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The web, the way it was meant to be.
Letter of Intent
Joining the Vera Consortium
Issued by: Vera e.V. (in formation) · Version: 1.0 · Status: Non-binding Letter of Intent
Download Letter of Intent (PDF)This Letter of Intent ("LoI") is addressed to publishers, ad-tech vendors, payment and subscription providers, identity providers, and search engines that share a common interest: an open, sustainable web in which the relationship between readers, publishers, and the technologies that connect them is governed by transparent, multi-stakeholder rules, not by a single gatekeeper.
By signing this LoI, the undersigned expresses its genuine interest in joining the Vera consortium and in contributing, within its respective domain, to the design, governance, and launch of the Vera browser and its surrounding infrastructure.
1. Why a new browser
Browsers are how humans reach the open web. Today, the majority of that access is mediated by a single company: Google, through Chrome. New entrants such as Perplexity (Comet) and OpenAI (Atlas) are shipping AI-first browsers that further shift value away from the publishers who produce the content in the first place. In parallel, publishers are forced into a defensive posture. They buy AI-blocking tools from a growing list of vendors, each solving a narrow slice of the problem.
A browser built and governed by the publisher ecosystem restores the balance. It does so on three levels:
- Distribution. A browser is the primary distribution channel for content on the open web. Whoever controls the browser controls the default experience: the search box, the identity layer, the consent surface, the payment moment. Vera puts those surfaces back in the hands of publishers and their partners.
- Consolidation. Today every publisher re-implements the same primitives: subscription management, pay-per-read, consent management, authentication, bot detection. Chrome already centralises these, but inside a single commercial entity. A shared, multi-stakeholder organisation can provide the same convenience with transparency, fairness, and a fair revenue split.
- Feasibility. Chromium is open source and powers roughly 83% of all browsers today, including Chrome itself, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Opera. Building on this foundation means Vera inherits the performance, security, and compatibility readers already expect, and the consortium can focus its effort on the features that matter: identity, consent, and a better reading experience.
What Vera is, in one sentence
Vera is a Chromium-based browser for humans, and a content-monetization infrastructure for the entire publisher ecosystem. It is governed by a consortium of publishers, ad-tech vendors, payment providers, identity providers, and search engines.
2. What Vera does
Vera focuses on one thing: giving publishers a reliable way to identify human readers, and giving those readers an experience that respects them. Every other capability follows from this foundation.
2.1 Verifying human traffic
Vera ships with built-in authentication, in the same way that Chrome ships with a Google Login and Firefox ships with a Mozilla Account. When a reader signs in to Vera, participating publishers receive a trustworthy signal that they are talking to a real person, not a crawler or an AI agent. The sign-in happens once and is shared across all participating publishers, so readers move between sites without repeated logins, and publishers receive the signal without having to collect personal data themselves.
The signal the browser passes to a publisher contains no name and no email address. It confirms that a real person is on the other end. Where the reader has consented, it also carries the categories of content and advertising they have agreed to.
2.2 A different experience for verified humans
Once a publisher knows a request comes from a verified human, it can deliver that reader a version of the page that is simply better:
- No cookie banners. Consent is handled once, at the identity layer, and honoured across every site.
- No paywall overlays, newsletter modals, app-install prompts, or push-notification requests.
- No SEO filler. The introductory paragraphs written for search engines rather than readers can be dropped.
- Subscription, pay-per-read, ad-supported, or free access: the publisher chooses the model, the browser presents it natively outside the page content.
- A consistent, readable layout that publishers control, free from the defensive UI that has accumulated over two decades of tracking, consent law, and SEO pressure.
The web, the way it was meant to be
Vera is not in the business of redesigning the web on publishers' behalf. It provides the signal and the surfaces; publishers shape what readers see. The goal is simple: a web where publishers can once again focus on journalism, reporting, and storytelling, instead of on the defensive scaffolding that has grown up around them.
3. The Consortium
Vera is not the project of a single media house. It is a shared infrastructure, governed by its stakeholders. The consortium is organised to ensure that no single member, including the operating entity Vera e.V., can unilaterally determine the rules that apply to publisher content, reader identity, consent, or payments.
We are seeking founding partners from five complementary categories. Each category brings a distinct competence; together, they form the full stack that today exists only inside Chrome.
| Category | Role in the consortium | Examples of contribution |
|---|---|---|
| Open-web publishers | Define the content and access rules; adapt the reading experience for verified humans; choose per-article access models (subscription, pay-per-read, ad-supported, or free). | News, recipes, forums, Q&A platforms, streaming services. |
| Ad-tech vendors | Deliver clean, contextual advertising in the ad-supported channel; provide identity graphs, DSP/SSP integration, and brand-safe inventory. | Identity providers, DSPs, SSPs, ad networks. |
| Payment & subscription providers | Operate the cross-publisher wallet for subscriptions and pay-per-read; handle revenue split, refunds, and tax. | Cross-publisher subscription and wallet providers. |
| Identity providers | Provide the SSO, consent, and human-verification layers that eliminate per-site cookie banners. | European SSO standards and network-layer human-verification providers. |
| Search engines | Default-search integrations, agent licensing, citation-first search results that route traffic back to publishers. | Independent search, privacy-first search, European alternatives. |
4. Governance principles
The consortium will operate under a written consortium agreement. Irrespective of its final legal form, the founding members commit to the following principles:
- Multi-stakeholder governance. No single member, shareholder, or category of members controls the roadmap, the access rules, or the default settings of the browser.
- Open standards first. Vera is built on open web standards and open source, starting with HTTP and Chromium. Proprietary extensions are avoided where an open alternative exists.
- Fair revenue split. Subscription and pay-per-read revenue flows to the publisher that produced the content. Platform fees are transparent and consortium-approved.
- Privacy by design. The signal the browser passes to a publisher contains no name and no email. Consent is granted per scope via the Vera authentication integration and can be withdrawn at any time.
- Opt-in for publishers. Every publisher adopts Vera at its own pace and in the way that fits its audience. From a light-touch adoption to deeper integration, the level of engagement is always the publisher's choice.
- European anchor, global reach. The operating entity is headquartered in the EU and GDPR-compliant by default; the protocols are open and neutral with respect to jurisdiction.
5. What signing this LoI means
By signing, the undersigned confirms, on a non-binding basis, that it:
- Supports the mission of the Vera consortium as described in sections 1 and 2 of this LoI.
- Intends to engage in good faith negotiations with Vera e.V. (in formation) and the other founding members about its specific role in the consortium, including technical integration, commercial terms, and governance representation.
- Is willing to nominate one senior contact person who can represent the signatory in the working groups for technology, commercial, and governance matters.
- Will treat information marked as confidential that is shared in the context of the consortium preparation as such, for a period of 6 months from signature.
Non-binding nature
This Letter of Intent does not create a legally binding obligation to enter into any agreement, to make any investment, or to integrate any technology. Binding commitments will be established only through a separately executed consortium agreement and, where applicable, integration, licensing, or commercial agreements.
The confidentiality undertaking listed above is intended to be binding.
6. Next steps and timeline
Signatories will be invited to the Vera founding workshop series, which covers three tracks in parallel:
- Technology. Finalisation of the publisher integration, authentication and consent flows, and the content-delivery conventions that underpin the verified-human experience.
- Commercial. Revenue split, wallet economics, ad-supported channel terms, and default-search arrangements.
- Governance. Consortium agreement, board composition, voting rights, veto protection, and the relationship between Vera e.V. and the consortium.
Target timeline: founding workshops in the quarter following the first signatures, a closed beta with integrated founding publishers, and a public launch of the Vera browser within 24 months.