Bitcoin governance model: the secret challenge Satoshi gave us.
For those who have seen Jihan Wu’s presentation in the summer of 2017 in the Netherlands saw a man explaining the teachings of philosophers like Aristotle and scientists like Milgram in an attempt to get his authority and intelligence across. Little he knew his presentation was irrelevant in the light of the bitcoin governance model Sathoshi gave us.
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The governance model is one of the most underestimated features of bitcoin. I think the governance model of bitcoin is so unfamiliar and alien to us humans that it will take a long time for people to find out what its merits are — just as there was a time for humanity to find out the merits of democracy when it first came into existence.
Let’s call this goverment model of bitcoin the Community Consensus Model (CCM).
On first glance the CCM is so simple it is hard to grasp there IS even something to understand about it.
CCM -in short- means that in order to change the rules (=laws) the vast majority of the community must agree (or at least not oppose) on making that change.
So it’s a kind of democracy with the bar for implementing any changes much higher than 51%. Even though there is no exact number of how much of the community must agree before one cal call it consensus…it’s let’s say 85% or more. Could be 70%, 95% — whatever your philosophical point of view. That I will leave up for another discussion. Point is that CCM needs far more than a 51% of the community to agree on something to change the status quo.
Simple as this is to understand rationally…why is it so hard to grasp and deal with for even very intelligent people?
My arguments are that: First of all is that we have biologically predisposition to hierarchy, not concensus. Second we are all raised in a way that enforces this predisposition. And third: the CCM throws at us us something new and we have no historical reference to on how to deal with it. So- even if we understand CCM- we have to go trial & error. Let me explain these 3 arguments a little.
When humans came into existence it made much sense to follow the advice of those that had experience and authority. If for example your father told you not to play at the side of the river or you might get snapped by a crocodile you could follow his advice or ignore it. With hindsight it is easy to see that those who choose to ignore that advice from authority had a little less change having their evolutionary chain going forward into the future. The willingness of following authority has been one of the evolutionary pressures that made us humans what we are now.
My second point states that this evolutionary pressure is still going strong today in our own upbringing. Not following the authorothy of one’s parents on how to cross a busy street could get you out of the human race fast. Not following the advise of the ‘authoritarian’ parents you had when you were young got you out of the human race before you ever got to know about bitcoin. Then comes school & speeding tickets and such…all giving you incentives to follow advice from authority.
So not only are we biologically predisposed to follow authority, this predisposition is re enforced during our upbringing and makes it hard for us to understand CCM.
Then when we grow up and we become the authority: following authority is the model that comes natural to us. Deviants got eaten by crocodiles, run over by cars, expelled denied & killed.
So..either you become the authority or you get eaten by authority is the game we are all predispositioned to biologically & culturally.
Then suddenly it makes sense why otherwise brilliant, intelligent people are not able to grasp and deal with bitcoins CCP model of governance. For very good reasons it’s out of their realm.
For those who have seen Jihan Wu’s presentation in the summer of 2017 in the Netherlands saw a man explaining the teachings of philosophers like Aristotle and scientists like Milgram in an attempt to get his authority and intelligence across. Little he knew why he failed in the light of the bitcoin governance model Sathoshi gave us.
