Level of blockchain governance :
- Platform level
- Application level (distributed apps )
- Ecosystem level
Centralized paradigms are not as effective in the digital age.
Blockchain stakeholders :
- Industry pioneers
First mantra was : “We reject kings, presidents, and voting. We believe in rough consensus and running code”
Vanguards in the industry—from Erik Voorhees, CEO and founder of ShapeShift, to Roger Ver, an investor also known as “Bitcoin Jesus”—believe any form of formal governance, regulation, or oversight is not only foolish, but antithetical to the principles of blockchain. However, as the industry has expanded, many entrepreneurs are seeing a healthy dialogue with governments—and a focus on governance more broadly—as a good thing. Companies like Coinbase, Circle, and Gemini have joined trade organizations; and some even maintain close relations with emerging governance institutions such as the Digital Currency Initiative at MIT.
- Venture capitalists
If anything : financiers are underestimating the potential of blockchain (Draper, venture capitalist)
What started as a clique of cryptoinsiders snowballed into technology’s most influential VCs such as Andreessen Horowitz. Then financial services titans joined the mix: Barclays, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, NYSE, UBS, and Visa, among others, have made direct investments in start-ups or supported incubators that nurture new ventures. Pension funds are entering the fray. OMERS Ventures, the billion-dollar venture arm of one of Canada’s largest public sector pensions, made its first investment in 2015. Jim Orlando, who runs that group, is looking for the next killer app that “does for blockchain what the Web browser did for the Internet.”Investment has exploded. According to data in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ DeNovo platform, “funding in blockchain companies increased 79 percent year-over-year in 2016 to US$450 million.” Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson told us that, if anything, “financiers are underestimating the potential of blockchain.” Digital Currency Group, a venture firm founded by Barry Silbert, has appointed academics and other nontraditional advisers to its board to accelerate the development of a better financial system through both investment and advocacy.
- Banks and financial services
Great change of view, they considered it as the currency of gamblers and criminals, they are now completely changing their views and they are all investing in this technology and participating in leader meetings and joining consortiums such R3 and Hyperledger.
Before 2015, few major financial institutions had announced investments in the sector. In its Global FinTech Report 2017, PricewaterhouseCoopers reported that 77 percent of survey respondents in financial services expected “to adopt blockchain as part of an in-production system or process by 2020.” Today, Bank of Montreal, BNY Mellon, CIBC, Commerzbank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ING, Macquarie, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho Bank, Nordea, RBC, Société Générale, State Street, TD Bank, UniCredit, Wells Fargo, and dozens of others are investing in the technology and wading into the leadership discussion. Many of the world’s biggest banks have signed up to the R3 CEV consortium. Stakeholders must remain cautious of any powerful incumbents looking to control this technology, just as they had to proceed cautiously in the early days of the Internet.
- Developers
There are disagreements between the developers, like between Bitcoin and Ethereum. No clear leadership.
Blockchain developers lack formal oversight bodies such as ICANN, the IETF, or W3C to anticipate development needs and guide their resolution—and the Bitcoin community prefers it that way. Members do have a few norms such as participating in online forums, posting protocol improvement proposals publicly for peer review, discussing and addressing other members’ concerns, advocating for particular solutions, testing proposed code, and jumping in to debug code—not just suggesting but implementing a fix. Bypassing peer review is a real no-no, while trolling to improve ideas is OK. When we spoke with Bitcoin core developer Gavin Andresen in 2015, he was at the center of the block-size debate. He told us, “I’d prefer to stay in the engine room, keeping the Bitcoin engine going” rather than spending every waking moment advocating for Bitcoin’s future. At the time, he viewed the Internet governance network as a useful starting point. “I always look for role models. The role model is the IETF.” It’s “kind of chaotic and messy,” he said, but it works and it’s reliable. However, in the absence of clear and transparent leadership, Andresen either found himself or put himself too much in the spotlight. It was a Catch-22 of sorts that cost him his developer privileges.1
- Academia
Prominent universities all teach courses on blockchain etc..
Academic institutions are funding labs and centers to study this technology and collaborate with colleagues outside their silo. Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab, saw an opportunity for academia to step up: “MIT and the academic layer can be a place where we can do assessments, do research and be able to talk about things like scalability without any bias or special interests.” Notable universities such as Stanford, Princeton, Duke, and NYU also teach courses on blockchain, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies
- Leadership
- Users
All of humanity and every company and institution will use this technology as foundational. People have a legitimate right to care about identity, security, privacy, human rights in general, fair adjudication, and the longterm viability of this resource. Yet there is no shared taxonomy or categorization of the space: Does blockchain refer to the Bitcoin blockchain or the technology in general? Is it big “B” Blockchain or little “b” blockchain? Is it a currency, commodity, or technology? Is it all of these things or none of these things?
- Governments and regulators
The Internet of Value will deal with money, stocks, bonds, and other financial assets as well as deeds, votes, identities, and other assets that governments tend to originate, register, or otherwise oversee to preserve the public interest. When it comes to transactions involving these assets—the foundation of our economies—they would be right to express both curiosity and concern for the common good. For example, central banks are taking different steps to understand this technology. Benjamin Lawsky, former superintendent of financial services for the State of New York, said strong regulations are the first step toward industry growth. Carolyn Wilkins, the senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, believes central banks everywhere should seriously study the implications of moving entire national currency systems to digital money. The Bank of England’s top economist, Andrew Haldane, has proposed a national digital currency for the United Kingdom. The deputy chief of the Bank of Russia, Olga Skorobogatova, said that it was “time to develop national cryptocurrencies,” and the People’s Republic of China has been experimenting with Ethereum to develop a digital Yuan. Governments around the world are uncoordinated in their approach to blockchain—some favoring laissez-faire policy, others diving in with new rules and regulations such as the BitLicense in New York. Some regimes are openly hostile; increasingly a fringe response. Even those stakeholders who resist government intervention acknowledge the merit of regulator participation in governance debates. Adam Draper, a prolific VC in the industry, reluctantly acknowledged, “Government endorsement creates institutional endorsement, which has value.
- NGOs
The year 2015 proved transformative for the burgeoning constellation of NGOs and civil society organizations focused specifically on this technology. Groups include Jerry Brito’s Coin Center and Perianne Boring’s Chamber of Digital Commerce. These groups are gaining traction in the community. Brito said, “Governance comes into play when there are serious decisions that need to be made and you need a process or institution for that to happen.”
Stewarding the Blockchain revolution
The early days of blockchain were unregulated, like the Internet of days past – where innovation soared, and a whole ecosystem grew.
The internet of information deals with data.
Blockchain, as the internet of value, deals in assets (e.g money, identity, land, diamonds) – things of value that are critical to the economy
Blockchain needs to be self-governed, using a multi stakeholder approach. Global Solution networks.
The Internet is a network of similar network, but there is not a blockchain of blockchains.
The platform level advocates for self governance. Platform should develop standards and use cases.
The platform level, forks and applies new approaches to scalability. Ethereum will move to proof of stake.
At the application level, industry partners and applications build consortiums.
