Complex Adaptive Blockchain Governance

Abstract

The blockchain revolution upholds the decentralizing ideal of “control nothing.” It is natural that such a pursuit would face issues of governance that demand reasonable control; control that is both operational as well as adaptive in nature. Eliminating middlemen and handing over controls to a trusted system of trustless agents does not thereby bestow trust across time. This is especially true when relentless change is the order of the day. Issues of governance rise up when blockchain systems (especially those that have embedded smart contracts) are forced to operate increasingly away from their original intent. Smart contracts need governance when beset with the problem of the unknown-unknowns. Guided by the axiomatic approach, this paper looks at the paradoxical issue of blockchain governance from a Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) perspective that helps frame the fundamental problem of decentralization. The objective is to solve the Blockchain Governance Kernel Design. Real-life examples are used to illustrate the findings.