Governance: how to lose friends and alienate people
summary
Four governance models are compared with concrete tradeoffs: Cosmos text proposals let anyone post markdown ideas but leave implementation unclear; Tezos on-chain code hashes let nodes auto-download and link accepted code; Polkadot aims for fully on-chain proposals, discussion and voting; Ethereum relies on informal off-chain EIP-driven upgrades. Practical tensions include funding core devs (founders rewards vs post hoc raises), Tezos showing ~450 bakers after a 30k-wallet fundraiser, risks of gamable rules and the “tyranny of structurelessness,” and the need for meta‑governance and expert input.
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chapters (14)
- 0:00Welcome
- 1:01Governance controversy
- 6:22Formalizing governance challenges
- 10:35Legitimacy in systems
- 14:24Arguments against governance
- 19:13Community voice in decisions
- 24:33Founders rewards
- 32:18Explaining governance
- 35:34What governance covers
- 38:21Public stances and coordination
- 42:11Fighting governance corruption
- 43:34Political theory insights
- 45:22Community input on funding
- 46:48Practical governance funding
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