1. The "Stated" Well-Known Resource Identifier

This document describes the use of URIs whose path component is "/.well-known/statements.txt", and includes a template for their registration as required by RFC5785.

2. Purpose

The Stated Protocol provides a standardized format for organizational communications and collective action. Organizations publish statements on their own websites using this format, enabling decentralized coordination for joint statements, collective contract signatures, and collaborative decision-making.

A URI with the path component "/.well-known/statements.txt" enables:

Use Cases Include: International government diplomacy, corporate joint ventures, NGO coalition building, academic collaborations, industry standards adoption, and community organizing.

The content is served with a media type of "text/plain". For automated aggregation of statements, they must be separated by two newline characters and conform with supported statement formats. Third-party platforms can automatically discover and aggregate these statements by polling known organizational domains.

The individual statements can also be made accessible separately under the path ".well-known/statements/<file hash>.txt" where the url safe base64 encoded hash of the statement is used as the file name.

3. Core Statement Types

All statements in the Stated network follow a standardized format with the following required fields:

3.1. Plain Content Statements

The simplest form of statement contains unstructured text content. These statements can contain any textual information and do not require a specific type designation.

3.1.1. Examples:

3.2. Sign PDF Statements

PDF signing statements allow organizations to digitally sign documents, agreements, contracts, and policy papers by referencing their cryptographic hash. This creates an immutable record of document endorsement and enables instant coalition formation around shared documents.

3.2.1. Example:

3.2.2. Use Cases:

3.2.3. Fields:

3.3. Poll Statements

Poll statements allow organizations to create structured voting opportunities with defined options, deadlines, and voter eligibility criteria. These enable democratic decision-making and consensus building across distributed organizations.

3.3.1. Example:

3.3.2. Use Cases:

3.3.3. Key Fields:

3.4. Vote Statements

Vote statements allow eligible participants to cast their votes on existing polls. Each vote references the specific poll and records the chosen option, creating a transparent voting record.

3.4.1. Example:

3.4.2. Use Cases:

3.4.3. Key Fields:

3.5. Organisation Verification Statements

Organisation verification statements allow trusted entities to verify and authenticate information about other organizations. This creates a web of trust for organizational identity and credentials within the Stated network.

3.5.1. Example:

3.5.2. Use Cases:

3.5.3. Key Fields:

3.6. Response Statements

Response statements allow organizations to reply to or comment on existing statements. This creates threaded conversations and enables structured dialogue between organizations within the Stated network.

3.6.1. Example:

3.6.2. Use Cases:

3.6.3. Key Fields:

4. Statement Validation

All statements must:

5. Implementation Examples

Organizations can implement the Stated Protocol by publishing statements at their well-known URL:

5.1. Government Agencies:

5.2. Other Organizations:

Live Example: www.rixdata.net/.well-known/statements.txt

6. Additional information

(Per RFC5785 requirements).

URI suffix: "statements.txt"

Change controller: The Stated project. Contact information available at stated.network.

Specification document: This document.

Related information: Documentation for supported statements