# Progressive Sovereignty

### What is 'Sovereignty'?

_In this era of buzzwords like 'modular' and 'trust minimization' - it's difficult to know what 'sovereignty' actually is._&#x20;

**Canopy makes this simple:**

* ✅ Are not dependent on any other protocol to operate
* ✅ Can't be censored by non-stakeholders
* ✅ May scale independently — free of resource constraints of any other protocol
* ✅ May leave a Security Root without any software changes
* ✅ Historical finality isn't threatened by leaving
* ✅ Retain the complete ledger and blockchain history
* ✅ Can rejoin a Security Root at anytime
* ✅ Retain full ownership of blockchain data
* ✅ Have complete value capture

Things you will not see in Sovereign blockchains:

* ❌ External points of failure aka 'modular' dependencies
* ❌ Re-genesis events or ground up rebuilds to migrate
* ❌ Loss of historical block finality
* ❌ Success ceiling dictated by the resources of a host
* ❌ Censorship by 3rd party Validators
* ❌ Leaking economics to the host

{% hint style="danger" %}
True sovereignty is a fundamental piece of [decentralization](../why-canopy/blockchain-101)! Without it — a chain is just Web2 with a bad UX
{% endhint %}

Canopy offers a seamless path to independence graduation - where the chain may graduate to **complete sovereignty** after surpassing the [cold start problem](../../why-canopy/background-and-industry-state#are-hard-to-launch) of L1s by using a security root.&#x20;

And the process is simple...

* Step 1:&#x20;
  * Issue an on-chain governance transaction to change `RootChainID`
* Step 2:&#x20;
  * The software will automatically use the new `RootChainURL` in the `config.json`&#x20;

{% hint style="success" %}
Dive deeper into the 'How' with [utility](../how-does-canopy-work/utility "mention")
{% endhint %}

