the legal model
you have more rights here than you've ever had as a saas customer.
what you own
when a cell forms, it creates a Limited Cooperative Association (LCA) — a real legal entity recognized by state law. you're not a “user.” you're a member-owner with equity shares, voting rights, and enforceable contracts.
this is the core difference. a saas vendor can change terms, raise prices, get acquired, or shut down — and your only recourse is to cancel. an LCA member can vote, sue, and enforce. you have standing in court. you have a seat at the table. the software answers to you, not shareholders.
governance
governance has two phases. during the genesis phase (months 0–18), voting is weighted by share class — founders and early sponsors have more say while the cell is finding its footing. this prevents late joiners from overriding the people who took the initial risk.
after month 18, governance shifts to one-member-one-vote. the cell is now mature. every paying member has equal say regardless of when they joined or how many shares they hold.
a DAO layer handles the mechanics — proposals, voting records, treasury transparency. the LCA handles the law — contracts, disputes, liability. together they give you both on-chain transparency and real-world legal teeth.
fork freedom
all code produced by a cell is open-source under AGPL or MIT. your data belongs to you. if you want to leave, you take everything — the code, your data, and the right to run it yourself.
this isn't a marketing promise. it's a legal obligation baked into the LCA operating agreement. fork freedom is the default, not a feature.
developer contracts
developer cooperatives build and maintain your software, but they don't govern it. they're contractors, not owners. think of it like hiring a builder for your house — they do the work, you own the result.
cells are bound by a strict SLA covering uptime, bug resolution, and delivery timelines. they draw from the cell's treasury monthly, contingent on hitting those metrics. all intellectual property belongs to the LCA, not the devs.
if a cell underperforms, abandons the project, or breaches the SLA, the collective votes to sever the contract and route to a new certified cell. the software survives the developer. always.
dispute resolution
direct communication
members and cells resolve issues through direct conversation first. most things get handled here.
cooperative governance
if direct communication fails, the issue goes to a member vote. the DAO records the proposal, the LCA enforces the outcome.
legal recourse
if governance fails, you have standing to enforce your rights in court. you're a co-owner of a legal entity, not a customer clicking "I agree."
the bottom line: you own equity in a legal entity that owns the software, the data, and the contracts. you can vote, sue, fork, and leave. try doing that with salesforce.