# kaal:claim:3782203-003

**Claim.** Strict letter of the law regimes, which the authors call protocol centralization, produce rigid and temporarily efficient hierarchies, but that same rigidity generates instability and eventual collapse.

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

**Holds when.**

- historical rule by law systems
- rigidly enforced protocols

**Source quote.**

> When the laws were strict—Rule by Law—then the hierarchy formed rigidly and was very efficient temporarily, before its rigidity led to its instability and eventual collapse. This is pro- tocol centralization.

**From.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, *A Technical Perspective on Decentralization* (2021), Chapter 6. Technical perspective, page 2

**Cite as.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, A Technical Perspective on Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782203

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `ab8a22d0dbb026a09212a4c85963f3c05787cf80775e8613ae3724e3883e7a56` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Calcaterra%20and%20Kaal%20-%202021%20-%20A%20Technical%20Perspective%20on%20Decentralization.pdf

**Failure mode.** rigidity-induced-collapse  (family: rule-obsolescence-and-ossification)

**Topics.** decentralization, institutional-design

**Keywords.** protocol-centralization, rule-by-law, institutional-rigidity, collapse

**Related claims.**

- extends: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-036
- extends: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-012
- extended_by: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782220-030

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