Nick Szabo  🔑

Why do you think veterans of digital currency engineering like @iang_fc insist on “blockchain governance”? It seems like they don’t care abt trust minimization

there’s an abyss between governance minimisation and governance elimination

Not if the rules and simple and can be secured, as is the case with Bitcoin.

if the rules are simple and can be secured (automated?) then that is protocol not governance. If you choose to eliminate, then there is no abyss, but there is also no governance.

indeed, that's what Bitcoiners have been trying to say: governance is a dirty word! no governance.

And indeed governance minimization, via substituting security protocol for governance wherever possible, is why Bitcoin's market cap dwarfs that of any altcoin, and especially dwarfs the "governance-uber-alles" shitcoins.

Definitely nothing to do with first mover advantage?

Excuses excuses.

The issue is that bad decisions can be made and never reversed. This governance minimization has hindered Bitcoins development. I do think decentralized governance is a possible answer. For example Tezos.

Great idea let's learn lessons from failed shitcoins rather than failed shitcoins learning from the successful.

Tezos hasn't failed yet and has tested out some of its governance machinery to show it can work. It is a shame any new idea in this space that isn't Bitcoin is immediately shot down.

So where do #monero and the Bi annual hard forks place on this scale ? Necessary but definitely not minimal.