What is Decentralized Governance?
NuNet De-Gov Blueprint is getting ready!
Decentralization is a powerful idea. Still, it is only an idea, and ideas are abstract. There are many valid understandings and paths of implementation for decentralization — and what we eventually make of them depends entirely on the quality of these understandings and implementations. At NuNet, we approach decentralization from the basic principle of self-organization. We understand decentralization as a combination of setups that allow a network to operate and expand in a self-organizing manner. Decentralization and self-organization are therefore not the same: one is a deliberately implemented method of design and management, and the other is a spontaneously occurring effect. Self-organization is the formation of valuable patterns out of free interactions.
For example, a group of kids starts to kick a ball one day. They enjoy themselves, some return on the next day, the social pattern stabilizes and now you can bet on seeing them again at the same spot tomorrow afternoon. No coach was appointed, no membership fees were paid, everyone is free to join or leave as they please, and here they are again, playing together. The curious feature of self-organization, however, is that over time such beautifully spontaneous structures often end up fossilizing into top-down hierarchies. This is how it goes: one or two kids start dictating who gets to play and who doesn’t, and in which position, a parent committee forms to produce t-shirts, the schedule gets fixed, the club gets registered at the local sports center and now has to follow its rules. Nothing wrong in all that, one might say, that’s optimization, maturation, and growth.
And yet, a new giant wave of innovation is coming up with methods that seek to actively counterbalance, disallow, and undo the formation of such centralizing patterns of optimization. Why? Mostly because the self-organizing patterns, as long as they last, allow higher degrees of freedom to individuals. And also because they can be amazingly resilient, vibrant, creative, and alive.
Enter decentralization. It begins when a deliberate choice is made to safeguard or increase the degree of self-organization in a particular project, community, network, or domain. Decentralization is an active effort and may be quite disturbing, too. It aims to (1) reverse the concentration of power, (2) bolster the autonomy and agency of all individuals involved, and (3) systematically invigorate and expand the network by precisely these two means. Effective decentralization involves a combination of various instruments, which open-source, peer-to-peer, and Web3 projects typically seek to embed directly in hardware and software architectures. NuNet is all in on that approach. Our architectures from the lowest layers up are consistently and rigorously decentralized — we take no shortcuts in building them this way. We know that within the next decade, all major industrial processes of our civilization will run on computing resources the way they are running on fossil fuels today. Our mission is to ensure that the future ground-zero layer on which these processes will depend — the compute layer — will be decentralized and antifragile.
Not all instruments of decentralization, however, can be embedded in hardware or software directly, or at least not yet. Complex socio-techno-economic structures are perpetually in the making, and their making is human-intense. It involves social dynamics and psychology, human values and incentives, regulations and accountabilities, contracts and alliances, formal structures, informal cultures, leadership and management styles, and myriads of large and small decisions that must be made all along. All these aspects can potentially foster self-organization, or stifle it. Enter decentralized governance.
De-governance, the way we approach it at NuNet, is a combination of structural, procedural, and cultural instruments deliberately assembled and applied to foster self-organization within the networks of relationships that NuNet facilitates and becomes involved in. NuNet didn’t start from spontaneous self-organization. Complex high-tech startups rarely do, as they require precise coordination and intensive investments of resources and talent. Like other Web3 projects, we have a leadership team to steer the course and a well-focused roadmap for developments ahead. A strong commitment of NuNet’s Whitepaper and team, however, is that all these developments are systematically unleashing the powerfully self-organizing, unstoppable NuNet — a thriving network that is everybody’s to use and freely transform, and nobody’s to rule over or shut down.
We are currently preparing a Blueprint document that lays out how and where our de-gov instruments will come into play in 2024–2026, to carry out this mission. Stay tuned, follow the developments, and get ready to be in charge!
About NuNet
NuNet is building an innovative, open-source, decentralized computing platform pioneering the new era of DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure). Find out more via:
