Principled Blockchain Governance Requirement #1 - Open Entry

For the rest of the world, if you're still reading from On a Principled Approach to Blockchain Governance - 7 Requirements - the big question then is how we design a governance layer for a blockchain! Let me lay that out with the help of 7 Requirements.

Let’s start with something simple: we need to allow open entry. Which means you and your sybil mates can join as many times as you have ports on your machine. And do stuff.

To make this distinction clear, consider R3’s Corda, or so-called “permissioned ledgers” in which the reverse to open entry is true - only known and accepted parties are permitted in. This follows from the world of regulated finance, where the banks in essence aren’t allowed to get involved in an unregulated and open entry system.

In the banking scenario, “we” can’t do it any other way. In contrast, in the open Internet, we, being the other we, have to do it in the open way. By an argument of reductio ad absurdum, if we used a walled garden approach and allowed only known and vetted peoples in, we’d need an authority, who would be regulated, and then we’d need a banking licence. Doh!

Therefore, we can establish our first requirement:

Requirement #1 - Open Entry

And, watch this space for Requirement #2 in our journey of principles.