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A seven-step policy framework that aligns infrastructure and governance—creating the conditions for the interpersonal trust layer to function within a coherent system.
The Pleiades—named for the star cluster whose seven stars are visible individually but form a recognisable pattern only together—is a synchronisation framework. Each step addresses a distinct coordination failure.
For technically minded readers, the stack follows the same dependency logic as the OSI model: each layer depends on the integrity of the one beneath it. If the foundation fails, higher-order coordination collapses regardless of design.
But unlike network protocols that route data, the Pleiades coordinates trust—through institutional, legal, and relational infrastructure.
Its value lies not in any single step, but in the coordination across all three trust layers.
The demand began with privacy—the boundary of the self. Concerns about surveillance, extraction, and loss of autonomy created public demand for boundaries. But a boundary alone does not give agency. Privacy demands evolved into ownership claims: moving from "leave me alone" to "this is mine." Data ownership provides legal standing, the right to move data, and the right to withhold or negotiate its use.
But owning something that cannot be tracked, verified, or transferred is an empty title. Ownership without verifiability is unenforceable. This creates the need for Digital Asset Registries (DARs): provenance systems—like a land title or deed—so data can be verified, valued, and transferred without losing its history or legal protection.
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The trajectory: Privacy → Ownership → Digital Asset Registries. Each step resolves the limitation of the previous one. But titled assets sitting in individual vaults still lack collective power.
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Simultaneously, governments recognised that digital sovereignty requires more than regulation—it requires infrastructure. Sovereignty demands evolved into Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): open, interoperable, sovereign rails where essential functions (identity, payments, data exchange) operate as public goods rather than private walled gardens.
But sovereign rails need governed intermediaries to inhabit them. Regulation alone cannot produce sovereignty. It must be instantiated in infrastructure. This creates the need for governed intermediaries—entities capable of operating within sovereign rails under enforceable fiduciary constraints. The EU's Data Governance Act (DGA) created this space in Europe. India's Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) built it directly into sovereign DPI—mandating specialised data fiduciaries as consent managers operating at scale with low transaction costs (BIS Papers No. 124, 2022).