the governing documents and law is complete.

6.9 Spending Proposal and Resolution

{
  "version": 1,
  "proposalId": "<random-id>",
  "foundation": "onym:key:<foundation-id>",
  "proposer": "onym:key:<director-or-authorized-party>",
  "purpose": "<public-purpose-and-deliverables>",
  "requested": {"minorUnits": 2500000, "currency": "<declared>"},
  "fundSource": "<operating-or-endowment-fund-id>",
  "restrictionCompatibility": "<analysis-hash>",
  "recipient": "<proposed-grantee-or-vendor>",
  "conflicts": ["<declared-conflict-references>"],
  "publicCommentEndsAt": "<date>",
  "voteOpensAt": "<date>",
  "supportingMaterial": "<content-addressed-bundle>",
  "signature": "<proposer-signature>"
}

The final SpendingResolution records eligible directors, recusals, quorum, votes, governing rule, amount, fund, milestones, dissent, and signatures. A public vote record may identify directors while private legal advice and protected personal data remain access controlled.

7. Common contract surface

There is no operation for buyProtocolControl, buyUserData, forceDiscoveryInclusion, overrideConformance, instructDirectorVote, or claimInvestmentReturn.

8. Recognition policy requirements

Every foundation implementation specifies:

1. exact resources it controls and can promise;
2. tier names, qualification, term, and renewal;
3. placement size, order, rotation, accessibility, and sponsorship label;
4. permitted names, links, logos, claims, and content categories;
5. trademark license, if any, and its revocation;
6. editorial, sanctions, safety, and reputational review;
7. whether anonymous or pseudonymous recognition is allowed;
8. suspension, appeal, expiry, and correction;
9. benefit valuation and required tax disclosure; and
10. the statement that recognition is not technical endorsement.

Independent implementations owe no recognition to a foundation sponsor. The foundation cannot sell what it does not control.

9. Endowment and spending policy requirements

A conforming implementation publishes:

• purpose and duration of each fund;
• gift-acceptance and restriction-review process;
• custody, signing, valuation, and asset-conversion policy;
• investment objectives, liquidity, diversification, risk, fees, and adviser conflicts;
• spending-rate formula and valuation period;
• treatment of inflation, underwater funds, fees, and exceptional draws;
• proposal, public-comment, quorum, voting, recusal, and emergency rules;
• grant diligence, contracts, milestones, reporting, and clawback terms;
• financial statements, audits/reviews, and public reporting schedule; and
• dissolution or successor-foundation treatment.

No director alone can move endowment assets. Custody authorization and board appropriation are separate. A cryptographic multisignature may enforce a custody threshold, but it does not replace legal approval, accounting, or a valid charitable purpose.

Donor restrictions are accepted only when they further the foundation's purpose, can be administered, and do not create unlawful private control. A foundation may refuse a gift whose restriction, asset, source, volatility, liability, reputation, or compliance cost is unacceptable.

10. Governance and voting requirements

The implementation pins:

• electorate snapshot and eligibility cutoff;
• one-person/organization/identity rule and affiliate aggregation;
• nomination window and candidate disclosure;
• ballot secrecy or publicity and verification method;
• plurality, ranked choice, approval, or other exact tally;
• tie, recount, challenge, vacancy, and failed-election behavior;
• quorum calculated after valid recusals;
• ordinary and extraordinary decision thresholds; and
• whether a legal board, members, regulator, or court has final authority.

Contribution-weighted board votes are prohibited by the baseline profile. Recognition tiers may vary by amount, but every seated director has one vote. A foundation wishing to use weighted member governance must publish a different profile and may not call those votes fiduciary board votes.

11. Conflicts and private benefit

A director or decision participant discloses a conflict before discussion. The unconflicted body records whether the conflict is absent, manageable by disclosure/recusal, or too pervasive for the person to participate or remain in office.

At minimum, a sponsor director recuses when a proposal would benefit:

• the director or their family;
• the nominating sponsor or an affiliate;
• an employer, controlled entity, major investment, or board relationship;
• a grant applicant, vendor, or counterparty with a material relationship; or
• another organization to which the director owes a conflicting duty.

The conflicted person does not receive nonpublic advocacy material, join deliberation, vote, or count toward the matter's unconflicted quorum, except where applicable law and the recorded policy allow limited factual answers.

Recognition delivered uniformly under a published sponsor offer is not by itself a grant back to a director, but its value and tax treatment must be disclosed. Any special benefit outside the offer receives independent review.

12. Privacy and transparency

The public needs enough information to audit institutional power, while the foundation should not publish unnecessary payment or identity data.

Public by default:

• foundation profile and policy versions;
• recognized sponsor name/pseudonym, status, tier, and term;
• aggregate contribution and endowment balances by fund class;
• directors, appointing class, term, public interests, and recusals;
• spending proposals, resolutions, vote totals or named votes under policy;
• grants, vendors, amount, purpose, milestones, and completion status; and
• annual financial, investment, conflict, and impact reports.

Private or access-controlled by default:

• bank, wallet, tax, and payment coordinates;
• source-of-funds and sanctions-screening documents;
• home address, government identifier, and unrelated personal data;
• security-sensitive custody and signing details;
• legally privileged advice; and
• protected beneficiary or whistleblower information.

A sponsor may be publicly pseudonymous only if the foundation can still perform legally required identification privately. A board director's legal identity is disclosed whenever governing law requires it.

13. Errors and state

Contribution state:

offered -> pledged -> screening -> accepted -> payment_pending
  -> received -> valued -> allocated -> status_issued
  -> recognized -> expired | renewed | revoked

Board state:

eligible -> nominated -> screened -> candidate -> elected
  -> pending_legal_effect -> seated -> term_ended
                                  `-> suspended -> removed | restored

Spending state:

draft -> published -> comment -> conflict_review -> vote
  -> approved | rejected | deferred
  -> contracted -> disbursed -> milestone_review -> completed | recovered

14. Invariants

1. No contribution buys a user. Sponsorship never attaches to identities or downstream activity.
2. No contribution buys protocol privilege. Wire rules, conformance, and direct use remain independent.
3. Recognition is owned-resource scoped. A foundation promises only placements it controls.
4. A board is finite. Open eligibility uses a declared selection process, not fictional unlimited seats.
5. A director is a fiduciary, not a delegate. Sponsor origin does not permit instructed voting.
6. One director, one vote. Contribution size does not weight board votes under the baseline profile.
7. Conflicts are disclosed and managed. A sponsor cannot vote foundation money to itself or an affiliate.
8. Endowment classes are honest. Operating funds, reserves, restrictions, and permanent endowment are not conflated.
9. No unilateral custody. Approval and asset movement require independent controls.
10. Policy is prospective. Active recognition, elections, and gifts pin their governing versions.
11. Legal documents prevail. Protocol evidence cannot override law, bylaws, restrictions, or regulator/court authority.
12. Other foundations remain possible. No Onym Foundation profile becomes a root of trust for the sponsor protocol.

15. Versioning and conformance

• SponsorProfile changes when core contribution, recognition, governance, conflict, endowment, or evidence meaning changes.
• FoundationImplementationProfile changes when a foundation's entity, resource, tier, board, voting, spending, custody, or legal mapping changes.
• Offers, receipts, credentials, elections, appointments, and resolutions pin the exact policy versions that govern them.
• A policy change cannot retroactively turn a gift into another fund class, extend recognition, qualify a candidacy, or alter a completed vote.
• Legal amendments and protocol updates are recorded separately and cross- referenced.
• Conformance tests cover signatures, policy precedence, fund allocation, tier calculation, status expiry/revocation, affiliate aggregation, election tally, quorum, recusal, spending arithmetic, custody threshold, and replay.

16. Foundation portability

Anyone may create another foundation implementation by publishing:

1. a valid FoundationProfile and legal/proposed status;
2. its purpose and governing documents;
3. resources it actually controls;
4. contribution, recognition, endowment, board, voting, conflict, disclosure, and dissolution policies;
5. public keys and governance recorder;
6. contribution rails and custody evidence model; and
7. a conformance statement and implementation-profile ID.

A compatible foundation may use a two-tier board, a membership assembly, no sponsor directors, different contribution classes, or a different spending formula. It must expose those differences rather than inherit the Onym Foundation's choices silently.

Foundations may recognize one another or share software. They do not share treasury, board authority, trademarks, donor restrictions, or liability unless a separate legal agreement says so.

17. Acceptance criteria

The sponsor boundary is successfully separated when:

1. anyone can inspect the profile and submit a conforming sponsorship pledge;
2. accepted contributions produce receipts with honest fund classification;
3. sponsor status can be verified and displayed only on controlled resources;
4. recognition is labelled, scoped, expiring, and never sold as technical privilege;
5. qualifying sponsors have a defined path into a finite sponsor board class;
6. effective legal appointment is distinguished from an election result;
7. sponsor directors can propose and vote on spending while conflicts prevent self-benefit;
8. endowment restrictions, custody, appropriation, and disbursement are independently auditable;
9. private compliance and payment data stays out of public objects; and
10. another foundation can implement the protocol without receiving authority from the Onym Foundation.

18. Justification in one sentence

Sponsorship can provide visible status and a real, bounded path into endowment governance without converting generosity into ownership of the protocol, the foundation's beneficiaries, or its users.