Blockchain governance has been a topic of debate and discussion within the cryptocurrency community. It has become a challenge to ensure governance does not risk decentralization. Nic Carter presented an overview of governance in blockchain. He made his presentation at the Zcon0 organized by Zcash foundation in Canada. He spoke on the third and closing day of the conference on June 28, 2018.

Governance in Blockchain

Nic Carter began his presentation with an overview of what governance means. He then explained the need for blockchain governance. In recent times the term governance has been misinterpreted within the crypto community. There are various types of governance models on which blockchains operate. In the self governance model there is no interference from founders after the launch. It is also completely controlled and managed by combined efforts of developers. Cardano blockchain follows airtight governance model. The community follows a democratic process to decide future course of action.

The EOS blockchain gives authority in the hands of the token holders. Token holders stake their coins and elect 21 block producers. These block producers are responsible for verifying all transactions on the EOS blockchain. On the other hand, Dash is based on a Sybil tested decentralized governance and funding system.

Need for blockchain governance

Nic Carter defined blockchain governance as, “How public blockchain communities and key stakeholders arrive at collective action, specifically with respect to protocol change.”

The cryptocurrency industry is in nascent stage and has no clear defined protocol. This makes it extremely difficult to take decisions. Blockchain governance created a controversy when Ethereum developers agreed to a soft fork after the DAO hack. There can be on-chain and off-chain governance. There have been fears that having a governance model could contradict the sole idea of decentralization in the network. But it becomes extremely difficult to arrive at a consensus in the absence of governance on the blockchain.

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