A neutral root of trust for the Internet
IOV’s thesis: separate what happened from what it means. Independent, heterogeneous systems can share one record of events and the order in which they occurred because the layer that keeps that record never interprets any of it. We call this event-state dissociation, and it is the premise the research builds on.
Concepts
Six important terms central to IOV’s thesis:
01Eventsomething happened
Every system produces a sequence of events: a payment sent, a contract signed, a measurement taken. An event is the fact that something happened. Systems send their events to the base layer, where they are objectively recorded.
02Statewhat the events add up to
The state of a system is interpreted from its events: an account balance, a contract’s current terms, who owns what. State is always derived. Get the events and their order right, and any system can interpret its own state.
03Event-state dissociationrecord the facts, not the meaning
The moment a layer decides what an event means, anyone who accepts its record has to accept its rules as well, and the record stops travelling between systems. That is why the two are held apart: keep meaning out, and a single record can serve many interpretations. So the base layer concerns itself with recording and ordering events only, and does not participate in state validation or interpretation. That separation is the core design decision. How the base layer operationally handles event inclusion and ordering remains an open research question.
04Base layershared foundation
The shared foundation of the stack. Every participating system can read and write to it, but none of them control it. It records and orders events; it never interprets, executes, or validates. It is content-blind by design.
05Semantic layerwhere meaning lives
Any system above the base: a bank, a registry, a platform or app. Each reads the shared record and derives its state from its own events. The base records what happened, while what it means belongs to the semantic layer. Whether the final architecture evolves into two layers is still an open question.
06Sovereigntyeach domain keeps its own meaning
Because the base layer records and orders events without interpreting them, every semantic layer keeps control of its own execution, rules, economics, and governance.
Thesis
Proving that A happened before B is fundamental for safe value exchange at scale.
Every network today bundles three jobs: recording events, ordering them, and deriving state from them. Bundling is why trust cannot travel. To accept a system’s record you must also accept its execution, its economics, and its politics.
IOV’s approach is to separate the jobs. A content-blind base layer proves what happened and in what order. Every domain above keeps its own execution and its own meaning, and composes its own proofs for the shared record.
Base layer
The base layer does two things: it orders economically consequential events and keeps the record available. It executes nothing and interprets nothing.
A native token is how most networks pay for their own security, and it is also how they acquire an owner. Whoever holds the token steers the design, and the cost of using the network rides on an asset whose price has little to do with the work being done. A base layer meant to stay neutral would have to find another way.
Whether it can operate securely, permissionlessly, and efficiently without a native token is one of the initiative’s core research questions.
Stack
Many semantic layers, one thin base
IOV is not proposing a finished stack. The event-state dissociation thesis serves as the starting point. All other design specifics, how many layers and how they are organized, are open questions.
What a full stack design must answer:
- What should the base layer minimally agree on: event inclusion, ordering, or finality?
- What state, if any, should the base layer maintain?
- How should semantic layers derive, verify, and exchange state?
- Are additional layers still required above the base?
Status
We’re working with a thesis. Any questions around it are open for research.
Process
From proposal to standard
Propose
Choose a topic of research that connects to IOV’s thesis and submit a proposal. Open to builders, researchers, standards bodies, and enterprises.
Form
Work lands in one of two groups (for now): Base Layer Network Design or Semantic Layer Standards.
Publish
Concepts become open specifications anyone can build on. Every contribution is publicly credited.
FAQ
What is IOV?
IOV, the Internet of Value, is an open standards initiative organized as a Swiss association in formation. It coordinates open research and open standards for moving value between independent systems, the way the internet moves information.
Is IOV a product, a platform, or a token?
No. IOV is shared infrastructure and open standards, owned by no one. Whether the base layer can run without a native token is an open research question, and it stays open until the research answers it.
Who can participate?
Participation is open to builders, researchers, standards bodies, and enterprises. Membership comes as an individual or enterprise agreement, kept simple, and every contribution is publicly credited.
How is the work organized?
In two working groups. Base Layer Network Design treats the base layer as a network design problem: content-blind ordering plus data availability. Semantic Layer Standards defines how domains interact with each other and with the base. Proposals are submitted and discussed openly.
Can the base layer operate safely, efficiently, and permissionlessly without a token?
The open question is whether the base layer can run without a fee token, a staking token, or any token at all, so that no asset steers its design. An architecture like that has not shipped for a network of this kind. Exploring new incentive and security models is an important objective of the initiative.
Where can I read the research?
First publications are being consolidated and will be published as they are finalized. Everything published will be open access, citable, and machine-readable.
How is IOV governed?
As a Swiss association (verein) in formation, modeled on the Linux Foundation and RISC-V International. The articles of association will be published on filing, and a preliminary board of directors will be announced at formation.
How do I get in touch?
Write to contact@iovi.org, request to join a working group through the onboarding form, or follow the channels in the footer.