Philippe Page | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

From Newtonian to Relativistic IAM: The Autonomous Principal as Reference Frame for Digital Identity

The 2023 paper \emph{Distributed Governance: a Principal-Agent Approach to Data Governance} arXiv:2308.07280 introduced the autonomous principal as the locus of transactional sovereignty in digital ecosystems. This follow-up, Part 2, advances a structural argument for why that model is not a normative preference but a consequence of taking causality seriously in distributed information systems. Drawing an analogy with the transition from Newtonian to relativistic physics, we show that custodial identity management rests on an implicit assumption of global simultaneity that fails as soon as identity must operate across ecosystems, jurisdictions, and the offline/online boundary. Once that assumption is dropped, state ceases to be a noun held by a central authority and becomes a relation maintained between principals through causally ordered exchanges. The autonomous principal emerges as the only entity with standing to define its own reference frame. We report on technology built since 2023 that operationalises this view, and outline its consequences for cross-border data flows and agentic systems.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2023

Distributed Governance: a Principal-Agent Approach to Data Governance -- Part 1 Background & Core Definitions

To address the need for regulating digital technologies without hampering innovation or pre-digital transformation regulatory frameworks, we provide a model to evolve Data governance toward Information governance and precise the relation between these two terms. This model bridges digital and non-digital information exchange. By considering the question of governed data usage through the angle of the Principal-Agent problem, we build a distributed governance model based on Autonomous Principals defined as entities capable of choice, therefore capable of exercising a transactional sovereignty. Extending the legal concept of the privacy sphere to a functional equivalent in the digital space leads to the construction of a digital self to which rights and accountability can be attached. Ecosystems, defined as communities of autonomous principals bound by a legitimate authority, provide the basis of interacting structures of increasing complexity endowed with a self-replicating property that mirrors physical world governance systems. The model proposes a governance concept for multi-stakeholder information systems operating across jurisdictions. Using recent software engineering advances in decentralised authentication and semantics, we provide a framework, Dynamic Data Economy to deploy a distributed governance model embedding checks and balance between human and technological governance. Domain specific governance models are left for further publications. Similarly, the technical questions related to the connection between a digital-self and its physical world controller (e.g biometric binding) will be treated in upcoming publications.

cs.CY↗