# kaal:claim:3782210-029

**Claim.** Concentration of power is the greatest threat to any decentralized organization, because a single member or sub-coalition that gains a majority of power in an inherently democratic organization will eventually control it no matter what safeguards are in place, at which point the organization is no longer decentralized.

**Type.** failure  **Support.** argued

**Holds when.**

- democratic decentralized organizations
- especially profit-devoted and therefore competitive ones

**Source quote.**

> The idea is that if a single member, or even a sub-coalition, gains j\% of the power in an inherently dem- ocratic organization, they will eventually control it, no matter what the safeguards are.

**From.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, *The Importance of Reputation for the Evolution of Decentralization* (2021), Security, page 10

**Cite as.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Reputation for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782210

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `9cc531ab239f6266c8aeddcc8e54f4c06029c44e825444bee137bbcc0c9d0a8e` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Calcaterra%20and%20Kaal%20-%202021%20-%20The%20Importance%20of%20Reputation%20for%20the%20Evolution%20of%20Decentralization.pdf

**Failure mode.** Majority power capture  (family: plutocratic-capture)

**Topics.** consensus-and-security, decentralization, governance-design

**Keywords.** majority-attack, power-concentration, decentralization, governance

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