Currently the most discussed topic in blockchains is probably scaleability. In the Bitcoin ecosystem the most favoured solution is the Lightning network (LN) [1]. One basic idea in LN is that the blockchain can be used for settlement only and that transactions at higher scale can take place in a…

In Proof-of-work CPU power is a proxy for decision making power (DMP). “Proof-of-work is essentially one-CPU-one-vote.” Coins are cryptographic keypairs which give access to a resource, i.e. wealth or economic power (EP). However over time DMP became non-evenly distributed. Note that DMP is not directly associated with EP. In Proof-of-Stake…

The future of (Crypto-) exchanges are protocols. Exchanges should be thought of in terms of Internet backbone, rather than what they currently are — webportals to isolated pools of liquidity. I thought of Internet Exchange Protocols (IEXCP) already in 2013. It seemed obvious that the world needs a global standard…

DNS evolved out of mapping a file which contained name of hosts (hosts.txt see [1], [2]) to a more distributed system. The principles are that on the early Internet organizations run hosts and are responsible for these machines. The machines provide access to files or remote programs (not content). DNS…

A lot has been written about decentralization in the context of blockchains and Cryptocurrencies. However, it seems that that the topic is still little explored. Decentralization means among other things minimization of risk to other parties, i.e. counterparties and third parties. If two parties make a transfer in traditional finance…

Following is a technical consideration of problems in network protocols. Blockchains allow fundamental new computer protocols. From this standpoint many things in network protocols have to be reconsidered. But to start with some basic observations from previous work. Most of the widely used computer languages today have a notion of…

In his works David Friedman argues for private enforcement of property rights (see [1] — [3]). Is it plausible that individuals in a society can outsource security to competing agencies? We will analyze this in a somewhat formal way. Friedman makes the implicit assumption that in the current structures there…

Bitcoin in its original form was designed as a Peer-to-Peer system. The decisions on which blocks are the valid part of history can be compared to a vote. The first article on blockchains calls such systems “property clubs” and a “constitutional microdemocracy”[1]. The votes for the correct history however are…

There has been a recent uptick on a general blockchain governance debate, see [1] — [6]. I wanted to collect some links and add some thoughts from my own research in this area. One can consider goverance as a subset of problems related to collective decision making. An initially helpful…