The 2023 paper \emph{Distributed Governance: a Principal-Agent Approach to Data Governance} arXiv:2308.07280 introduced the autonomous principal as the locus of transactional sovereignty in digital ecosystems. This follow-up, Part 2, advances a structural argument for why that model is not a normative preference but a consequence of taking causality seriously in distributed information systems. Drawing an analogy with the transition from Newtonian to relativistic physics, we show that custodial identity management rests on an implicit assumption of global simultaneity that fails as soon as identity must operate across ecosystems, jurisdictions, and the offline/online boundary. Once that assumption is dropped, state ceases to be a noun held by a central authority and becomes a relation maintained between principals through causally ordered exchanges. The autonomous principal emerges as the only entity with standing to define its own reference frame. We report on technology built since 2023 that operationalises this view, and outline its consequences for cross-border data flows and agentic systems.

翻译：2023年的论文《分布式治理：数据治理中的委托-代理方法》（arXiv:2308.07280）引入了自治主体作为数字生态系统中交易主权的核心。作为后续的第二部分，本文提出了一项结构性论证，表明该模型并非规范性偏好，而是在分布式信息系统中认真对待因果关系所产生的必然结果。通过类比从牛顿物理到相对论物理的转变，我们证明了托管式身份管理依赖于一个隐含的全局同时性假设，而当身份需要在不同生态系统、司法管辖区以及线下/线上边界之间运作时，这一假设便会失效。一旦摒弃该假设，状态就不再是由中央权威持有的“名词”，而是成为主体之间通过因果有序交换维持的“关系”。自治主体作为唯一有权定义自身参考框架的实体得以凸显。我们报告了自2023年以来构建的实现了这一观点的技术，并概述了其对跨境数据流与智能体系统的影响。