# kaal:claim:3782193-026

**Claim.** The authors accept Brafman and Beckstrom's thesis that the best way to convert a decentralized organization into a centralized one is to introduce the profit motive, since money supplies a focal point for internal competition.

**Type.** mechanism  **Support.** argued

**Holds when.**

- decentralized organizations in which profits become available to members

**Source quote.**

> The thesis of The Starfish and the Spider is that the best way to convert a decentral- ized organization to a centralized organization is to introduce the profit motive.

**From.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, *Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization* (2021), The Apaches vs. Bitcoin, page 22

**Cite as.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782193

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `74df9cc9a19a098bdacd0424a4174795f6e184f7a31c8ee7541195186701ebd2` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Calcaterra%20and%20Kaal%20-%202021%20-%20Historical%20Sketches%20of%20Centralization%20vs.%20Decentralization.pdf

**Failure mode.** Profit motive centralization  (family: recentralization-drift)

**Topics.** decentralization, risk-and-incentives

**Keywords.** profit-motive, centralization, decentralized-organizations, starfish-and-spider, incentive-design

**Related claims.**

- extended_by: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782205-013
- extended_by: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782214-018

**Canonical form.** This markdown file is the canonical hashed representation of the claim. Its sha256 is the content hash used for attestation.