The Seven Layer Model Blog

Insight is a writing series on Digital Public Infrastructure and the legal architecture required for Digital Public Functions to remain lawful, attributable, and contestable as Digital Public Services scale. Topics include institutional mandate, canonical registries, service orchestration, execution and fulfilment, public interfaces and rights, and oversight and remedy.

Civil servants debating outside a government meeting room beside a postal receipt and a smartphone wallet screen, showing mandate uncertainty in digital delivery

When the mandate is missing, the state becomes the delivery guy

The operator argument is a symptom. The missing mandate turns platforms into procedures. Fix decision rights and supervision first, then delegate delivery without losing accountability.

Ott Sarv

4 hours ago4 min read

Officials reviewing budget charts and delivery evidence in a government funding meeting for digital public infrastructure.

Funding Digital Public Infrastructure as lawful capability, not platforms

Staged funding is rising. Fund Digital Public Infrastructure as lawful capability: mandate, authoritative records, governed rules, and remedy that can reverse outcomes, not just platforms.

Ott Sarv

2 days ago5 min read

Data exchange platform governance, plumbing does not grant access

Membership in an exchange layer grants capability, not entitlement. The only access that survives scrutiny is mandate-bound, minimal, evidenced, and correctable.

Ott Sarv

Jan 137 min read

Overhead photo of officials reviewing audit logs, a rejected decision record, and an evidence bag as they reconstruct a contested government decision for verifiability and remedy.

Is Technology a Product Project or a Channel for Exercising State Power?

When a digital service changes rights or obligations, it becomes a state act. This article explains why lawful authority, durable evidence, and a built-in remedy pathway must be engineered before scaling, and why modular delivery can fracture accountability if governance is not sequenced first.

Ott Sarv

Jan 83 min read

Blockchain, Government, and Institutional Authority: Governance Before Technology

Consensus is not a mandate. Before adopting blockchain, define legal effect, accountable institutions, correction at source, and enforceable remedy.

Ott Sarv

Jan 25 min read

Illustration showing the message Digital Public Infrastructure is not DPG, DPF, or DPS, with four coloured tiles and a seven-layer governance pyramid highlighting legal authority and remedy.

Digital public infrastructure is not DPG, DPF, or DPS: why confusing these terms is costing governments billions

DPI is governed shared capability, not an app portfolio. DPG is a reusable asset. DPF is a procedure-bound act that can create legally attributable outcomes. DPS delivers end-to-end outcomes. This taxonomy prevents authority drift, weak evidence, and remedy gaps.

Ott Sarv

Nov 29, 20254 min read

Illustration symbolising digital public infrastructure safeguards, showing enforceable authority and remedy as foundations that prevent guidance from becoming performative

Digital public infrastructure safeguards: why guidance without enforcement fails

Digital public infrastructure is being adopted at scale, yet many programmes still lack the compellable powers needed to suspend effect, correct records, and reverse outcomes when decisions are contested.

Ott Sarv

Nov 1, 20254 min read

Editorial photo of seven translucent layers with one layer shifted out of alignment, symbolising governance drift in Digital Public Infrastructure.

The DPI trap: when governance guidance becomes a platform launch

Digital Public Infrastructure keeps working even when legality, evidence, and remedy are missing. That is the trap. This essay explains governance drift and boundary drift, then sets out sequencing gates that keep DPI distinct from digital public services and digital public goods, using the Seven Layer Model as a practical test.

Ott Sarv

Sep 29, 20256 min read

Donor Wallet, No Cross-Match: Why Policy-Agnostic GovStack Wallets Fail in Government

A technically working wallet can still be institutionally incompatible. Using the Seven Layer Model, this article defines the cross-match gates governments and donors must satisfy before any GovStack-style wallet pilot creates real legal effect.

Ott Sarv

Sep 10, 20255 min read

Digital Public Infrastructure: The Law Before the Code

Digital Public Infrastructure begins in law, not configuration. A licensing scene shows how decisions move from statute and institutional mandate to canonical records, service logic, issuance, delivery, and remedy, and why donor acceleration without jurisdiction replaces capacity with simulation.

Ott Sarv

Aug 27, 20254 min read

Conceptual illustration symbolising Digital Public Infrastructure and the Friday Test, showing consent, compliance, and institutional governance before digital services can act.

Data exchange platform governance, plumbing does not grant access

Data exchange safeguards require enforceable consent withdrawal with scope, evidence, and propagation. A toggle changes the interface, not the ecosystem.

Ott Sarv

Aug 14, 20257 min read

Feature illustration symbolising Digital Public Infrastructure sovereignty, showing layered governance and institutional custodianship required before digital public services can act.

Digital Public Infrastructure Sovereignty Through Sequence

The flood took the bridge first, then the shops by the river. By nightfall a cash relief site was live. People keyed in identity numbers...

Ott Sarv

Jul 31, 20254 min read