Why Non-State Governance for Bitcoin, Ethereum and other Cryptocurrencies is so hard
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For the index please go here. A lot of early cryptocurrency enthusiasts have views typically labelled anarchist or libertarian or anti-state. This is the easy part.
The code enforces a monetary policy. This can be a totally fixed supply like Bitcoin or a more nuanced gradual inflation policy like Ethereum.
Which monetary policy is better can be debated by economists for a long ethereum janitorial. What is certain is that the idea of a stateless code-enforced Monetary policy is fundamentally new. Think of the code-enforced Monetary policy like a Central Bank where the Governor has no decision-making leeway.
This is more complex than it sounds if that code is controlled by a human being, which ethereum janitorial us to the critical difference between Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik Buterin. Both are off the charts brilliant — beautiful minds. The critical difference is that Satoshi Ethereum janitorial is not a flesh and blood human. In contrast, Vitalik Buterin is a flesh and blood human.
He seems incorruptible and driven by non-material motivations but it is possible that some pressure point could be found.
There is a lot at stake. Or he could decide to do something that he judges to be in the best interests of Ethereum and some may disagree with what he decides. This is not an academic point; it has already happened. Vitalik and co chose Tough Road 2. Those ethereum janitorial disagreed with that decision then created a rival cryptocurrency called Ethereum Classic. In a traditional institution managed currency, Tough Road 2 would have been the obvious decision.
Who would not want to protect honest people from thieves? It is more a more complex and tough decision in a decentralised, trustless cryptocurrency where immutability nobody can change the ledger is core to the proposition. The debate continues to rage on nearly two years later and goes to the ethereum janitorial of the Non-State Governance issue. If the Ethereum code had been designed with a feature that prevented anybody from doing this, Vitalik could have taken his flesh and blood out of the equation.
That is like having a written Constitution that can never be amended. Which brings us to the even more bitter governance battles around Bitcoin. Developers typically come ethereum janitorial the scientific ethereum janitorial where something is either factually right or wrong. Code either works or it does not.
In the long term, facts may outweigh ethereum janitorial. Or they may not. Who wins a civil war like this comes ethereum janitorial to a strange brew of technical merit, market clout, ability to tell a story and ruthlessness. The governance issue in Bitcoin boils down to two issues that we will explore later:. First we ethereum janitorial at at an attempt to build a better governance ethereum janitorial than either Bitcoin or Ethereum. Is there any alternative to either trusting a brilliant team or letting a bitter market battle decide?
An entrepreneur called Arthur Breitman convinced a lot of people that he had found the answer. Irony aficionados enjoy the fact that about a year later after raising what at the time was record amount for an ICO, Tezos collapsed into law suits and ethereum janitorial governance battles. In other cases, they advance full steam ahead ethereum janitorial tweaks and innovations, but this leaves too much power in the hands of a few influential developers. Sceptics have only to point to the ethereum janitorial suits and bitter governance battles.
In short, Breitman was right — governance matters — but it is far from clear that he has a real solution. Arthur Breitman is clearly a flesh and blood ethereum janitorial as are all the other actors in this drama. That by itself does not invalidate Tezos. The American Constitution was written by flesh and blood humans and lasted a long time. Another irony is that Arthur Breitman is a self-proclaimed libertarian and yet he built a technical solution to a market problem.
This market battle is all about:. Ethereum janitorial is a direct descendant of the original Bitcoin software client released by Satoshi Nakamoto after he published the famous Ethereum janitorial whitepaper.
This raises the question of who pays the piper. The developers are paid through the Ethereum janitorial Core Sponsorship Programme. This is like other open source projects, where Sponsors get recognition and maybe some inside knowledge and influence.
This is where it gets controversial. Does the piper call the tune? Cynics and promoters of other cryptocurrencies question that. Nobody can know for sure. The short answer is the market. There is no authority that ethereum janitorial a license to use the Bitcoin name. Many early cryptocurrency ethereum janitorial dreamed of a better world free from nation state authority and big banks.
The non-state cryptocurrency governance issues show that it is not that simple. InThomas Hobbes wrote in Leviathan that without political community, the life of man was:.
Cryptocurrencies form into global non-state governance structures that operate entirely outside nation state jurisdictions. Cryptocurrencies ethereum janitorial taken over by nation states and simply become more efficient versions of Fiat currency. Some people use cryptocurrencies to hide their actions from nation state authorities — just like they use cash today. Other people use cryptocurrencies legally and transparently within the system. Ethereum janitorial people do a bit of both depending ethereum janitorial circumstance.
In that Scenario 3 — which I think is most likely — cryptocurrency governance does not need to be perfect because there is always the backstop of ye olde nation state jurisdictional governance. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Ethereum janitorial account. You ethereum janitorial commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. March 3, February 27, Bernard Lunn. Humans ethereum janitorial the code that is law and humans are not omniscient and perfect code is impossible.
Humans are needed if something comes up that the code developers did not envisage and a dispute has to be settled. The critical difference between Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik Buterin.
Who decides what to do after a big fraud breach? This is more complex than it sounds if that code is controlled by a human being, which brings us to the critical difference between Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik Buterin The critical difference between Satoshi Ethereum janitorial and Vitalik Buterin Both are off the charts brilliant — beautiful minds.
The governance issue in Bitcoin boils down to two issues that we will explore later: Who controls the code? The Tezos debacle for irony aficionados In AugustArthur Breitman wrote a white paper in the form of a blog post entitled Why Governance Matters.
This market battle is all about: Ethereum janitorial maintainers have commit access and are responsible for merging patches from contributors. They perform a janitorial role merging patches that the team agrees should be merged.
They also act as a final check to ensure that patches are safe and in line with the project goals. Everyone who contributes to the Bitcoin Core project is considered a contributor. A list of code contributors for the last year can ethereum janitorial found on Github as well in the historical release notes for each Bitcoin Core software release.
Messy as it is, this market based approach ethereum janitorial very resilient — may the best coin win. From Utopian dreams to dystopian nightmares? InThomas Hobbes wrote in Leviathan ethereum janitorial without political community, the life of man was: There are three scenarios: Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email required Address never made public.
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