# Overview
This project is led by a benevolent dictator (PegaSys) and managed by the community. That is, the community actively contributes to the day-to-day maintenance of the project, but the general strategic line is drawn by the benevolent dictator. In case of disagreement, they have the last word. It is the benevolent dictator’s job to resolve disputes within the community and to ensure that the project is able to progress in a coordinated way. In turn, it is the community’s job to guide the decisions of the benevolent dictator through active engagement and contribution.


# Principles

The community adheres to the following principles:
* Open: Besu is open source. See repository guidelines and CLA, below.
* Welcoming and respectful: See Code of Conduct, below.
* Transparent and accessible: Work and collaboration should be done in public. 
* Merit: Ideas and contributions are accepted according to their technical merit and alignment with project objectives and design principles.

# Code of Conduct
See [code of conduct]

# Community membership

See [community membership]

# Decision Making
Decision making will be handled by the Approvers (see [community membership]).  If consensus cannot be reached, the Benevolent Dictator will provide the final word on the decision.


# DCO

All contributors must send commits with sign-off to comply with [DCO](DCO.md)
## Attribution

This document was influenced by the following:
- Kubernetes community-membership.md, available at [kub community membership].
- Kubernetes governance.md, available at [kub governance]  
- OSSWatch Benevolent Dictator Governance Model, available at [oss watch benevolent dictator].  

[CLA.md]: /CLA.md
[community membership]: /docs/community/community-membership.md 
[code of conduct]: /CODE-OF-CONDUCT.md
[oss watch benevolent dictator]: http://oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/benevolentdictatorgovernancemodel
[kub community membership]: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/community/master/community-membership.md
[kub governance]:https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/governance.md