IOHK | WHY WE ARE BUILDING CARDANO | 06/28/2017    With respect to specifications, there is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from the standards process followed by the WC3 and the IETF . Ultimately, each protocol Cardano integrates requires a specification that is independent of academic work or source code. Rather it needs to be in a suitable format such as an RFC . One of the Cardano Foundation’s core tenets is to act as standards body specifically for the Cardano protocols and to host conversations to update, add or change standards relevant to Cardano. If the internet (a product of standards) through IETF can reach consensus about what core protocols shall be used, then it is entirely reasonable to assume that a dedicated body could facilitate the same outcome. As a closing note, it is interesting to explore moving these discussions to a decentralized entity hosted on a blockchain. This concept is called a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and preliminary work is underway in this area. IOHK will develop a reference DAO model for entities interfacing with Cardano to use if desired and it is the Cardano Foundation’s prerogative to decide whether to embrace it under their standards mandate. 3. Interoperability The Grand Myopia Finance and the broader idea of commerce is ultimately a human endeavor. There exist elegant languages, extremely precise tools to capture intent, and endless mazes of techniques to achieve recourse in the event of bad outcomes as well as thousands of years of laws seeking equity in trade. In fact some of the earliest forms of writing were commercial contracts . Yet the human element cannot be eschewed regardless of the disintermediation to logic, machines or governmental sentinels entrusted with terrible powers. Therein lies the grand myopia of cryptocurrencies. They are mostly divorced from human reality. People make mistakes. People change their minds. People do not always fully understand the business relationships they are agreeing to enter. People get misled and defrauded. Circumstances change on an individual and state level that require unique solutions. Belaboring this point, most contracts contain force majeure clauses . WHY WE ARE BUILDING CARDANO  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Page 28 of 44