The scope and direction of JAM as specified in the Gray Paper describes a protocol which could replace the Polkadot Relay-chain. Although this is not yet decided, the paper reads:

“In this paper, we introduce a decentralized, cryptoeconomic protocol to which the Polkadot Network could conceivably transition itself in a major revision. Following this eventuality (which must not be taken for granted since Polkadot is a decentralized network) this protocol might also become known as Polkadot or some derivation thereof. However, at this stage this is not the case, therefore our proposed protocol will for the present be known as Jam”

An early, unrefined, version of this protocol was first proposed in Polkadot Fellowship RFC-31, known as “CoreJam”. CoreJam takes its name after the collect/refine/join/accumulate model of computation at the heart of its service proposition.

For all of the reasons above, this proposal aims to make a decision on the responsibility regarding ratification, conformance and performance of JAM. Those voting Aye will vote for Polkadot Fellows to be responsible for:

• Ratifying the final JAM protocol and defining conformance and performance tests for the Polkadot JAM Protocol.
• The development and deployment of a Polkadot-Relay-chain compatibility service on the JAM protocol.

If JAM is to replace Polkadot Relay-chain, the Polkadot Relay-chain should halt on signal from the Polkadot Fellows when it is determined that the Polkadot JAM chain, the Polkadot Relay-chain compatibility service and all required system parachains are ready for launch. Readiness shall include a minimum of independent professional audit of the protocol specification and of three independent and viable block producing implementations which pass the published conformance and performance tests.

This proposal is submitted as a remark call: this means that the approval of this proposal aims to signal the willingness of the community to accept the ratification and supervision of JAM by the Technical Fellowship - but no changes onchain will be executed if the proposal is approved.