Status of the Bedrock Constitution — Working Constitution expires April 2026

1

Section 1 of the Working Constitution (adopted April 26, 2022) describes itself as:

A transitory document. The Working Constitution will remain in effect no more than four years from the date of its adoption. After that, authority over governance will be ceded to a permanent Bedrock Constitution (that incorporates the lessons of the Collective’s prior governance experiments).

That four-year window closes next month.

I’ve reviewed the Season 8 governance update, the current OPerating Manual, and forum history, and I haven’t been able to find any public discussion of the Bedrock Constitution — no drafting process, no timeline, and no proposal to extend or amend the Working Constitution’s expiration clause. The OPerating Manual still references the Working Constitution in present tense as the governing authority.

Meanwhile, the name “Bedrock” was adopted for the June 2023 protocol upgrade, which may have created some confusion around the term.

A few questions for the Foundation or delegates who have context:

  1. Is the April 2026 deadline still operative, or has the expectation shifted?

  2. If the timeline has changed, is there a plan to formally amend the Working Constitution to reflect that — or is the position that the Foundation’s amendment power (Section 3) covers this implicitly?

  3. Is there any working group or process underway for a permanent constitution, even in early stages?

I’m a newcomer exploring the Collective and not yet a token holder or Citizen. I’m asking because the answer to this question meaningfully affects whether the governance system has a clear constitutional foundation going forward — which matters for anyone deciding whether to participate.

Disclosure: The research for this post (searching forum history, reviewing governance documents, and identifying the gap) was done with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic). The question and interest are my own.

1 Like
2

This is one of the most underappreciated governance risks I’ve seen raised on this forum. A constitutional vacuum even a temporary one can create legitimacy challenges for any decisions made during that gap period.

From a cross-ecosystem perspective (having followed Arbitrum and Aave governance closely), the absence of a visible drafting process for a permanent constitution this close to the expiry date is unusual. Most DAOs treat constitutional transitions as high-signal events requiring broad community participation.

I’d specifically like to know: Does the Foundation’s Section 3 amendment power allow an indefinite extension of the Working Constitution unilaterally? If yes, that itself deserves a community discussion about checks and balances.

Tagging this as worth escalating to the Governance Update Summary thread. @ert485 @Optimism-Node

1 Like