The Shift to Decentralization

Rough ideas, to be refined later…

Dash is centralized. Contrary to popular belief, every cryptocurrency starts out centralized. Satoshi’s project started as such, Evan’s subsequent improvements started out as such, and indeed, every innovation starts out as such. An original idea begins centralized by definition; the original idea has just that, an origin, a center. From that beginning an idea or project may either remain centralized, or become decentralized.

A preference and respect for decentralization cannot be taken for granted as the motivating factor for all who take interest in cryptocurrencies. The libertarian roots of such projects have grown, and are already yielding fruit. Adherants of many ideologies now find these projects favorable.

In order to assure sustainable growth, the fundamental principles that have made cryptocurrencies successful must be consciously protected. This requires a shift from a centralized idea to a decentralized, community-driven collaborative project.

It must also be emphasized that centralization is not necessarily bad. Centralized projects, in their incubation, can move efficiently because there is a simple governance model and pure ideas can be developed without excessive community deliberation. They can also offer healthy financial incentives for early founding members to push through difficult start up challenges.

However, to gain sustainable widespread adoption and resilience to outside attacks and competition, centralization and hierarchical governance must yield to decentralization and distributed, networked governance. Getting people to build their ideas and projects on top of yours requires an explicit welcome to community collaboration and low barriers in making such connections…