# kaal:claim:3782203-024

**Claim.** If the decentralized economy is constructed as a zero-sum game, cooperation becomes impossible because the only feasible long-term strategy is maximal extraction, and participants are incentivized to play the most ruthless strategies available against their counterparties.

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

**Holds when.**

- zero-sum reward structures
- especially where counterparties are anonymous

**Source quote.**

> a zero-sum game, then cooperation is not possible as the only feasible long-term strat- egy is the pirate code: take anything not nailed down and leave nothing for your op- ponent. Then people are incentivized to play the most ruthless strategies available to hurt the other parties of a contract.

**From.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, *A Technical Perspective on Decentralization* (2021), Zero-sum games and Code-is-Law smart contracts, page 17

**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.** zero-sum-degeneration  (family: collective-action-and-coordination-failure)

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

**Keywords.** zero-sum-games, cooperation, anonymity, incentive-design, web3-economy

**Related claims.**

- supports: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3441904-043
- extends: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-031
- extended_by: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782214-001
- supports: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-032
- extends: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-025

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