Fault Tolerance in Blockchain Teams
Breaking down the complexity of why diverse teams are key to success in DLT!
The Humble Beginning
The advent of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has brought exponential hype and exposure to the once nascent space. Teams daily are looking for any conference stage or show to unveil their self proclaimed master piece to the masses. Unfortunately, this is usually a two bit operation with a half baked idea, no working MVP, a cheap WordPress template website and an all big company name, no individual brain team (Yes I tried to rhyme!).
A harsh tone it may seem, however out of the $7.7 Odd Billion USD raised in 2018, you can bet your bottom dollar many of these projects are now facing their own harsh reality. The highly convoluted architectural mess proposed in their whitepapers is coming back to the bite them. These projects certainly didn’t employ the K.I.S.S principle. Instead creating layer upon layer of communication overheads, bottlenecks and seemingly future technical debt as they sold unsavvy speculators the panacea to each and every use case under our radiating sun.
These projects were loaded with the silver bullet sprinkled with the finest advisors. Individuals with very little regard for success other than seeing tokens poured into their precious Ethereum Addresses to cherish. It was as if the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum hadn’t had some of the brightest development minds already working on the well known Impossible Trinity (Trilemma) of Decentralisation, Scalability and Security for years without much reprieve. The triangle where you can only currently have two, but these new ICO’s offered all three, and more.
Complexities Lie Within
You see, many use the word Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and other referential terms interchangeably, because Bitcoin == Bitcoin Cash right? (That’s the equals operator in Java for you non tech heads).
Most of us whether by being IT literate, or through education over time are able to apply context to the changing DLT landscape and know not all Blockchains Protocols and Platforms are created equal. That in fact even 10 years on, very few individuals can be truly referred to as ‘experts’ of the founding father Bitcoin, let alone of two ecosystems end to end.
The fact is, Blockchain as a data structure of cryptographically linked transactions in theory is very easy to understand. It is only when you apply all the pieces of the puzzle where you get a robust platform which has the right ingredients of the varying fields and areas of Computer Science and Economics that one can sit back and admire the art of successes such as Bitcoin.
Pieces of the puzzle include:
- Networking
- Game Theory & Mechanism Design
- Cryptography
- Fault Tolerant Algorithms such as BFT/POW
- Social Engineering / Psychology
- Decentralisation (Distributed Computing)
- Economics — Incentive and Disincentive
- Data Structures
Yet it’s like these new ICO’s have waved a magic wand and found employees skilled in every realm one could wish for to deliver their platform on time and on budget. Let’s add some context here for why I find this absolutely incomprehensible.
The above was a non exhaustive list of some areas which make up most DLT Platforms, yet the below adds to such, providing reasoning as to just how complex the technology stack could be.
Fields Within Computer Science / Information Technology
- Algorithms
- Architecture (Enterprise, System)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Big Data
- Business / Systems Analysis
- Computational Biology (BIO)
- Database (Administration, Design, Security)
- Graphics (GR)
- Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
- Machine Learning (ML)
- Mobile (Web Applications)
- Networking (LAN, WAN, P2P and every other protocol)
- Programming (Front/Back End, Full Stack)
- Quality (Testing, Change Management)
- Robotics
- Security (Cryptography, Privacy, Sensor, HI, Randomness)
- And so on, and so forth…
Fields Within Economics:
- Agricultural & Environmental
- Behavioural
- Business
- Economic Development & History
- Financial
- Health & Education
- Industrial
- International Trade & Finance
- Labour
- Law
- Micro — including Game Theory and Mechanism Design
- Macro & Monetary
- Mathematical & Quantitative
- Public
- Urban & Rural
As I stated a little earlier, Blockchain ecosystems like Bitcoin only get their collective benefit when the mix of ingredients is right. So how is it again these ICO’s:
- Have a small team, of not that senior staffers
- Collectively want to change the world and solve the impossible trinity
- Yet no one has heard of these magical coding wizards before?
It’s time to be real, as common folk, we must understand that these ecosystems are as much technology as they are raw human greed to ensure the balance of incentive to disincentive is a zero sum game.
The Ingredients
Baking a cake is not just about having ingredients (a team), it’s about having the right ones, which work together, compliment each other and are stirred in this case, not shaken.
Steve Jobs who once said “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” It is that very team, that brings me to write this piece.
Assumption: A valuable use case, underserved market share, and innovation limited to two to three killer ideas.
Rule Number 1: A one hit wonder won’t work here, the team needs to be just that, a team of collective minds.
Rule Number 2: A mixture of technical staff including developers, scientists and/or researchers is a must to deliver novel concepts.
The rest doesn’t need rules, it requires common sense in breaking down the technicalities of the proposal and resourcing accordingly. Don’t just draw architectural madness and think you can deliver it!
If a team is planning to deliver more than 2–3 novel concepts related to network communications or protocol enhancements to market as part of their project (assuming it’s a valid use case) be very aware of just how hard it is.
If you want proof look at Ethereum 2.0 — Serenity.
Conclusion
I hope the above gives you further context as to when you read your next whitepaper, what to look out for in the team. Big companies names mean nothing if it doesnt come with realistic positioning if they are management, they aren’t coding anything. If they are coders, what has their tenure been and across what projects as working in a decentralised manner like ConsenSys does is extremely challenging for many.
Finally I would like to add I do not proclaim to be an expert in any of the following:
- Distributed Computing
- Cryptography
- Networking
- Game Theory and Mechanism Design
What I am is a Senior IT Systems Analyst who majored in Information Systems, and undertook courses in Distributed Computing, Networks and Security. I have continually read, watched and subscribed to as much information in this space over many years and I still haven’t scratched the surface!
So please, don’t be an egotistical hamstrung ‘expert’ who must refute everything that questions what they think they know. This space is fundamentally huge, one simply cannot know all in’s and outs.
As we push the technical boundaries of DLT, networking, and human behaviour we must appreciate the work of all. Especially that of the teams working cross borders, just like the payments which has been enabled by such tech.
Thank you!
Benjamin Hall
tippin.me/@crypto_catchup
