OCP: the Open Cap Table Protocol

What is the Open Cap Table Protocol?

OCP is the onchain implementation of the Open Cap Table Format (OCF), the open data standard maintained by the Open Cap Table Coalition. Rather than inventing a new model, it records issuance, transfers, and restrictions as programmable book-entry on distributed infrastructure, so a company's ownership record stays compatible with the cap table data that counsel, transfer agents, and equity platforms already exchange. Fairmint, an SEC-registered transfer agent, runs issuer book-entry on OCP in production today.

What the whitepaper covers

• How OCP extends the Open Cap Table Format onchain without forking the standard.
• The book-entry model: issuance, transfers, and enforceable restrictions with clear provenance.
• How settlement, transfer-agent obligations, and securities-law controls are expressed as rules instead of manual process.
• Why the authoritative cap table, not just the trading venue, is the record worth moving onchain.