Principled Blockchain Governance Requirement #5 - Consensors are Enforcers

Now, assuming I get my ruling from Principle #4 - Arbitration, and it says “off with the Troll’s head” I have another issue - how do I get it enforced? We all like a good Troll beheading, but who’s actually going to wield the axe? Or Le Guillotine, if we’re modern and French.

Part I. Enforcement of a ruling is something we can do in the courts. One good thing about Arbitration is, assuming we’ve got a good legal and fair forum, that the ruling can be presented to any court in the world that accepts the 1974 New York Treaty on Arbitration. In effect, if I get into a fight in a bar in Dublin with a Londoner, he can pop over the Hague, and get a ruling against me, which can be enforced in my home town in Australia and have my house seized. Bugger.

Now, this is both scary and an opportunity. What global arbitration means is that we have equalised the power of every member against every other member. No longer can someone in one country drag you into a civil case in their local courts - they have to refer it to Arbitration. Any case in your courts gives you an advantage, any case in some foreign court gives that other person an advantage. Indeed, this is practically the only way it can work; the implausibility of foreign courts for an international blockchain means your choice is basically Arbitration or nothing for most people and a brutal weapon for some few rich people.

That’s Part I of the question of enforcement - and that comes with the territory of Arbitration, as it's build into the law. But then there’s...

Part II - what happens to the Troll’s value inside the chain? He no longer needs it… so in effect the ruling could award damages to me for being trolled. Let’s say it does. Who’s going to enforce that?

The ones that do this on a blockchain are the ones that permit or “Validate” the transactions. This might be the miners in PoW blockchain or the Producers or Witnesses or Notaries in some other designs. For sake of a fair term to all blockchains, I’ll call them all Consensors. Which leads to a new requirement:

Requirement #5 - Consensors are Enforcers

If you're happy with the Consensors or Miners or Producers being the Enforcers, then we're ready for Principle #6. Almost done...