# kaal:claim:3808859-020

**Claim.** The absence of a centralized authority makes open source projects prone to separation movements, because rival developer cliques form their own belief systems about the direction of development with no authority to resolve the dispute.

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

**Holds when.**

- contrasted with centralized software projects

**Source quote.**

> Because no centralized authority decides the direction of development, open source projects are more prone to cliques of developers that develop their own belief system regarding certain aspects of the development process.

**From.** Wulf A. Kaal, *Decentralization – Why We Need Technology Infrastructure Upgrades* (2021), IV.4 Shortcomings, page 33

**Cite as.** Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization – Why We Need Technology Infrastructure Upgrades (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808859

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `304ad25d43b5ecea3158e3a2ca04e6e1e3bd2958e2134e2dcefbfedf3b6f3ab7` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Kaal%20-%202021%20-%20Decentralization%20%E2%80%93%20Why%20We%20Need%20Technology%20Infrastructure%20Upgrades.pdf

**Failure mode.** separation movements without central authority  (family: collective-action-and-coordination-failure)

**Topics.** open-source-and-code, consensus-and-security, governance-design, decentralization

**Keywords.** open-source, forking, governance, decentralization-costs

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