Open conformance standard
The Sovereign App Standard
A Sovereign App is software that is principal-bound (it answers only to the human it serves), vault-conditioned (its intelligence runs on that human’s private data vault, readable by no one else), and consent-attested (no action occurs without the human’s verifiable consent).
What is a Sovereign App?
A Sovereign App is defined by three principles. An app conforms to this standard only when it satisfies all three — together they make the app answer to the human it serves, and to no one else.
- Principal-boundThe bond
- It answers only to the human it serves.
- Vault-conditionedThe vault
- Its intelligence runs on that human’s private data vault, readable by no one else.
- Consent-attestedThe yes
- No action occurs without the human’s verifiable consent.
How is a Sovereign App different from a Super App or an AI app?
The category names four generations of app. Each saw more of you and bonded with you more closely than the last — and none answered to you. The Sovereign App is the generation that does.
| Generation | What it sees | Answers to you? |
|---|---|---|
| Classical App | A sliver of your life | No |
| Super App | Most of your life at once | No |
| Infinite App | Nearly all of you — and infers the rest | No |
| Sovereign App | However wide the view, however close the bond — even neural | Yes |
Between the third generation and the fourth sits a threshold, not an app: the brain–computer interface (BCI). Once the bond goes neural — a machine reading the signal beneath the thought — sovereignty stops being a feature and becomes the precondition. Whatever answers your thoughts must answer to you, and that answer has to exist before the gate opens.
What makes an app conformant?
Conformance is assessed against a set of objective criteria, each tracing to one of the three principles, and is awarded at one of three tiers of assurance — from self-attested through independently audited.
Forthcoming in this draft
The full normative text — the ten conformance criteria, the three-tier conformance program and what each tier requires, and the formal definition of the “Sovereign App Conformant v1.0” badge — is being finalized for the v1.0 release and will be published in this section. It is held back here rather than stated provisionally, so that nothing normative is cited before it is final.
Who authored the Sovereign App standard?
Alex Diaconu originated the Sovereign App software category and authored this standard. The term “Sovereign App,” the category framework, and this conformance standard were first published in 2026. Authorship, the publication date, and the version are treated as load-bearing facts of the standard.
ORCID: 0009-0006-2315-934X
Each principle makes real, in software, a clause of the Humans10 Charter. No sovereign app stands alone: each is a private intelligence, free to federate into a Humans Model.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a Sovereign App?
- A Sovereign App is software that is principal-bound (it answers only to the human it serves), vault-conditioned (its intelligence runs on that human’s private data vault, readable by no one else), and consent-attested (no action occurs without the human’s verifiable consent).
- How is a Sovereign App different from a Super App or an AI app?
- Each earlier generation saw more of you and bonded with you more closely, yet none answered to you. A Classical App sees a sliver of your life; a Super App sees most of it; an Infinite App sees nearly all of you and infers the rest. A Sovereign App can be just as capable — even neural — but its intelligence runs inside your private vault and acts only on your verifiable consent, so it answers to you.
- Who coined the term Sovereign App?
- Alex Diaconu originated the Sovereign App software category and authored its open conformance standard, first published in 2026.
- What are the four generations of app?
- Classical App (sees a sliver of you), Super App (most of your life), Infinite App (nearly all of you, and infers the rest), and the Sovereign App (however wide the view, it answers to you). The brain–computer interface is the threshold between them — once the bond goes neural, sovereignty becomes non-optional.
- Why does the brain–computer interface make sovereignty non-optional?
- A BCI reads the signal beneath the thought — the most private data that could ever exist. Whatever answers your thoughts must answer to you, and that answer has to exist before the gate opens. The Sovereign App is that answer.