Totem Grid’s vision: Digital Human Rights
Open, secure, personal, independent, trustworthy, selective, resilient, portable & safe systems
By Ryan Betts, Founding Contributor
I'm working on a few projects at the moment that have me struggling to ensure we're considering the full slate of baseline infrastructure capabilities.
Juan Benet has proposed a set of 8 Digital Human Rights. They cover a lot of important ground. You can get the full download in this video, starting ~7:00.
I felt like they could use a bit of editing for clarity. As I was editing, I also realized there might be a missing 9th human right regarding "safety". Thus, I have arrived for now at the conclusion that all digital infrastructure must be open, secure, personal, independent, trustworthy, selective, resilient, portable and safe.
Would love your feedback.
1. Open: I can speak freely
I can share my thoughts, ideas, and work without needing permission — and without fear of censorship or erasure.
Technical Corollaries:
Content-addressable storage (e.g. IPFS)
Censorship-resistant publishing (e.g. peer replication, no single point of takedown, permissionless blockchains)
Signature-based authorship (e.g. Ed25519)
2. Secure: I can speak privately
I can share, organize, and express myself without being tracked, recorded, or overheard.
Technical Corollaries:
End-to-end encryption (e.g. Noise Protocol, Double Ratchet)
Metadata minimization (e.g. oblivious routing, mixnets)
Ephemeral communication with no server storage
3. Personal: I own my data
My files, messages, and memories belong to me. I decide who can see them — and I can take that access away at any time.
Technical Corollaries:
Local-first storage models (e.g. WNFS)
Capability-based access control (e.g. UCANs, ZCAP-LD)
Revocable, time-scoped, and minimal grants of access
Timestamped proof of custody or ownership (e.g. NFT metadata as a pointer to user-controlled data)
4. Independent: I connect directly
I use systems that link people and devices without needing companies, platforms, or governments in the middle.
Technical Corollaries:
Peer-to-peer networking (e.g. libp2p, WebRTC)
Overlay networks (e.g. WireGuard, Headscale)
Decentralized rendezvous and discovery (e.g. DHT, mDNS)
Public key infrastructure without central certificate authorities
5. Trustworthy: I can verify what happens
I don’t have to guess or assume. Every action leaves a trail I can check for myself.
Technical Corollaries:
Signed logs / event sourcing (e.g. Merkle DAGs, transparency logs)
Verifiable credentials & attestations (e.g. DID + VC standards)
Reproducible builds and cryptographic audit trails
Append-only public ledgers
6. Selective: I decide what to share
My information is private by default. Others only see what I choose to show — and only as much as they need.
Technical Corollaries:
Granular access delegation (e.g. CACAOs, UCANs)
Principle of least privilege enforced at the data layer
Encrypted blockstores with access via proxies or keys
Zero-knowledge proofs for selective disclosure
E.g. “I’m over 21” without revealing my birthday
E.g. “I earn over $50K” without revealing my salary
7. Resilient: I can count on my tools
My systems keep working — even offline, under pressure, or outside the mainstream. They don’t break when someone says so.
Technical Corollaries:
Offline-first architecture with sync (e.g. CRDTs, IPFS)
Open protocols and standards (e.g. no vendor lock-in)
Redundant infrastructure, mesh routing, error tolerance
8. Portable: I own my identity
My identity moves with me. It’s under my control, not tied to any platform — and I decide who can use it.
Technical Corollaries:
Decentralized identifiers (DIDs)
Mnemonic-seeded cryptographic identity (e.g. BIP39 → keypair)
Non-custodial identity wallets / portable agent keyrings
9. Safe: I can define my boundaries
I choose how others can reach me, interact with me, and affect my experience. My tools help me set limits, avoid harm, and stay in control.
Technical Corollaries:
Consent-based interaction models (e.g. request-to-contact, scoped delegation)
Local filtering and blocklists
Agent behavior transparency and override mechanisms
Rate-limiting, abuse detection, and feedback tooling built in
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
