Autonomous Relationship Connector Association
Welcome to
ARC Association
Welcome to ARC Association
An international nonprofit dedicated to securing digital human rights
Our lives have been forever changed by the addition of the digital world to the physical world. We now live, work, and play in both worlds. Our identity is bound to both worlds.
But today we can only assert ownership over our physical selves and our physical property. Our legal systems govern the physical world but have yet to reach and establish our rights in the digital world.
Why We Need Human Rights in the Online World
The online (digital) worlds we live in everyday have become just as important as our physical world.
We own and control our actions in the physical world. We do not tolerate others' ownership and control of our human dignity in our physical lives.
Why do we tolerate that model for our digital lives?
Like the physical world, the digital world needs rules and structures. Just as we humans have human rights in the physical world, we are entitled to those same rights in digital worlds. But how do we get there?
The ability to claim and prove one’s own identity is one of the most overlooked human rights in the world.
ARC Association is founded on traditional legal principles for a new, global purpose: to bring integrity and agency to every human’s work and play on the gigantic, wondrous thing that is the World Wide Web.
We are organized as a nonprofit association because our mission is educational, humanitarian, and charitable. We advocate for everyone’s right to digital identity ownership and provide the means to claim and assert that ownership.
We are based in Geneva, Switzerland because it is the home of preeminent human rights organizations, including the United Nations, whose Universal Declaration of Human Rights articulates human rights for the physical world that inspires ARCA's work for the digital world:
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“[R]ecognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world....” Preamble, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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Every human is entitled to access to the “economic, social and cultural rights that are indispensable” for individual dignity and the free development of the human personality. Article 22, Universal Declaration.
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”Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.” Article 6, Universal Declaration.
Welcome to ARC Association,
the ARCid, and the Registry
Why is ARC Association Different
ARC Association recognizes that the rule of law is paramount. Digital worlds need rules, laws, and governance like the physical world, but digital worlds as we know them are not so clear or fair in terms of respecting the human.
That is why the Association built its infrastructure solution with the rule of law in mind. As a result, our concept of digital identity independence is based on fundamental legal principles of contract law, licensing, and property rights.
What is the ARCid
The “ARC” in ARC Association stands for Autonomous Relationship Connector. It describes the process of safely and securely taking all the manifestations out there of our online selves and connecting them into a single digital identity, the ARCid. The ARCid is that unique digital identifier that the Registry assigns each person who chooses to be a member of the Association.
What is the Registry
The Registry is the private blockchain that holds all the ARCids for the benefit of the ARCid holders. Because the Registry is decentralized, there is no single authority controlling the ARCid holders' digital identity.
Even ARCA does not do that controlling. Because ARCA is organized as an association, members, the ARCid holders, own and control their own identity (their ARCids) through owning their ARCid and through their voting rights in how ARCA is run. ARCA is building out its network of members and node operators around the world dedicated to supporting members' empowerment and preserving the Registry in perpetuity.
What is “Ethical Licensing”
Taking someone’s work, and using it without specific, express, and knowing consent, deprives them of the right to be known for and benefit economically from that work. That is unethical. Even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes economic rights as “indispensable” to human dignity and part of the “human personality.” Article 22, Universal Declaration.
ARCA is committed to ethical licensing principles. We respect the human, the content they created, and the rights to control that content. Anyone that wishes to use the Registry to validate identity, or incorporate ARCA into its platform, service, or product, must agree to our ethical licensing principles.
We look foward to bringing together all the aspects of our digital identities under a legal structure that allows everyone to enjoy the rights and responsibilites we have in our physical lives with those in our digital lives.