{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "DefinedTerm", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/entities/decentralization", "identifier": "kaal:entity:decentralization", "name": "Decentralization", "termCode": "decentralization", "inDefinedTermSet": { "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/entities/index.json" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Wulf A. Kaal", "identifier": "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0757-275X" }, "dateModified": "2026-07-29", "canonicalForm": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/entities/decentralization.md", "sha256": "9b1b47a74cfc3025607ce3ccf3ccaad70cc40a825603d537637b338f71a138ae", "additionalProperty": [ { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "status", "value": "derived" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "claim_count", "value": 205 }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "work_count", "value": 66 }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "year_span", "value": [ "2016", "2026" ] }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "non_current_claims", "value": 0 } ], "subjectOf": [ { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2831040-030", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2831040-030", "text": "The pace of innovation is incompatible with existing regulatory approaches that demand comprehensive knowledge as a precondition for regulatory action, because innovation is too decentralized, too fast, and too pervasive.", "abstract": "the pace of innovation is incompatible with existing regulatory approaches that demand comprehensive knowledge as a basis for taking regulatory action because innovation is too decentralized, too fast, and too pervasive", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Dynamic Regulation for Innovation (2016). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2831040", "datePublished": "2016", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "regulatory approaches conditioned on comprehensive prior knowledge" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "de5156f14f44a5753cab55b6c4b03049eda58a143b99e08ef427aee1d261e1bf", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2922176-018", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2922176-018", "text": "Society is moving from a centralized infrastructure to a decentralized, unmediated, and interconnected one, and from vertical hierarchies to horizontal, open, and autonomous networks; this transition, not the short-term versus long-term debate, is the relevant frame for corporate governance.", "abstract": "Society is transitioning from a centralized infrastructure to a decentralized, unmediated, and interconnected infrastructure, from a world of vertical hierarchies to a world of horizontal, open, and autonomous networks.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, The ‘Unmediated’ and ‘Tech-Driven’ Corporate Governance of Today's Winning Companies (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2922176", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "driven and accelerated by rapid technological change" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "fa4e986917d437cb1504281e7b986be2698e9507d8feaf426c9d7d1754ca882c", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2922176-020", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2922176-020", "text": "Blockchain-based smart contracts in digital marketplaces are the technology most likely to extend and lead the decentralization of the relationship between businesses and their counterparties.", "abstract": "In particular, blockchain-based smart contracts in digital marketplaces are predisposed to extend and lead these decentralization changes.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, The ‘Unmediated’ and ‘Tech-Driven’ Corporate Governance of Today's Winning Companies (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2922176", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "predictive", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "further accelerated by the sharing economy, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "fa4e986917d437cb1504281e7b986be2698e9507d8feaf426c9d7d1754ca882c", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2922176-021", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2922176-021", "text": "Despite the obvious benefits of technology applications in corporate governance, the technological revolution has not yet produced wide acceptance of unmediated or decentralized corporate governance structures and practices.", "abstract": "the technological revolution has not yet precipitated a wide acceptance of more unmediated/decentralized corporate governance structures and practices.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, The ‘Unmediated’ and ‘Tech-Driven’ Corporate Governance of Today's Winning Companies (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2922176", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "as of 2017" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "fa4e986917d437cb1504281e7b986be2698e9507d8feaf426c9d7d1754ca882c", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2922176-025", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2922176-025", "text": "Even after recent reforms, the corporate governance framework remains framed in terms of hierarchy, which is why it fits poorly with looser and unmediated stakeholder relationships.", "abstract": "The corporate governance framework is still framed in terms of hierarchy, even after recent reforms.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, The ‘Unmediated’ and ‘Tech-Driven’ Corporate Governance of Today's Winning Companies (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2922176", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to the reform wave through 2017" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "fa4e986917d437cb1504281e7b986be2698e9507d8feaf426c9d7d1754ca882c", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2939127-008", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2939127-008", "text": "The decentralization of law pursued by Legal Tech startups has broad repercussions for the legal profession, the first of which is that existing legal services are rendered increasingly irrelevant or are replaced outright by Legal Tech.", "abstract": "The decentralization of law that is a central part of the startup companies' purpose and that disrupts existing legal practices has broad repercussions for the legal profession. First, existing legal services are rendered increasingly irrelevant or are replaced by Legal Tech.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, Legal Education in the Blockchain Revolution (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2939127", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "legal services amenable to online delivery, matching, AI review, or blockchain settlement" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "abcef529c7200261c59eec43018375b3b26e3186239fb9d002bacc298dba26ff", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2939127-016", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2939127-016", "text": "It is the completely decentralized network connectivity of the blockchain via the Internet, more than the use of digital signatures to establish party identity and authenticity, that provides the strongest protection against fraud.", "abstract": "While blockchain's use of digital signatures helps establish the identity and authenticity of the parties involved in the transaction, it is the completely decentralized network connectivity via the Internet that allows the most protection against fraud.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, Legal Education in the Blockchain Revolution (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2939127", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "fully decentralized, internet connected blockchain networks" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "abcef529c7200261c59eec43018375b3b26e3186239fb9d002bacc298dba26ff", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2939127-020", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2939127-020", "text": "Increased connectivity enabled by blockchain technology, combined with increased decentralization, allows the removal of intermediaries including lawyers, financial intermediaries, and platform companies.", "abstract": "Increased connectivity enabled by blockchain technology in combination with increased decentralization allows for the removal of intermediaries, including lawyers, financial intermediaries, and platform companies.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, Legal Education in the Blockchain Revolution (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2939127", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "environments where blockchain enabled connectivity and decentralization advance together" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "abcef529c7200261c59eec43018375b3b26e3186239fb9d002bacc298dba26ff", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2939127-035", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2939127-035", "text": "The traditional legal tool kit worked adequately when innovation cycles were long, but where innovation is exponential it is regularly out of touch with the radically different needs of a decentralized world and often produces disastrous outcomes.", "abstract": "This approach might have worked adequately when innovation cycles were longer, but in a world where innovations occur exponentially, the traditional legal tool kit is regularly out of touch with the radically different needs of a decentralized world.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, Legal Education in the Blockchain Revolution (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2939127", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "exponential rather than long innovation cycles", "decentralized technological environments" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "abcef529c7200261c59eec43018375b3b26e3186239fb9d002bacc298dba26ff", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2959730-017", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2959730-017", "text": "Blockchain removes fraudulent transactions primarily through completely decentralized network connectivity via the Internet, rather than through digital signatures alone, which only establish the identity and authenticity of the parties.", "abstract": "While blockchain's use of digital signatures helps establish the identity and authenticity of the parties involved in the transaction, it is the completely decentralized network connectivity via the Internet that allows the most protection against fraud.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Blockchain Applications and Fee Structure Developments in Private Investment Funds (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2959730", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized peer to peer networks with Internet connectivity" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "ebd86972d8817b0c1c80326ae5564476983cedba3f258ff3b2610f156b93fb50", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2959730-018", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2959730-018", "text": "The decentralized, fully distributed nature of the blockchain makes it practically impossible to reverse, alter, or erase information recorded in it.", "abstract": "The decentralized, fully-distributed nature of the blockchain makes it practically impossible to reverse, alter, or erase information in the blockchain.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Blockchain Applications and Fee Structure Developments in Private Investment Funds (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2959730", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "fully distributed networks where multiple copies are held by all participants" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "ebd86972d8817b0c1c80326ae5564476983cedba3f258ff3b2610f156b93fb50", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2992962-009", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2992962-009", "text": "A government cannot control a blockchain by pressuring individuals within its territory; it would need complete control of 51 percent of the anonymous global users before it could change any part of the code.", "abstract": "If the U.S. government attempted to exert power over the system by influencing any number of individuals within their jurisdiction, they would need complete control of 51% of the anonymous global users before they could change any part of the code.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Craig Calcaterra, Crypto Transaction Dispute Resolution (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2992962", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized public blockchains" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "80b92e67594394e38af41b769327936833de8e25d6cf3def966a6ba13bc83d17", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2998033-025", "identifier": "kaal:claim:2998033-025", "text": "Blockchain increases competitive pressure in the private investment fund industry because its decentralized model for financial transactions disintermediates and disrupts the existing financial infrastructure.", "abstract": "the structural characteristic of blockchain as a decentralized model for financial transactions disintermediates and disrupts the existing financial infrastructure.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Blockchain Innovation for Private Investment Funds (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2998033", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "aafb1be3c25cd33da477d759df9ca2f856f0a8fe133d6396da2e75d0af573dbd", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3002908-005", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3002908-005", "text": "Jurisdiction over the public blockchain does not exist within the present doctrinal infrastructure for jurisdiction, and in practice the blockchain cannot be regulated or governed because it is decentralized and autonomous.", "abstract": "More specifically, jurisdiction over the public blockchain does not exist within the present doctrinal infrastructure for jurisdiction. In practice, the blockchain itself cannot be regulated or governed because it is decentralized and autonomous.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Marco Dell'Erba, Blockchain Innovation in Private Investment Funds - A Comparative Analysis of the United States and (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3002908", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to public, permissionless blockchains rather than private or consortium ledgers with an identifiable operator" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "06a7b61e75f905ee07e422e875d83a65c5033a248a6e05a213523b034e5db534", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3002908-007", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3002908-007", "text": "Enforcement against the blockchain is unlikely to work because it is maintained and owned by a distributed group of anonymous users worldwide who would not likely recognize or comply with any legal authority.", "abstract": "The blockchain is entirely maintained and owned by a distributed group of anonymous users located throughout the planet who would not likely recognize or comply with any legal authority.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Marco Dell'Erba, Blockchain Innovation in Private Investment Funds - A Comparative Analysis of the United States and (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3002908", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "06a7b61e75f905ee07e422e875d83a65c5033a248a6e05a213523b034e5db534", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3002908-015", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3002908-015", "text": "Distributed networks disintermediate: because validation is distributed, a centralized validating entity such as a central bank or clearing house is not necessary to record and validate transactions.", "abstract": "Distributed networks disintermediate. The intermediation of a centralized validation entity (a central bank or a clearing-house) in charge of recording and validating the transactions is not necessary in a decentralized network.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Marco Dell'Erba, Blockchain Innovation in Private Investment Funds - A Comparative Analysis of the United States and (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3002908", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to decentralized distributed ledger designs" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "06a7b61e75f905ee07e422e875d83a65c5033a248a6e05a213523b034e5db534", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3067615-006", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3067615-006", "text": "The pre-ICO price of a cryptocurrency is set arbitrarily by the start-up team that structured the offering, while post-ICO price dynamics are left to supply and demand determined by the network of participants rather than any central authority.", "abstract": "A cryptocurrencies' *\"pre-ICO price\" is arbitrarily determined by the start-up team that structured the ICO, 24 whereas the post-ICO price dynamics are determined by supply and demand.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Marco Dell'Erba, Initial Coin Offerings Emerging Practices, Risk Factors, and Red Flags (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3067615", "datePublished": "2017", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "standard ICO pricing practice as of 2017" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "164ce15b9eb1e8847ebcb073f5b23a96b4974ad0308d77469a9455d4a1ebeb38", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3125822-024", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3125822-024", "text": "The platform becomes fully autonomous almost immediately after deployment, because once the Ethereum DApp is posted its authors have no more control over the evolution of the expertise tags than any other Ethereum user.", "abstract": "The platform achieves full autonomy almost immediately. Once the Ethereum DApp is posted to the blockchain, its authors have no more control over the evolution of the expertise tags in its forum than any other Ethereum user.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Vlad Andrei, Blockchain Infrastructure for Measuring Domain Specific Reputation in Autonomous Decentralized and A (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3125822", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "after the DApp is deployed to the blockchain" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "d4d0bbaa3260968226186131d60e6d64a53e904d94e4295c61fd17042f1191ef", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3125827-004", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3125827-004", "text": "Because all block creation fees are shared with the whole group as a reputation weighted salary, SPoS removes the direct monetary reward for forming mining pools or block production cartels, which the authors identify as a decentralization threat that raises the likelihood of 51% attacks.", "abstract": "Therefore, unlike every other implemented platform, there is no direct monetary reward incentive for creating mining pools or block production cartels, which are a threat to decentralization which increases the likelihood of 51% attacks.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Secure Proof of Stake Protocol (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3125827", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "fees distributed as a reputation weighted salary rather than paid to the producer" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "598d9bd95e4af7a0a35328677c6bfc069f69f2e32c30c720b3a0be98a23a40cb", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3125827-033", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3125827-033", "text": "If the bench institutes protocols for rejecting applicants through the validation pool, it gains both the incentive and the opportunity to block all new users entirely, so that existing bench members keep sharing all the fees among themselves.", "abstract": "Unfortunately this gives the incentive and opportunity for existing experts to completely block all new users, so the existing bench members share all the fees.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Secure Proof of Stake Protocol (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3125827", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "bench adopts admission screening for new experts" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "598d9bd95e4af7a0a35328677c6bfc069f69f2e32c30c720b3a0be98a23a40cb", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3128900-014", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3128900-014", "text": "Decentralized crypto market solutions can significantly optimize the existing mechanical turk market while simultaneously democratizing access to it.", "abstract": "Decentralized crypto market solutions for the existing mechanical turk market can provide significant optimization while democratizing market access.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Mechanical Turk Through Verified Reputation (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3128900", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "mechanical turk and micro task markets" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "381d72e85d976e2af852e8ec3bba87bc6a05ccb3349a2c3dd6f9e64de96ab4b0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3227933-010", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3227933-010", "text": "Blockchain extends what the Internet did for information: it makes it possible to transfer and exchange value and assets without traditional centralized intermediaries, by storing information in a decentralized, accessible and secure online environment.", "abstract": "The blockchain adds another dimension by making it possible to transfer and exchange value and assets without the involvement of traditional (centralized and authoritative) intermediaries. Blockchain technology achieves this by storing personal and other information in a decentralized", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P.M. Vermeulen, Why 'Blockchain' Will Disrupt Corporate Organizations (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3227933", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "a9e9660c4dc25a2202f1da4e762f5885256e05f68c53ca51942f5833a7a4c108", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3227933-011", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3227933-011", "text": "It is the decentralized character of the blockchain, that is the distribution of the ledger to countless nodes in peer-to-peer networks, rather than any other feature, that makes the technology potentially disruptive.", "abstract": "It is the decentralized character of the blockchain that makes it so potentially disruptive.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P.M. Vermeulen, Why 'Blockchain' Will Disrupt Corporate Organizations (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3227933", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "a9e9660c4dc25a2202f1da4e762f5885256e05f68c53ca51942f5833a7a4c108", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3227933-021", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3227933-021", "text": "In a truly decentralized system where code is law, any mistake such as a stolen or lost password or a programming bug is permanent and irrevocable, because there is no authority able to reverse it.", "abstract": "Remember that in a truly decentralized system, the code is law. This means that any mistakes (stolen/lost passwords, programming bugs, etc.) are permanent and irrevocable.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P.M. Vermeulen, Why 'Blockchain' Will Disrupt Corporate Organizations (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3227933", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "truly decentralized systems where code is law" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "a9e9660c4dc25a2202f1da4e762f5885256e05f68c53ca51942f5833a7a4c108", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3227933-028", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3227933-028", "text": "Personal happiness, freedom and expression can thrive better in a decentralized world only on the condition that the decentralized world provides a secure environment, which is why blockchain platforms attract people.", "abstract": "Personal happiness, freedom and expression can better thrive in a decentralized world, provided, of course, that it offers a secure environment. This is why so many people are intrigued and captured by blockchain platforms.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P.M. Vermeulen, Why 'Blockchain' Will Disrupt Corporate Organizations (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3227933", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "requires a secure environment" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "a9e9660c4dc25a2202f1da4e762f5885256e05f68c53ca51942f5833a7a4c108", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3227933-040", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3227933-040", "text": "The authors argue that the tipping point in experiments with decentralization has already been passed, so rather than affirming the centralized world or remaining trapped between the two realities, it is necessary to become actively involved in developing blockchain and smart contracts.", "abstract": "We have already passed the \"tipping point\" in our experiments with decentralization.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P.M. Vermeulen, Why 'Blockchain' Will Disrupt Corporate Organizations (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3227933", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "normative", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "a9e9660c4dc25a2202f1da4e762f5885256e05f68c53ca51942f5833a7a4c108", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3227967-032", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3227967-032", "text": "Existing blockchains and DAOs still lack genuine decentralization, and there are currently no true DAOs: Bitcoin's proof of work protocol has produced mining pools because of economies of scale and unbalanced reward structures.", "abstract": "In our discussion, the following weaknesses were highlighted. There is still a lack of decentralization (there are currently no \"true\" DAOs). For instance, Bitcoin's proof of work protocol has led to \"mining pools\" because of economies of scale and unbalanced reward structures.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P.M. Vermeulen, Legal Education in a Digital Age Why 'Coding for Lawyers' Matters (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3227967", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "proof of work blockchains as of 2018" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f6e13b956f864ab32ec3305d095a35a127770327d75b3688f785cefc437d369f", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3227967-034", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3227967-034", "text": "In a truly decentralized system any mistake, such as a stolen or lost password or a programming bug, is permanent and irrevocable.", "abstract": "Remember that in a truly decentralized system, any mistakes (stolen/lost passwords, programming bugs, etc.) are permanent and irrevocable.", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P.M. Vermeulen, Legal Education in a Digital Age Why 'Coding for Lawyers' Matters (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3227967", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "truly decentralized systems with no reversal authority" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f6e13b956f864ab32ec3305d095a35a127770327d75b3688f785cefc437d369f", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3227967-036", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3227967-036", "text": "The real design challenge for consensus protocols is to find a proof of stake protocol that offers both trust and security without unintentionally creating just another centralized validation system.", "abstract": "The students understood that the real challenge is to find a \"proof of stake\" protocol that offers both trust and security (without unintentionally creating just another centralized validation system).", "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P.M. Vermeulen, Legal Education in a Digital Age Why 'Coding for Lawyers' Matters (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3227967", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "blockchain consensus protocol design" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f6e13b956f864ab32ec3305d095a35a127770327d75b3688f785cefc437d369f", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3249860-004", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3249860-004", "text": "Decentralized solutions can challenge the basic assumptions of the theory of the firm, because the role of the firm changes if decentralized technology lowers the cost of using markets exponentially.", "abstract": "Decentralized solutions for human interaction can challenge the basic assumptions of the theory of the firm. In other words, the role of the firm may change if decentralized solutions help lower the cost of using markets exponentially.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Crypto Economics - The Top 100 Token Models Compared (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3249860", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "if decentralized solutions actually lower transaction costs for a significant portion of market transactions" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "72b13f11002ba26206cd53e74c324b913d1830c642bfa024da6bac0d3af3a7b0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3249860-040", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3249860-040", "text": "To date no blockchain coherently and comprehensively combines scale, security, and decentralization, the three objectives of the blockchain trilemma, although continued experimentation with consensus algorithms can help overcome it over time.", "abstract": "To date, no blockchain truly combines these three objectives coherently and comprehensively. Experimentation with different consensus algorithms can, over time, help overcome the blockchain trilemma.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Crypto Economics - The Top 100 Token Models Compared (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3249860", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "as of the study's 2018 data" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "72b13f11002ba26206cd53e74c324b913d1830c642bfa024da6bac0d3af3a7b0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3266953-013", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3266953-013", "text": "Reputation does not push a network toward centralization the way currency does, because reputation must be earned and can be lost yet cannot be turned into a fungible store of value exchangeable for goods.", "abstract": "Reputation as a metric and store of value does not suffer the same consequences described above and does not lead to centralization because it must be earned, it can be lost, yet it cannot be turned into a fungible store of value that allows the exchange for goods etc.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Gopinath Sivalingam, Reputation Protocol for the Internet of Trust - Conceptual Whitepaper (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3266953", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "reputation held as a non transferable metric" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "781758dea356e55d79c73ad7f1debe7c83de398bd1cd9e0a9a6c2802f276b4c0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3266953-024", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3266953-024", "text": "Because all fungible fees are already shared in proper proportion among Anchor holders, participants have less reason to join a mining pool, which makes the system more decentralized.", "abstract": "is less reason to join a mining pool, since all fungible fees are already shared in proper proportion, so it is more decentralized).", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Gopinath Sivalingam, Reputation Protocol for the Internet of Trust - Conceptual Whitepaper (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3266953", "datePublished": "2018", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "fee distribution proportional to Anchor token holdings" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "781758dea356e55d79c73ad7f1debe7c83de398bd1cd9e0a9a6c2802f276b4c0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3373393-022", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3373393-022", "text": "It is decentralized network connectivity via the Internet, rather than blockchain's use of digital signatures, that provides the most protection against fraud, because multiple copies of the blockchain are available to all participants across the distributed network.", "abstract": "blockchain's use of digital signatures helps establish the identity and authenticity of the parties involved in the transaction, it is the completely decentralized network connectivity via the Internet that allows the most protection against fraud.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Blockchain Solutions for Agency Problems in Corporate Governance (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3373393", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "fully distributed, decentralized networks" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "4d1424b9ba9aff8a61bc7a0dddd02cded93785e5843685dde76c07dcdb23961e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3373393-036", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3373393-036", "text": "The core issues that afflict centralized governance solutions, including information asymmetries, censorship, opportunism of agents, breaches of fiduciary duties, and fraud, can only be truly removed if and when a truly decentralized public blockchain emerges that is scalable and fully secure.", "abstract": "and fraud or third-party interference, can only be truly removed to fully reform the agency relationship if and when a truly decentralized public blockchain emerges that is scalable and fully secure.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Blockchain Solutions for Agency Problems in Corporate Governance (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3373393", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized rather than centralized blockchain implementations" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "4d1424b9ba9aff8a61bc7a0dddd02cded93785e5843685dde76c07dcdb23961e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3396522-003", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3396522-003", "text": "Significant failure of decentralization projects is not merely tolerable but necessary and useful, because failures are how appropriate use cases get explored during the immature phase of the technology.", "abstract": "Significant decentralization project failures are necessary and useful while appropriate use cases are being explored .", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Vadhindran K. Rao, Stable Cryptocurrencies (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3396522", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "normative", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "during the early, pre maturity phase of decentralization technology" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "ef5031b16aa53476ed618f0bdf92601cd4affb893692c701134bd9cba3ea8acf", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3396522-027", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3396522-027", "text": "Monetary policy for stable cryptocurrencies should combine hardcoded transparent rules with protocols enabling decentralized autonomous organizations, with decentralized but fully transparent policy DAOs functioning as the policy makers for what cannot be hardcoded.", "abstract": "monetary policy for cryptocurrencies can additionally be supported by protocols enabling decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).152 Decentralized but fully transparent policy DAOs can help function as policy makers.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Vadhindran K. Rao, Stable Cryptocurrencies (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3396522", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "depends on DAO governance designs that address expertise and incentive problems" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "ef5031b16aa53476ed618f0bdf92601cd4affb893692c701134bd9cba3ea8acf", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3396542-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3396542-001", "text": "Insurance underwriting as currently organized imposes significant costs and inefficiencies and erects high barriers to entry, and it provides no democratized access to the underwriting process or collective decision making on risk.", "abstract": "The insurance market is dominated by a few core players and subject to high barriers to entry for new market entrants. In the current system, democratized access to the underwriting process and collective decision making on risk does not exist.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Vadhindran K. Rao, Decentralized Underwriting (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3396542", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "ce2bda03a0b788ea3e7747f02c3c351ef7c808a41150d5cda34767bbe98800c0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3396542-034", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3396542-034", "text": "Trust requirements in the DAO are minimized by appropriately designed economic incentives rather than by intermediary reputation or regulation.", "abstract": "The need to trust is minimized by appropriately designed economic incentives.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Vadhindran K. Rao, Decentralized Underwriting (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3396542", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "ce2bda03a0b788ea3e7747f02c3c351ef7c808a41150d5cda34767bbe98800c0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3402701-026", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3402701-026", "text": "In a blockchain cryptocurrency, transaction taxes should be set to match the cost of running the network, meaning the cost of incentivizing enough nodes for the desired level of decentralization plus the cost of maintaining the coin's stability.", "abstract": "In a blockchain cryptocurrency, transaction taxes should match the cost of running the network, i.e., the cost required to incentivize a sufficient number of nodes to operate in order to maintain the level of decentralization desired", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Vadhindran K. Rao, Stable Cryptocurrencies - First Order Principles (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3402701", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "blockchain cryptocurrencies with node incentive costs" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "72ed2581b4cac2bd18a5b2640be959487a3cbc34c86ab5e5664924bcdb53c8e0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3402701-034", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3402701-034", "text": "Centralized hierarchies and decentralized flat organizations fail in opposite ways: hierarchies filter out information signals at the edge, while flat organizations amplify edge noise so important information never finds a champion to drive action.", "abstract": "Decentralized flat organizations have a tendency to fail from the inverse quality of amplifying the noise at the edge, so that important information cannot find its champion to lead to useful action", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Vadhindran K. Rao, Stable Cryptocurrencies - First Order Principles (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3402701", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "72ed2581b4cac2bd18a5b2640be959487a3cbc34c86ab5e5664924bcdb53c8e0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3402701-039", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3402701-039", "text": "Commonly held expressions of organizational values are essential to designing and implementing any governance structure and are far more important in decentralized organizations, which inherently have less motivational structure than centralized hierarchies.", "abstract": "such values are far more important in decentralized organizations, which inherently have less motivational structure than centralized hierarchies", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Vadhindran K. Rao, Stable Cryptocurrencies - First Order Principles (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3402701", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized organizations" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "72ed2581b4cac2bd18a5b2640be959487a3cbc34c86ab5e5664924bcdb53c8e0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3405401-015", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3405401-015", "text": "Although smart contracting in decentralized systems is perceived as creating trust through preordained coded coordination without agency problems, decentralized commerce is equally afflicted with trust issues.", "abstract": "While smart contracting in decentralized system can be perceived as creating trust through mathematical and coded — preordained coordination without agency problems, several factors suggest that decentralized commerce via decentralized solutions is equally afflicted with trust issues.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Commerce – A Primer on Why Decentralized Reputation Verification Systems Are Needed (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3405401", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "bc2d6f0ddc0852fb4085c4543c7c1dec19aaf8745eb67e3acc637e552bd7fb7d", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3405401-016", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3405401-016", "text": "Trust between counterparties in decentralized systems can only limitedly be assured by smart contracts, because the contract cannot verify the underlying qualities or future conduct of the parties.", "abstract": "Trust between counterparties in decentralized systems can only limitedly be assured by smart contracts.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Commerce – A Primer on Why Decentralized Reputation Verification Systems Are Needed (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3405401", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized systems with anonymous counterparties" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "bc2d6f0ddc0852fb4085c4543c7c1dec19aaf8745eb67e3acc637e552bd7fb7d", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3405401-022", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3405401-022", "text": "The transferability of the stores of value entailed in cryptocurrencies creates core points of attack and undermines the very nature of decentralization.", "abstract": "The transferability of stores of value entailed in cryptocurrencies creates core points of attack and undermines the very nature of decentralization.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Commerce – A Primer on Why Decentralized Reputation Verification Systems Are Needed (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3405401", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "cryptocurrencies and other transferable stores of value" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "bc2d6f0ddc0852fb4085c4543c7c1dec19aaf8745eb67e3acc637e552bd7fb7d", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3405401-025", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3405401-025", "text": "Reputation is the key ingredient that enables commerce, and it is precisely the ingredient that makes truly decentralized solutions possible.", "abstract": "In as much as reputation enables truly decentralized solutions reputation is also the key ingredient that enables commerce.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Commerce – A Primer on Why Decentralized Reputation Verification Systems Are Needed (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3405401", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "bc2d6f0ddc0852fb4085c4543c7c1dec19aaf8745eb67e3acc637e552bd7fb7d", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3405401-027", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3405401-027", "text": "Bitcoin proved that a decentralized system can automate the transfer of valuable digital currency without intermediaries and without a centralized authority for recourse, doing so efficiently, securely, cheaply and expeditiously.", "abstract": "Bitcoin proved that a decentralized system can automate the transfer of valuable digital currency without intermediaries, no centralized authority for recourse, efficiently, securely, cheaply, and expeditiously.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Commerce – A Primer on Why Decentralized Reputation Verification Systems Are Needed (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3405401", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "digital currency transfer, not general business logic" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "bc2d6f0ddc0852fb4085c4543c7c1dec19aaf8745eb67e3acc637e552bd7fb7d", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3406323-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3406323-001", "text": "Decentralized systems lack a central intelligence or leadership hierarchy; instead intelligence is distributed through the system and information enters at the edges, closer to where action occurs and where real time information is generated.", "abstract": "decentralized systems do not have a central intelligence or leadership system with traditional hierarchies. Instead, the intelligence is spread throughout the system.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization - A Primer on the New Economy (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3406323", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "existing decentralized systems" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "6293780b57a1ae1de17ec00f99cc94295d4f72ea4d08b17a5c08c44772b221db", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3406323-002", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3406323-002", "text": "Because information flow in decentralized systems is optimized through dynamic feedback effects, such systems mutate and change easily, which makes them more attack resistant and allows them to grow very quickly.", "abstract": "Decentralized systems can also very easily mutate and change because the information flow is optimized through dynamic feedback effects. As a result, such systems become more attack resistant on multiple levels.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization - A Primer on the New Economy (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3406323", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "6293780b57a1ae1de17ec00f99cc94295d4f72ea4d08b17a5c08c44772b221db", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3406323-008", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3406323-008", "text": "Every time decentralization emerges in a given industry, profit margins disappear, as demonstrated by Skype in telecommunications and by Napster and Emule in the music industry.", "abstract": "Historical evidence has demonstrated that every time decentralization emerges in a given industry, profit margins disappear.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization - A Primer on the New Economy (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3406323", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "evidenced", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "industries entered by decentralized systems", "historical examples predating decentralized blockchain technology" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "6293780b57a1ae1de17ec00f99cc94295d4f72ea4d08b17a5c08c44772b221db", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3411897-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3411897-001", "text": "Decentralization is not merely the redistribution of centrally organized authority or revenue, nor the delegation of centralized authority to managers at all organizational levels; the author stipulates these negative boundaries to separate decentralization from centralized reform.", "abstract": "Decentralization is not just the redistribution of centrally organized authority or redistribution of centrally collected revenue · Decentralization is not just the delegation of centralized authority to managers on all levels of an organization", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization - Past, Present, and Future (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3411897", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to the author's stipulated working definition of decentralization" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "82f0aea026b3e3a526ec51bc073b3b864dc06cd9083ff9c54c550037045edaa9", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3411897-002", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3411897-002", "text": "Decentralized systems have no central intelligence or hierarchical leadership; intelligence is instead spread throughout the system, and information filters in at the edges where the action is and where most real time information is created.", "abstract": "systems do not have a central intelligence or leadership system based on traditional hierarchies. Instead, the intelligence is spread throughout the system. Information and knowledge naturally filter in at the edges of the system", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization - Past, Present, and Future (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3411897", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to existing decentralized systems generally" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "82f0aea026b3e3a526ec51bc073b3b864dc06cd9083ff9c54c550037045edaa9", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3411897-003", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3411897-003", "text": "Decentralized systems mutate and change easily because their information flow is optimized through dynamic feedback effects, and this capacity to mutate is what makes them more attack resistant on multiple levels.", "abstract": "Decentralized systems can also very easily mutate and change because the information flow is optimized through dynamic feedback effects. As a result, such systems become more attack resistant on multiple levels.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization - Past, Present, and Future (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3411897", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "holds for systems whose information flow is genuinely distributed" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "82f0aea026b3e3a526ec51bc073b3b864dc06cd9083ff9c54c550037045edaa9", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3411897-004", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3411897-004", "text": "The five types of decentralization, governmental and regulatory, technological, organizational, market, and societal, are not independent: as one type proliferates it progressively affects the others through feedback effects, producing compounding change.", "abstract": "These five types of decentralization are each subject to iterative decentralization processes and affect each other by way of feedback effects. As one type proliferates, the other types are slowly but increasingly affected, leading to changes that, in turn, affect each other.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization - Past, Present, and Future (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3411897", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "applies across the five types the author identifies" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "82f0aea026b3e3a526ec51bc073b3b864dc06cd9083ff9c54c550037045edaa9", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3411897-038", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3411897-038", "text": "Historical evidence demonstrates that every time decentralization emerges in a given industry, profit margins disappear.", "abstract": "Historical evidence has demonstrated that every time decentralization emerges in a given industry, profit margins disappear.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization - Past, Present, and Future (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3411897", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "examples cited predate decentralized blockchain technology" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "82f0aea026b3e3a526ec51bc073b3b864dc06cd9083ff9c54c550037045edaa9", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3441904-008", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3441904-008", "text": "Decentralized systems become more attack resistant and grow quickly because their information flow is optimized through dynamic feedback effects, which lets them mutate and change very easily.", "abstract": "Decentralized systems can also very easily mutate and change because the information flow is optimized through dynamic feedback effects. As a result, such systems become more attack resistant on multiple levels.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Blockchain-Based Corporate Governance (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3441904", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "systems without a central intelligence or hierarchical leadership" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e6b562527f7f19accaa35491db0a0db168b6a936755e1dca424e9f30bee7a815", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3441904-029", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3441904-029", "text": "Facts based, ex post, trial and error rulemaking with stable and presumptively optimal rules is incompatible with the needs of decentralized systems, because knowledge filters in at the edges of such systems and cannot be encapsulated in a timely fashion.", "abstract": "Centralized governance via stable and presumptively optimal rules in an environment of decentralized smart contracting and DAOs further exacerbates the shortcomings of stable and presumptively optimal rules in centralized structures.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Blockchain-Based Corporate Governance (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3441904", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized smart contracting and DAO environments" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e6b562527f7f19accaa35491db0a0db168b6a936755e1dca424e9f30bee7a815", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3441904-032", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3441904-032", "text": "Traditional jurisdictional principles cannot directly apply to blockchain technology because the blockchain is merely a collection of agreed upon calculations by decentralized computer systems, and no particular node holds the entire blockchain.", "abstract": "Traditional jurisdictional principles cannot directly apply to blockchain technology because the blockchain is a mere collection of agreed-upon calculations by decentralized computer systems.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Blockchain-Based Corporate Governance (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3441904", "datePublished": "2019", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "public decentralized blockchains maintained by anonymous global users" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e6b562527f7f19accaa35491db0a0db168b6a936755e1dca424e9f30bee7a815", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3606663-003", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3606663-003", "text": "The expected growth rate of DeFi, across diverse estimates, is large enough to call into question the long term viability of the existing decentralized technology infrastructure unless core infrastructure improvements are made.", "abstract": "Normatively, the paper points out that the expected growth rate of the DeFi, according to diverse sets of estimates, is substantial enough to call into question the long-term viability of the decentralized technology infrastructure without core infrastructure improvements.", "citation": "Kaal, Digital Asset Market Evolution (2020). SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3606663", "datePublished": "2020", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized finance built on existing public blockchains", "growth continues at estimated rates" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "d1d4a15a293b715bb6a5a32e689f59c3a1587915039ba9a1cf4eeb8ee2a1e57c", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3606663-018", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3606663-018", "text": "Anonymity in decentralized networks imposes a specific design constraint: system architects need a special skillset to navigate the limits that anonymity places on system design, and that skillset remains very rare in the early 2020s.", "abstract": "The anonymity in decentralized networks requires a special skillset for system architects who know how to navigate the limitations in system design that is associated with anonymity.", "citation": "Kaal, Digital Asset Market Evolution (2020). SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3606663", "datePublished": "2020", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized networks with anonymous and autonomous participants", "incentive compatible token design" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "d1d4a15a293b715bb6a5a32e689f59c3a1587915039ba9a1cf4eeb8ee2a1e57c", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3606663-028", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3606663-028", "text": "DeFi's decentralization remains theoretical in one important respect: as of the early 2020s DeFi is still largely relegated to one dominant platform, with 87 percent of all publicly funded DeFi projects built on Ethereum.", "abstract": "At the beginning of the 2020s, DeFi is still largely relegated to the use of one dominant platform. 87% of all publicly funded DeFi projects have been built on Ethereum.", "citation": "Kaal, Digital Asset Market Evolution (2020). SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3606663", "datePublished": "2020", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "evidenced", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "publicly funded DeFi projects", "beginning of the 2020s" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "d1d4a15a293b715bb6a5a32e689f59c3a1587915039ba9a1cf4eeb8ee2a1e57c", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3606663-034", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3606663-034", "text": "In the early 2020s the DeFi technology infrastructure was insufficiently developed to support DeFi growth estimates and growth potential, and fulfilling that potential requires significant tradeoffs between scaling, security, and levels of decentralization.", "abstract": "In the early 2020s, the DeFi technology infrastructure was insufficiently developed to support DeFi growth estimates and growth potential.", "citation": "Kaal, Digital Asset Market Evolution (2020). SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3606663", "datePublished": "2020", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "DeFi infrastructure as of the early 2020s", "projected DeFi growth rates" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "d1d4a15a293b715bb6a5a32e689f59c3a1587915039ba9a1cf4eeb8ee2a1e57c", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3652481-007", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3652481-007", "text": "The longevity of a DAO depends on its ability to maintain the fluidity and decentralized order that existed in the DAO's initial stages.", "abstract": "The longevity of DAOs depends on their ability to maintain the fluidity and decentralized order that was possible in the initial stages of the DAO.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations – Internal Governance and External Legal Design (2020). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3652481", "datePublished": "2020", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "530b3a40c244aeca2eb4c53f4c9b4d6b2962bd6be9f92b4ebe17139c17f4c0e0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3652481-022", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3652481-022", "text": "Lasting legal solutions for DAOs must increase and maintain the decentralization already achieved inside the DAO, because DAOs cannot exist and persist without ever increasing degrees of decentralization.", "abstract": "Lasting legal solutions for DAOs have to increase and maintain the internal and external decentralization accomplished in the DAO. DAOs cannot exist and persist without ever increasing degrees of decentralization.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations – Internal Governance and External Legal Design (2020). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3652481", "datePublished": "2020", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "530b3a40c244aeca2eb4c53f4c9b4d6b2962bd6be9f92b4ebe17139c17f4c0e0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3652481-034", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3652481-034", "text": "Where a DAO's internal voting mechanism is centralized and burdened with legacy voting problems, any higher degree of decentralization achieved in its external legal design will typically be cancelled out over the long run.", "abstract": "For many attempts to create legal solutions, if the internal voting mechanism of a DAO is more centralized and afflicted with existing legacy voting issues, a higher degree of decentralization in the external legal design will typically be cancelled out in the long run.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations – Internal Governance and External Legal Design (2020). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3652481", "datePublished": "2020", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "the internal voting mechanism is centralized or uses legacy voting designs" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "530b3a40c244aeca2eb4c53f4c9b4d6b2962bd6be9f92b4ebe17139c17f4c0e0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3652481-035", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3652481-035", "text": "When the degrees of internal and external governance decentralization cancel each other out, the DAO is less likely to succeed in its decentralization attempt and correspondingly more likely to fail.", "abstract": "If the degrees of internal and external governance decentralization cancel each other out, the respective DAO is less likely to succeed in its decentralization attempt, which in turn makes it more likely for the DAO to fail.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations – Internal Governance and External Legal Design (2020). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3652481", "datePublished": "2020", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "530b3a40c244aeca2eb4c53f4c9b4d6b2962bd6be9f92b4ebe17139c17f4c0e0", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3709041-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3709041-001", "text": "Centralized coordination of behavior for the common good risks undermining individual effort, whereas blockchain technology's autonomous and anonymous decentralized coordination of individual action can deliver common good outcomes without suppressing individualism and its welfare enhancing effects.", "abstract": "While centralized common good coordination of human behavior risks undermining individual effort, blockchain technology's autonomous and anonymous decentralized network coordination of individual human action can help overcome the threat to individualism and its welfare enhancing effects.", "citation": "Kaal, Blockchain Technology for Good (2020). SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3709041", "datePublished": "2020", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "applies where common good objectives require coordinating many individuals" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "5216a7bca45a48e3bef11ec524936e66af737c0fd66271e9f6866dc20a4482cc", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3709041-004", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3709041-004", "text": "Power in a blockchain system is exercised through the consensus protocol, which places control of data with multiple networked parties and thereby creates checks and balances that prevent any single vested interest from controlling the system.", "abstract": "Power is exercised by way of blockchain's consensus protocol. The consensus protocol enables the control of data by multiple networked parties. It facilitates a system of checks and balances that prohibits any vested interest and control of the system.", "citation": "Kaal, Blockchain Technology for Good (2020). SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3709041", "datePublished": "2020", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "5216a7bca45a48e3bef11ec524936e66af737c0fd66271e9f6866dc20a4482cc", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3709041-041", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3709041-041", "text": "The long-term benefit of blockchain technology for the common good of humanity depends on decentralized infrastructure development; blockchain for good projects can only realize their potential as that underlying infrastructure emerges.", "abstract": "The long-term benefit of blockchain technology for the common good of humanity depends on decentralized infrastructure development.", "citation": "Kaal, Blockchain Technology for Good (2020). SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3709041", "datePublished": "2020", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "5216a7bca45a48e3bef11ec524936e66af737c0fd66271e9f6866dc20a4482cc", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-003", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-003", "text": "Unlike other societal transformations that require drawn out public debate, decentralization proceeds quietly, incrementally, and iteratively as a default solution because it builds on the existing centralized network infrastructure.", "abstract": "By contrast, the decentralization of business and society is mostly a quiet occurrence without much media attention that appears as a default solution based on the existing centralized network infrastructure.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralization of business and society", "compared with contested changes such as globalization" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-004", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-004", "text": "There is no single definition of decentralization: its meaning changes with the kind of decentralization, the industry or field, the application, and the overall context, so what applies to political decentralization may be irrelevant to technological decentralization.", "abstract": "The definition of decentralization changes based on the kind of decentralization, the industry or field, application, and the overall con- text.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "across political, technological, organizational, market, and societal decentralization" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-005", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-005", "text": "Because different kinds of decentralization have knock-on effects on one another, an adequate definition of decentralization requires an inclusive scope derived from its core characteristics rather than a domain specific formulation.", "abstract": "Accordingly, a definition of decentraliza- tion necessitates an inclusive scope that derives from its core characteristics.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "defining decentralization across domains" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-006", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-006", "text": "Defining decentralization through historically formed centralized perspectives is a contradiction in terms that undermines its true potential and limits the scope and scale of decentralized approaches.", "abstract": "Defining decentralization through historically formed centralized perspectives is a contradiction in terms. It undermines the true potential of decentralization.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "when centralized concepts are used as the frame for defining decentralization" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-007", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-007", "text": "Decentralization is not merely delegation, deconcentration, devolution, or the redistribution of centrally organized authority or centrally collected revenue; equating it with those terms misstates what decentralization is.", "abstract": "Termino- logically, decentralization is not just synonymous with delegation, deconcentration, disassortative, devolution, circulation, or partnership.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-008", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-008", "text": "The subsidiarity principle, which holds that issues should be addressed at the most immediate level consistent with their resolution, cannot by itself encapsulate the ontology and desirable outcomes of decentralization.", "abstract": "While local government may be closer to the concerns of the people and better able to respond to the preferences of its citizens, subsidiarity alone cannot encapsu- late the ontology and desirable outcomes of decentralization.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "subsidiarity as used in existing legal frameworks and European Union law" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-009", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-009", "text": "The degree of decentralization can be delineated by distinguishing logical decentralization, architectural or hardware decentralization, and political or governance decentralization, though some overlap among these concepts is unavoidable.", "abstract": "The degree of decentralization can be delineated by distinguishing several core con- cepts such as logical decentralization, architectural decentralization, and political de- centralization.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-011", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-011", "text": "Spontaneous order is less likely to emerge unconstrained from interactions dispersed across a system if that system has a power or information center.", "abstract": "Spontaneous order is less likely to emerge unconstrained from interactions dispersed across a sys- tem if the system has a power or information center.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "systems relying on emergent self-organizing behavior" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-014", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-014", "text": "Natural selection operates as a decentralized selection mechanism: no centralized authority determines which organisms survive, and the population with the most adaptable and heritable traits gains a natural comparative advantage without any centralized mechanism.", "abstract": "The natural selection of the most adaptable and survivable population char- acteristics materializes without a centralized mechanism.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "biological evolution as an analogy for decentralized systems" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-016", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-016", "text": "Decentralized systems depend on network effects, which occur when increasing numbers of participants in a network improve the value of network access for the entirety of users; however, a network's infrastructure can compromise its network effects and the associated user benefits.", "abstract": "Decentralized systems depend on network effects. Network effects occur when in- creasing numbers of participants or users in a given network improve the value of network access for the entirety of the users.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "networked decentralized systems" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-017", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-017", "text": "No guarantee exists in a decentralized system that the randomly generated information filtering in at the edges is accurate, as on Amazon and the internet generally where there is no real attempt to clean the data.", "abstract": "No guarantee exists in a decentralized system that the randomly-generated information is accurate. That is the case on Amazon and on the internet in general where there is no real attempt to clean the data.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized systems lacking verification infrastructure" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-023", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-023", "text": "Centralization and decentralization are foundationally different approaches: where centralization creates order, efficiency, and hierarchy out of presumptive chaos, decentralization thrives in perceived chaos, treats inefficiencies as opportunities, and frees the creative process.", "abstract": "Centralization and decentralization are foundationally different approaches. Where centralization attempts to make sense of and create order in presumptive chaos, de- centralization thrives in perceived chaos.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-028", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-028", "text": "Decentralized organizations outperform centralized ones precisely in the two circumstances where centralization fails: when choices multiply without bound and when novel crises arise.", "abstract": "Decentralized organizations thrive in both of these circumstances, when choices multiply without bound and when novel crises arise.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "unbounded choice environments", "novel crises" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782191-030", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782191-030", "text": "The most successful organizations choose a hybrid of centralization and decentralization that maximizes the strengths of each rather than occupying either extreme.", "abstract": "The most successful organizations choose a hybrid of centralization and decentraliza- tion which maximizes the strengths of each.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "b0bf0529c3cf69839879bc4da476714efee2717a4beb768bd5c859b810e6174e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782192-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782192-001", "text": "Human group coordination progresses through three stages: chaos, then decentralized organization, then centralized hierarchy. Decentralized organization is not a deviation but the natural intermediate stage between no organization and a completed hierarchy.", "abstract": "Human group coordination naturally progresses from the first stage, chaos (barbari- ans ravaging the landscape, \"Raahr!\"), to decentralized organization (\"Let's all agree to band together to defend ourselves from the barbarians\"), to centralized organiza- tion (\"Long live the king\").", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Introduction to Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782192", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "human group coordination and institutional development generally" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7eafd56cb8a8bd15b64cf58216bb655f939bdcc296387e362fd9191976d67ae", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782192-002", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782192-002", "text": "At the decentralized stage the individual nodes remain autonomous and the network assigns no fixed roles; coordination comes from alignment on a shared transcendental goal rather than from formal position, so that, as the authors put it, the values are the organization.", "abstract": "The individual nodes remain autonomous; the network does not have fixed roles for each member. But they are all responding to a higher calling as they unite in purpose.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Introduction to Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782192", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized stage of organization, before a hierarchy has formed" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7eafd56cb8a8bd15b64cf58216bb655f939bdcc296387e362fd9191976d67ae", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782192-018", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782192-018", "text": "Long-term organizational stability requires a dynamic governance system that can adapt the rules to changing circumstances, a requirement that holds for any organization but especially for decentralized ones.", "abstract": "The fact that any set of rules can be corrupted illustrates two necessities for the long-term stability of any organization, but especially for decentralized organiza- tions. First, a dynamic governance system must be designed that can adapt the rules to the circumstances.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Introduction to Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782192", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "organizations seeking long-term stability", "especially decentralized organizations" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7eafd56cb8a8bd15b64cf58216bb655f939bdcc296387e362fd9191976d67ae", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782192-023", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782192-023", "text": "Decentralized organizations thrive under exactly the changing circumstances that break centralized organizations, because information at the edge is naturally incorporated and communicated so the system can adapt to external threats.", "abstract": "Decentralized organizations, on the other hand, thrive under the types of changing circumstances that break centralized organizations. Information at the edge is natu- rally incorporated and communicated so the system can adapt to external threats.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Introduction to Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782192", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "changing or turbulent external environments" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7eafd56cb8a8bd15b64cf58216bb655f939bdcc296387e362fd9191976d67ae", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782192-024", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782192-024", "text": "Decentralization, though it may look wastefully redundant, gives every member greater autonomous power, whereas centralization limits members' powers and reduces them to cogs in the machine.", "abstract": "Decentralization, while it may be seen as wastefully redundant, gives every member greater autonomous power. Centralization limits its members' powers, reducing them to mere cogs in the machine.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Introduction to Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782192", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7eafd56cb8a8bd15b64cf58216bb655f939bdcc296387e362fd9191976d67ae", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782192-025", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782192-025", "text": "Advances in technology have given decentralized systems the efficiency they lacked in previous eras, the very deficiency that allowed them to be outcompeted by centralized systems; this is the book's central thesis.", "abstract": "The goal of this book is to show that advances in technology have given decentral- ized systems the efficiency they have lacked in previous eras and that allowed them to be outcompeted by centralized systems.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Introduction to Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782192", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "the current era of information technology" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7eafd56cb8a8bd15b64cf58216bb655f939bdcc296387e362fd9191976d67ae", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782192-026", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782192-026", "text": "Nothing external can destroy a decentralized organization: such organizations are invincible unless every single member loses adherence to the values that organized it in the first place.", "abstract": "What can destroy a decentralized organization? Nothing. Decentralized organiza- tions are invincible unless every single member loses their adherence to the values that organized it in the first place", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Introduction to Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782192", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized organizations whose members retain shared values" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7eafd56cb8a8bd15b64cf58216bb655f939bdcc296387e362fd9191976d67ae", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782192-034", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782192-034", "text": "Large decentralized networks such as national democracies do not make fundamental changes easily, because stability is their primary quality.", "abstract": "Large decentralized networks, like national democracies, don't make fundamental changes easily. Stability is their pri- mary quality.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Introduction to Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782192", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "large decentralized networks such as national democracies" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7eafd56cb8a8bd15b64cf58216bb655f939bdcc296387e362fd9191976d67ae", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-006", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782193-006", "text": "Europe, unlike Imperial China, used the printing press to decentralize knowledge rather than to centralize power, and this different application of the same information technology produced a cultural transformation that undermined Europe's centralized powers.", "abstract": "Europe started its own printing presses a few centuries later. Instead of using the press to centralize power like the Chinese Empire did, Europe's use of the printing press greatly decentralized knowledge.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782193", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "Europe after the introduction of movable type", "comparison with Chinese use of printing" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "74df9cc9a19a098bdacd0424a4174795f6e184f7a31c8ee7541195186701ebd2", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-007", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782193-007", "text": "The unstoppable power of decentralization is threatened by unregulated competition for profits, but it can be maintained even in extreme circumstances by a secure and meaningful reputational system.", "abstract": "The \"unstoppable power of decentralization\" is threatened by unregulated competition for profits, but can be maintained in the most extreme circumstances by a secure and meaningful reputa- tional system.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782193", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized organizations exposed to profit competition", "requires the reputation system to be secure and meaningful" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "74df9cc9a19a098bdacd0424a4174795f6e184f7a31c8ee7541195186701ebd2", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-019", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782193-019", "text": "The lesson the authors draw from Imperial China and Pharaonic Egypt is that decentralization of power and individual autonomy give long-term stability when the society also has unifying ideals it can believe in.", "abstract": "The lesson of Im- perial China, and Pharaonic Egypt before it, is that decentralization of power, individ- ual autonomy, gives long-term stability when there are unifying ideals that the society can believe in.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782193", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "normative", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "requires unifying ideals the society believes in" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "74df9cc9a19a098bdacd0424a4174795f6e184f7a31c8ee7541195186701ebd2", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-021", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782193-021", "text": "Decentralized organizations naturally respond to information at the edge and are energized rather than weakened when their leaders are attacked, because decentralized rebellions are strengthened by the loss of leaders who become martyrs.", "abstract": "Decentralized organizations naturally respond to \"information at the edge\". They are energized when leaders are attacked. Decentral- ized rebellions are strengthened by the loss of their leaders, who become martyrs.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782193", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "organizations without a fixed leadership hierarchy" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "74df9cc9a19a098bdacd0424a4174795f6e184f7a31c8ee7541195186701ebd2", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-023", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782193-023", "text": "A decentralized organization cannot be conquered by attacking it from the outside: when attacked, the group merely decentralizes further, and its members become more autonomous and more devoted to the founding principles of the organization.", "abstract": "This illustrates that a decentralized organization cannot be conquered by attacking it from the out- side. When you do, the group merely decentralizes further. Members become more autonomous and more devoted to the principles upon which the organization was founded.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782193", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "external coercive attack on a politically decentralized group" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "74df9cc9a19a098bdacd0424a4174795f6e184f7a31c8ee7541195186701ebd2", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-024", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782193-024", "text": "The Spanish strategy of capturing or killing a group's leader, which succeeded against the Aztec and Incan empires, was impossible to apply to the Apaches because they had no static, official rulers and no rigid power hierarchy to manipulate.", "abstract": "The Apaches had no static, official rulers, which made it impossible for the Spanish to replay their strategy of killing or controlling the leader of each new territory they invaded. The Apaches had no rigid power hierarchy to manipulate.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782193", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "evidenced", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "Spanish colonial expansion in the Americas", "groups whose leadership is by example rather than coercion" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "74df9cc9a19a098bdacd0424a4174795f6e184f7a31c8ee7541195186701ebd2", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-034", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782193-034", "text": "Focusing rewards on reputation rather than on immediately fungible cash encourages decentralized organization because it disperses power fairly: anyone with equivalent talent is equally acceptable, those already employed are unavailable, and the exponential rich-get-richer concentration of power is diminished.", "abstract": "Finally, a focus on reputation instead of immediately fungible cash rewards encour- ages decentralized organization because it disperses power, and it does so fairly.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782193", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "networks that reward members with reputation rather than immediate cash" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "74df9cc9a19a098bdacd0424a4174795f6e184f7a31c8ee7541195186701ebd2", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-035", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782193-035", "text": "The Articles of Confederation were consciously written to limit the authority of a weak central government with no chief executive, and this made the American war effort difficult because the organization was very inefficient at marshalling resources.", "abstract": "These Articles were consciously authored to limit the authority of its weak central government which had no chief executive. This made the war effort difficult because it meant the organization was very inefficient at marshalling resources.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782193", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "the Thirteen Colonies during the seven years of rebellion" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "74df9cc9a19a098bdacd0424a4174795f6e184f7a31c8ee7541195186701ebd2", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782198-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782198-001", "text": "Social media platform owners do not know and cannot choose which content will matter; the answers are held in the behavior of the network of users, and the companies merely monitor network transactions and analyze them statistically with automated algorithms.", "abstract": "The network of users has the answers in their members' behavior. The social media companies simply monitor the networks' transactions and statistically analyze the information with automated algorithms.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Contemporary Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782198", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to Web 2.0 platforms whose value derives from user generated content and behavior" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7e1378e3eed06cace6534e7792a7307d607d18bc6beb4ac45896476280728e4", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782198-002", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782198-002", "text": "Rapid movement of edge knowledge into the mainstream via social media is not costless: it can dissolve existing societal consensus, social cohesion among established groups, and order in the process.", "abstract": "Similarly, knowledge and views from the edges of society can be moved into societal mainstream very quickly via social media. This transfer can remove existing societal consensus, social cohesion among established groups, and order in the process.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Contemporary Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782198", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7e1378e3eed06cace6534e7792a7307d607d18bc6beb4ac45896476280728e4", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782198-024", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782198-024", "text": "Bitcoin proved that a decentralized peer to peer network can manage valuable assets without a central authority, but the centralizing force of competition concentrated power anyway, as economies of scale produced large mining farms in place of millions of individual members maintaining the ledger.", "abstract": "But the centralizing forces of competition led to concentration of power in the Bitcoin network, as econo- mies of scale led to large computer farms devoted to mining for bitcoins, instead of millions of individual network members maintaining the ledger on their laptops.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Contemporary Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782198", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to proof of work networks where mining rewards create economies of scale" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7e1378e3eed06cace6534e7792a7307d607d18bc6beb4ac45896476280728e4", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782198-026", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782198-026", "text": "Decentralization is most valuable in chaotic times because the most talented members for a task are not blocked by a rigid hierarchy, unlike bureaucracies that respond to new problems with an outdated structure.", "abstract": "Second, decentralization is ideal in chaotic times, when technology and business arrangements are continually changing. The most talented members for any task are not blocked by a rigid hierarchy.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Contemporary Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782198", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "holds when technology and business arrangements are continually changing" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7e1378e3eed06cace6534e7792a7307d607d18bc6beb4ac45896476280728e4", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782198-028", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782198-028", "text": "Hash functions let a leaderless network reach consensus on identity and ordering, because every node independently hashes a transaction's data and deterministically arrives at the same unique identifier that everyone recognizes.", "abstract": "Thanks to the hash function, every node in the network hashes the transaction's data and independently arrives at the same an- swer, giving the transaction a unique ID that everyone recognizes.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Contemporary Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782198", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "requires all nodes to run the same deterministic hash protocol" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e7e1378e3eed06cace6534e7792a7307d607d18bc6beb4ac45896476280728e4", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782201-002", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782201-002", "text": "Effective decentralized DAO governance necessitates reputation verification systems.", "abstract": "We believe that effective decentralized DAO governance necessitates reputation verification systems.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Future of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782201", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "bedf7bcfbb7a9b0112b5848cb0d941b1d41f330dafeee0143a30ff5e8aa53700", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782201-029", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782201-029", "text": "Regulatory approaches of the early 2020s largely undermined the evolution of decentralized technology, because decentralized solutions at their core negate external control, censorship, and oversight while the legal initiatives treated government control as indispensable.", "abstract": "Yet, decentralized technology solutions, at their core, negate external control, censorship, and oversight. Accordingly, the then-proposed approaches largely under- mined the evolution of decentralized technology.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Future of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782201", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "United States regulatory initiatives of the early 2020s focused on securities tokens" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "bedf7bcfbb7a9b0112b5848cb0d941b1d41f330dafeee0143a30ff5e8aa53700", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782201-030", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782201-030", "text": "The more decentralized products are, meaning more censorship resistant, autonomous, and beyond regulatory control, the more they are left in a regulatory vacuum, and the resulting legal uncertainty limits their expansion, reach, and evolution.", "abstract": "As a result, the more decen- tralized products that are more censorship resistant, autonomous, and cannot be con- trolled by regulatory agencies, are largely left in a regulatory vacuum. The associated legal uncertainty limits their expansion, reach, and evolution.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Future of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782201", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "people coins as distinct from government coins and corporate coins" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "bedf7bcfbb7a9b0112b5848cb0d941b1d41f330dafeee0143a30ff5e8aa53700", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782201-040", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782201-040", "text": "Because we are reared in a centralized world we reflexively turn to centralized solutions, but a decentralized approach is more effective for global problems, since decentralized networks encourage interoperability through bureaucratic transparency and thereby integrate data better than a single dictating source.", "abstract": "Reared in a centralized world, we reflexively turn to centralized solutions. But a decentralized approach is more effective for such global problems. Decentralized networks encourage interoperability through bureaucratic transparency.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Future of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782201", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "global crises demanding coordination of many people's information" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "bedf7bcfbb7a9b0112b5848cb0d941b1d41f330dafeee0143a30ff5e8aa53700", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782203-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782203-001", "text": "Any set process or set of rules that can ever be designed will ultimately fail to secure a network for all time, so no static rule set can serve as the permanent foundation of a DAO.", "abstract": "A core precept for the creation of DAOs is the recognition that any set process or set of rules that can ever be designed will ultimately fail to secure a network for all time.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, A Technical Perspective on Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782203", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized networks", "open global membership", "anonymous participation" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "ab8a22d0dbb026a09212a4c85963f3c05787cf80775e8613ae3724e3883e7a56", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782203-007", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782203-007", "text": "Because decentralized organizations have no leaders and no hierarchy of control, any governance process must be instituted from the very beginning; it cannot be added later by an authority.", "abstract": "Since decentralized organizations don't have leaders or a hierarchy of control, any governance process must be instituted from the very beginning.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, A Technical Perspective on Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782203", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "leaderless decentralized organizations" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "ab8a22d0dbb026a09212a4c85963f3c05787cf80775e8613ae3724e3883e7a56", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782205-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782205-001", "text": "A radically decentralized economy cannot be achieved incrementally: eight institutional problems that centralized business solved centuries ago must all be solved simultaneously, and their solutions must be integrated with one another.", "abstract": "Before the vision of a radically decentralized economy can be achieved, engineers and architects need to solve eight big problems that business solved centuries ago. All eight problems need to be solved simultaneously, and the solutions need to be inte- grated with each other.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Eight Institutions for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782205", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to a decentralized economy intended to replace centralized institutions" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "5ba52c63e81019b6867fb29c4a50821ff574e510d79b31b8ce9f4c726a0ebc71", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782205-003", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782205-003", "text": "Prototypes exist for only two of the eight required institutions, decentralized currency in Bitcoin and distributed computation for smart contracts in Ethereum, and most of the rest are still missing.", "abstract": "Engineers have managed to prototype two of the solutions: decentralized cur- rency (Bitcoin) and the distributed computing needed to make smart contracts (Ethereum). We're still missing most of them.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Eight Institutions for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782205", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "state of the field as of 2021" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "5ba52c63e81019b6867fb29c4a50821ff574e510d79b31b8ce9f4c726a0ebc71", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782205-005", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782205-005", "text": "Decentralizing the power structures of core institutions improves them in both effectiveness and efficiency, because decentralization supplies transparency and liquidity.", "abstract": "All of these institutions will be improved, in effectiveness and efficiency, due to the benefits of transparency and liquidity provided by decentralizing their power structures.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Eight Institutions for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782205", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "5ba52c63e81019b6867fb29c4a50821ff574e510d79b31b8ce9f4c726a0ebc71", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782205-010", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782205-010", "text": "Digital information storage makes decentralization newly viable because every participant can hold the authoritative record of the organization's entire history, removing the need for a central authority over the record.", "abstract": "Digital information storage, which allows each person to be the authoritative holders of the entire organization's history. No centralized authority is needed to be in charge of the record.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Eight Institutions for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782205", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "5ba52c63e81019b6867fb29c4a50821ff574e510d79b31b8ce9f4c726a0ebc71", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782205-011", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782205-011", "text": "Networked communication makes complete bureaucratic transparency possible, because every member of an organization can connect immediately with every other member worldwide at speed and low cost.", "abstract": "Networked communication from the internet allows each member of the organi- zation to immediately connect with every other member on the globe. Complete bu- reaucratic transparency is possible as global communication is speedy and affordable.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Eight Institutions for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782205", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "5ba52c63e81019b6867fb29c4a50821ff574e510d79b31b8ce9f4c726a0ebc71", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782205-014", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782205-014", "text": "The largest and most decentralized organizations of the present are non-profits, which is evidence that decentralized organizations have historically struggled to survive economic success.", "abstract": "The largest and most decentralized organizations of the present are non-profit (e.g.,", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Eight Institutions for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782205", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "organizational landscape as of 2021" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "5ba52c63e81019b6867fb29c4a50821ff574e510d79b31b8ce9f4c726a0ebc71", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782205-015", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782205-015", "text": "Decentralized organizations can survive economic success, because current digital tools permit secure and efficient accounting of high transaction volumes so that money can be shared appropriately without centralized dictators arbitrating the dispersal of funds.", "abstract": "They allow secure and efficient accounting of voluminous transactions that happen in a decentralized network, so that money can be shared appropriately in an organization without resorting to centralized dicta- tors arbitrating the dispersal of funds.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Eight Institutions for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782205", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "requires the digital storage, computation, networking, cryptography, and distributed computing tools described" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "5ba52c63e81019b6867fb29c4a50821ff574e510d79b31b8ce9f4c726a0ebc71", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782205-016", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782205-016", "text": "If an organization's goal is to maintain decentralization, its tools must be used deliberately to prevent the natural concentration of power that occurs when economic inefficiencies create pockets of corruption where rent-seeking actors accumulate.", "abstract": "If, however, the goal of the organization is to maintain decentralization (assuming that is preferable), then these tools must be used wisely to prevent the natural concentration of power that occurs when inefficiencies in the economy allow pockets of corruption to accumulate rent-seeking actors.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Eight Institutions for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782205", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "assumes maintaining decentralization is the organization's goal" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "5ba52c63e81019b6867fb29c4a50821ff574e510d79b31b8ce9f4c726a0ebc71", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782205-034", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782205-034", "text": "Underwriting, like policing, can be decentralized and automated, which gives each network member the power to choose the level of security they require.", "abstract": "can be decentralized and automated, giving each member the power to control the level of security they require.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Eight Institutions for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782205", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "5ba52c63e81019b6867fb29c4a50821ff574e510d79b31b8ce9f4c726a0ebc71", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782210-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782210-001", "text": "Reputation, not money, is the proper incentive for motivating the most efficient cooperation and long-term stability in business.", "abstract": "Reputation is the proper incentive, instead of money, for motivating the most ef- ficient cooperation and long-term stability in business.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Reputation for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782210", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "normative", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "business and commercial organizations", "settings where long-term cooperation is the goal" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9cc531ab239f6266c8aeddcc8e54f4c06029c44e825444bee137bbcc0c9d0a8e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782210-010", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782210-010", "text": "Reducing member anonymity weakens rather than strengthens a decentralized network, because personal privacy protects members and lets them be more transparent in their dealings without fear of victimization.", "abstract": "Further, lessening the anonymity of your members weakens the power of the de- centralized network. Personal privacy protects your members, so it's more secure.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Reputation for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782210", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "open decentralized networks" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9cc531ab239f6266c8aeddcc8e54f4c06029c44e825444bee137bbcc0c9d0a8e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782210-012", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782210-012", "text": "The proper solution to reputation security is to give members themselves the power to police their own reputation, because the leading experts in a field are best equipped to invent the regulations for policing their own industry and are best incentivized to defend their own reputation and future profits.", "abstract": "The proper solution is to give your members more power over their reputation. Give the members themselves the power to police their own reputation.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Reputation for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782210", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized networks of domain experts" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9cc531ab239f6266c8aeddcc8e54f4c06029c44e825444bee137bbcc0c9d0a8e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782210-029", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782210-029", "text": "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.", "abstract": "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.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Reputation for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782210", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "democratic decentralized organizations", "especially profit-devoted and therefore competitive ones" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9cc531ab239f6266c8aeddcc8e54f4c06029c44e825444bee137bbcc0c9d0a8e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782210-030", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782210-030", "text": "Fair accounting and transparency in reputation promote decentralization, because customers who can reliably compare reputation harness the available talent rather than waiting for the most talented provider to become free, which keeps reputation differences from accumulating.", "abstract": "Fair accounting and transparency in reputation promotes decentralization. When customers can reliably compare reputation, they are able to harness the available tal- ent, instead of waiting for the most talented to become available.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Reputation for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782210", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "customers can observe and compare member reputations" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9cc531ab239f6266c8aeddcc8e54f4c06029c44e825444bee137bbcc0c9d0a8e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782210-032", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782210-032", "text": "Because reputation tokens are constantly created, the reputation economy is inflationary, and a member with very high reputation must do proportionally more work merely to maintain the disparity, which makes reputation less likely to concentrate and acts as a natural counterbalance to accumulation of individual power.", "abstract": "If one member happens to have a very high reputation, they need to do proportionally more work to maintain the disparity, making reputation less likely to concentrate when people have comparable talent.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Reputation for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782210", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "steady state growth, not exponential growth of customers", "members of comparable talent" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9cc531ab239f6266c8aeddcc8e54f4c06029c44e825444bee137bbcc0c9d0a8e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782210-043", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782210-043", "text": "Giving all people more power produces a liquid meritocracy in which leaders are continually rediscovered immediately where and when they are needed, and secure meaningful reputation gives that meritocracy momentum and history.", "abstract": "By giving all people more power, we create a system where leaders are continu- ally rediscovered immediately where and when they are needed—we create a liquid meritocracy.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Reputation for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782210", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "predictive", "confidence": "speculative", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "secure and meaningful decentralized reputation is in place" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9cc531ab239f6266c8aeddcc8e54f4c06029c44e825444bee137bbcc0c9d0a8e", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782214-005", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782214-005", "text": "No major blockchain is entirely decentralized, because all of them lack binding, coded, anonymous peer to peer governance; on chain and off chain governance experiments to date fall short of that standard.", "abstract": "At the moment, however, no major blockchain is entirely decentral- ized, because they all lack pure binding coded PCP anonymous governance.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Governance (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782214", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "evidenced", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "as of the time of writing" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "ba892bb200c1455447c0014f5067a501a93ea9ec413c31942d95952eb3bdfd9d", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782214-007", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782214-007", "text": "The absence of a governance process is especially dangerous for peer to peer platforms precisely because decentralized organizations find it extremely difficult to change their rules once established.", "abstract": "The lack of governance is especially dangerous for these PCP platforms, because it is extremely difficult for decentralized organizations to change their rules.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Governance (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782214", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "large decentralized networks with distributed power" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "ba892bb200c1455447c0014f5067a501a93ea9ec413c31942d95952eb3bdfd9d", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782216-003", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782216-003", "text": "Blockchain transactions will always be expensive compared with other peer to peer transactions, because blockchain data must be stored eternally and redundantly on as many machines as possible to support decentralization.", "abstract": "Blockchain transactions will always be expensive compared with other P9P trans- actions. Blockchain transactions are required to be stored eternally and redundantly on as many machines as possible to aid decentralization.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782216", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "f1739743aa06bbc1641cd65da790d531b69d8628ea3f5cc3fcad1bf5a1242373", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782216-006", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782216-006", "text": "Maintaining consensus without a central authority forces a reputation system to verify members' votes extremely redundantly, which imposes serious computational overhead.", "abstract": "In order to maintain consensus in a decentralized network, with no central authority to check in with, a reputational system needs to verify each others' votes extremely redundantly, which leads to serious overhead costs in computation.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782216", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized networks with no central authority" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f1739743aa06bbc1641cd65da790d531b69d8628ea3f5cc3fcad1bf5a1242373", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782216-019", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782216-019", "text": "Decentralization empowers knowledge at the edge: individuals with fine grained information about their neighbors and community can make better underwriting decisions than a centralized hierarchy can.", "abstract": "Decentralization empowers knowledge at the edge. Individ- uals with more fine-grained information about their neighbors and community can make better underwriting decisions than a centralized hierarchy can.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782216", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "f1739743aa06bbc1641cd65da790d531b69d8628ea3f5cc3fcad1bf5a1242373", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782216-020", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782216-020", "text": "Concentration of power, especially monopolies or trusts, decreases market liquidity, while decentralization of power improves it.", "abstract": "Concentration of power (especially monopolies or trusts) decreases liquidity; decentralization of power improves liquidity.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782216", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "f1739743aa06bbc1641cd65da790d531b69d8628ea3f5cc3fcad1bf5a1242373", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782217-024", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782217-024", "text": "Contrary to the common fear, wide scale decentralization of media power will not collapse centralized corporations, just as Napster and BitTorrent did not collapse the centralized music companies; decentralization does not take power from centralized actors, it increases everyone's power.", "abstract": "Wide scale decentralization of power in the media will not collapse the power of centralized corporations, any more than file sharing services like Napster and Bit- Torrent6 collapsed the power of the centralized music companies.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of History In Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782217", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "incumbents willing to participate in the new collaborative networks" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "358779557d8e7dcd101720ca0fad90b9146d24f1c7c03909eb431fcf1fb7e103", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782220-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782220-001", "text": "Strong unifying values are the institution most essential to the long-term stability of a decentralized organization, and they demand continual reevaluation rather than one-time specification.", "abstract": "This final essential institution is the most important for long-term stability, and demands eternal reevaluation. Decentralized organizations require strong unifying values to remain coherent.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Transcendental Unifying Values for Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782220", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized organizations", "long time horizons" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f0bf1e80c6da60a6f8ba20630562bdf1dab171ccb5267f497dc0b815113cde99", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782220-002", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782220-002", "text": "Because a single global society is emerging in which everyone is densely interconnected, the more efficient and stable arrangement is power decentralization giving individuals and subgroup DAOs autonomous power, not a single power-centralized hierarchy controlling the whole.", "abstract": "the better, more efficient, more stable state of this global society is an organi- zation that is power decentralized, giving individuals and subgroup DAOs more auton- omous power to contribute to the health and wealth and happiness of all.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Transcendental Unifying Values for Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782220", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "globally interconnected society" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f0bf1e80c6da60a6f8ba20630562bdf1dab171ccb5267f497dc0b815113cde99", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782220-024", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782220-024", "text": "Individual autonomy and group cohesion reinforce rather than substitute for each other: the network effect is achieved only when individuals subsume their freedom to act in concert with the group, and diminishing one quality diminishes the other.", "abstract": "The network effect is only achieved when individuals subsume their freedom to act in concert with the group. Again, both individual autonomy and group cohesion need to be balanced to increase both qualities. Diminishing one diminishes the other.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Transcendental Unifying Values for Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782220", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "network organizations" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f0bf1e80c6da60a6f8ba20630562bdf1dab171ccb5267f497dc0b815113cde99", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782220-027", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782220-027", "text": "A long-term successful network requires a dynamic and responsive governance system that keeps the organization in the decentralized democratic realm and prevents it from moving to the next natural stage of centralized governance with a static hierarchy.", "abstract": "A long-term successful network requires a dynamic and responsive system of gov- ernance to keep the organization in the decentralized, democratic realm, and prevents it from moving to the next natural stage of centralized governance with a static hier- archy.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Transcendental Unifying Values for Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782220", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "long-term network survival" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f0bf1e80c6da60a6f8ba20630562bdf1dab171ccb5267f497dc0b815113cde99", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782220-033", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782220-033", "text": "Science is politically decentralized because no person, university, institution, or nation controls whether a theory becomes established fact, yet this global Science DAO is highly protocol centralized around objective universal truth.", "abstract": "Science as a globally open discipline is extremely decentralized politically. No per- son, university, institution, or nation has monopoly control over whether any theory becomes established scientific fact. But this global Science DAO is very protocol cen-", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Transcendental Unifying Values for Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782220", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "science as a globally open discipline" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f0bf1e80c6da60a6f8ba20630562bdf1dab171ccb5267f497dc0b815113cde99", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782220-036", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782220-036", "text": "Decentralization requires every member to participate in constructing the organization's values, since a decentralized network is only as strong as its members and the environment it exists in.", "abstract": "Decentralization requires every member to participate in the construction of those values. A decentralized network is only as strong as its members and the envi- ronment it exists in.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Transcendental Unifying Values for Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782220", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized networks" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f0bf1e80c6da60a6f8ba20630562bdf1dab171ccb5267f497dc0b815113cde99", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782220-037", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782220-037", "text": "Because a decentralized organization does not coerce its members as centralized organizations do, its power is determined by how devoted its members are to its values, and its power is its power to unite in service to the goal of shared values.", "abstract": "The power of a DAO is its power to unite in service to the goal of shared values. In a decentralized organization, which doesn't coerce its mem- bers like centralized organizations, its power is determined by how devoted its mem- bers are to its values.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Transcendental Unifying Values for Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782220", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "non-coercive decentralized organizations" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f0bf1e80c6da60a6f8ba20630562bdf1dab171ccb5267f497dc0b815113cde99", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782220-038", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782220-038", "text": "The strength of a decentralized organization is measured by summing the power of each member in their individual autonomy, modified by the group's ability to organize and effect its goals in the larger society.", "abstract": "The strength of a decentralized organization is measured by sum- ming the power of each member in their individual autonomy, but this is modified by the ability of the group to organize and effect its goals in the larger society.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Transcendental Unifying Values for Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782220", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized organizations" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f0bf1e80c6da60a6f8ba20630562bdf1dab171ccb5267f497dc0b815113cde99", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782220-039", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782220-039", "text": "Decentralized organizations demand more from their members and return more autonomous power and profit, whereas centralized organizations shelter members in a niche and limit and stultify their power in exchange for security.", "abstract": "Decentralized organizations demand more from their members and return more, in autonomous power and profit. Centralized organizations shelter their members within a niche in a hierarchy. Centralized organizations limit the power of their mem- bers, stultifying them,", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Transcendental Unifying Values for Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782220", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "f0bf1e80c6da60a6f8ba20630562bdf1dab171ccb5267f497dc0b815113cde99", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782220-040", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782220-040", "text": "Decentralized organizations are only as stable as their autonomous members' adherence to their ideals, and that same autonomy makes members individually responsible for constructing, nourishing, and revitalizing those unifying ideals continually.", "abstract": "They're as stable as their autonomous members' adherence to their ideals. But their very autonomy requires the members to construct the unifying ideals for themselves. They are individually responsible for nourishing and revitalize those unifying ideals, continually.", "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Transcendental Unifying Values for Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782220", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized organizations" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f0bf1e80c6da60a6f8ba20630562bdf1dab171ccb5267f497dc0b815113cde99", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3799320-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3799320-001", "text": "The concept of a DAO fails if it becomes centralized, and centralization in governance is the largest single threat to a DAO.", "abstract": "The concept of a DAO fails if it becomes centralized. Centralization is omnipresent in computing systems, economics, and society at large. Yet centralization in governance is perhaps the largest threat to a DAO.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, A Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) of DAOs (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3799320", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "c3dff852f2d3f04718c829a24189309a7db4d92d84f6045d3d4f562d87c03e63", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3799320-016", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3799320-016", "text": "DAOs cannot exist and persist without ever increasing degrees of decentralization, so DAO legal designs must first and foremost supplement the internal decentralization the DAO has achieved.", "abstract": "DAOs cannot exist and persist without ever increasing degrees of decentralization. Therefore, first and foremost, DAO legal designs need to supplement the internal decentralization accomplished by the DAO.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, A Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) of DAOs (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3799320", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "long lived DAOs" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "c3dff852f2d3f04718c829a24189309a7db4d92d84f6045d3d4f562d87c03e63", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3808852-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3808852-001", "text": "The six types of decentralization are not independent: each is subject to its own iterative process and affects the others through feedback effects, so proliferation in one type progressively changes the others.", "abstract": "These types of decentralization, among others, are each subject to iterative decentralization processes and affect each other by way of feedback effects. As one type proliferates, the other types are slowly but increasingly affected, leading to changes that, in turn, affect each other.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization and Feedback Effects (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808852", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "applies across decentralization of science, technology, organization, markets, government, and society" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "31e91158fdeefebc2f0be54ebf89751f7cdd4c89ecea932888f5ba9be6b1caba", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3808859-004", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3808859-004", "text": "Fintech is a precursor of decentralization rather than merely a financial innovation, because it pushes information toward the edge of the system and forces disrupted financial conglomerates to serve consumers better.", "abstract": "Fintech brings information closer to the edge and serves the consumers, it disrupts centralized structures in finance and forces the disrupted financial conglomerates to serve the consumer better. As such, Fintech epitomizes some of the core principles of decentralization.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization – Why We Need Technology Infrastructure Upgrades (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808859", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "304ad25d43b5ecea3158e3a2ca04e6e1e3bd2958e2134e2dcefbfedf3b6f3ab7", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3808859-008", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3808859-008", "text": "The social media coordination function is still largely flawed because the incentive design underlying social proof is suboptimal; decentralized technology solutions can take over that coordination function and improve it.", "abstract": "Because the incentive design for social proof is suboptimal, the social media coordination function is still largely flawed. Decentralized technology solutions, however, can tap into the coordination function that was inaugurated by social media and improve it.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization – Why We Need Technology Infrastructure Upgrades (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808859", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to social proof metrics such as share counts used as quality proxies" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "304ad25d43b5ecea3158e3a2ca04e6e1e3bd2958e2134e2dcefbfedf3b6f3ab7", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3808859-015", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3808859-015", "text": "The networked information economy, built on peer-to-peer exchange of information, may be replacing the centralized industrial information economy of the late nineteenth century, because cheaper access to information enables a much greater role for decentralized individual action.", "abstract": "Based on the proliferating peer-to-peer exchange of information, the networked information economy may be replacing the centralized industrial information economy of the late-nineteenth century.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization – Why We Need Technology Infrastructure Upgrades (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808859", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "predictive", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "304ad25d43b5ecea3158e3a2ca04e6e1e3bd2958e2134e2dcefbfedf3b6f3ab7", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3808867-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3808867-001", "text": "Decentralized systems create a self reinforcing feedback loop between unique individual inputs and personal freedom: as the quality of unique individual inputs improves the system, the system places higher value on the uniqueness of human inputs, and personal liberties expand as a result.", "abstract": "As the system improves with the quality of unique individual inputs, the system increasingly values the uniqueness of human inputs, and as a result, personal liberties and freedom increase.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, How Decentralized Systems Can Upgrade AI (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808867", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized computing systems that aggregate individual inputs" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "eeccf6d0587bd278a96ce6ac8ec5003e26d161c245f6c94b4144d84f374802eb", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3808867-023", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3808867-023", "text": "The conveniences and benefits of centralized algorithmic automation carry risks to humanity that cannot be fully quantified, and decentralized systems can counteract those downsides and threats.", "abstract": "At the same time, the conveniences and benefits that derive from centralized algorithmic automation bring with them risks to humanity that cannot be fully quantified. Decentralized systems can counteract the downsides and threats of algorithmic automation", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, How Decentralized Systems Can Upgrade AI (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808867", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "eeccf6d0587bd278a96ce6ac8ec5003e26d161c245f6c94b4144d84f374802eb", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3808867-029", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3808867-029", "text": "A feedback loop exists between decentralized protection of the human factor in algorithmic systems and the proliferation of both algorithmic automation and decentralized solutions.", "abstract": "A feedback loop exists between decentralized protection of the human factor in algorithmic systems and the proliferation of both algorithmic automation and decentralized solutions.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, How Decentralized Systems Can Upgrade AI (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808867", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "eeccf6d0587bd278a96ce6ac8ec5003e26d161c245f6c94b4144d84f374802eb", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3808867-034", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3808867-034", "text": "Because decentralized platforms can remove the consumer fees that are integral to their centralized competitors, they also remove downward pressure on platform worker compensation, since costs are less likely to increase and be passed on to workers and consumers.", "abstract": "Removing such centralized fees also allows for the removal of downward pressure on the platforms' worker compensation as costs are less likely to increase and be passed on to workers and consumers.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, How Decentralized Systems Can Upgrade AI (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808867", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized platforms with lower cost structures than centralized competitors" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "eeccf6d0587bd278a96ce6ac8ec5003e26d161c245f6c94b4144d84f374802eb", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3808873-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3808873-001", "text": "Improved incentive design is necessary but not sufficient for decentralization: better decentralized incentive designs can accelerate adoption, yet design alone will not produce the decentralization of business and society, because adoption depends on society's acceptance and use of the technology.", "abstract": "While improved decentralized incentive designs can accelerate adoption, design alone will not suffice in promoting the decentralization of business and society.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization Neutralizers (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808873", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized technology adoption at the level of business and society" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "f11493915e6b8c266d421510b5546816e33defb5650aac9d09b20d78549da727", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3936876-002", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3936876-002", "text": "The more digital assets are held by their owners in self-custody, the less likely intermediation by custody service providers becomes, so self-custody is the key driver of decentralization in emerging blockchain networks.", "abstract": "In other words, the more digital assets are held by their owners in self-custody, the less likely intermediation of custody service providers becomes.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Hayley Howe, Custody of Digital Assets (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3936876", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "holds for emerging blockchain networks", "assumes users are capable of securing their own keys" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9bc0903d01910460298e754c451f027df4324367359800a98ee8e638d94aff55", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3936876-038", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3936876-038", "text": "Applying current legacy custody rules developed for traditional assets to digital assets is inconsistent with the foundations of decentralization, because the very nature of a decentralized system mandates the avoidance and eradication of intermediaries for business transactions.", "abstract": "From the perspective of decentralization, the application of current legacy rules around custody of traditional assets is inconsistent with decentralization foundations.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Hayley Howe, Custody of Digital Assets (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3936876", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "normative", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "viewed from the perspective of decentralization" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9bc0903d01910460298e754c451f027df4324367359800a98ee8e638d94aff55", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3936876-039", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3936876-039", "text": "Where owners do not rely on the cryptography of the wallet and of each transaction to avoid trusted third parties, single points of failure, rent seeking behaviors and other suboptimal outcomes of legacy systems inevitably seep back into decentralized solutions.", "abstract": "Without it, single points of failure, rent- seeking behaviors and other suboptimal outcomes of legacy systems are inevitably seeping back into decentralized solutions.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Hayley Howe, Custody of Digital Assets (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3936876", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized systems that reintroduce trusted third parties" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9bc0903d01910460298e754c451f027df4324367359800a98ee8e638d94aff55", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3936876-041", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3936876-041", "text": "Taking the realities of decentralization and decentralized self-custody seriously would require investment advisers to provide digital asset investment advice for a fee without ever taking custody of the assets.", "abstract": "The realities of decentralization and decentralized self-custody would require investment advisers to simply provide digital asset investment advice via fee without taking custody of digital assets.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Hayley Howe, Custody of Digital Assets (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3936876", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "investment advisers serving digital asset clients" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9bc0903d01910460298e754c451f027df4324367359800a98ee8e638d94aff55", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3949098-027", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3949098-027", "text": "Against the view that firm commitment underwriting is antithetical to decentralization, Kaal argues it in fact further enhances the level of decentralization.", "abstract": "While firm commitment underwriting may be seen as antithetical to decentralization, it in fact further enhances the level of decentralization.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Reputation as Capital – How DAOs Upgrade Finance (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3949098", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "firm commitment underwriting by the DAOIC member collective" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "04297905564a6092b2db7640561f58fd374d3114c79527357bad09d11b909819", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3949098-028", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3949098-028", "text": "In phase 1 the benefits of decentralization remain relatively small because the presumably homogenous DAOIC member group generates little dissent in reputation based decision making.", "abstract": "The DAOIC member group is also presumably homogenous, dissent will be small in the RFNT-based decision-making processes. Accordingly, the benefits from decentralization are still relatively small in phase 1.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Reputation as Capital – How DAOs Upgrade Finance (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3949098", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "small and homogenous membership", "phase 1 of the DAOIC life cycle" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "04297905564a6092b2db7640561f58fd374d3114c79527357bad09d11b909819", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3981021-019", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3981021-019", "text": "By giving the power of the endowment to the DAO the donor relinquishes control over the assets in exchange for community governance, and that relinquishment builds trust and community buy in, which in turn secures growth and legacy for the donor's purpose.", "abstract": "The donor can help mold the community to some extnt but at the same time the donor releases the control to the community. The relinquishment of control builds trust and community buy in. This in turn, ensures growth and legacy for the respective purpose of the donor and the associated DAO.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, How Decentralized Autonomous Organizations Optimize Charitable Giving (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3981021", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "donors willing to cede asset control to a community of experts" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9d8bc78d119c780c96c89ce3e820f4ac8b037d39b3ade59feb4e40d46b048288", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3981021-023", "identifier": "kaal:claim:3981021-023", "text": "The CHARITYxDAO's long term success depends on maintaining dynamic decentralized fluidity and order; without it the values that initially united the voting associates are at risk of morphing into ever tighter, more complex, and hierarchical structures.", "abstract": "long-term success depends on its ability to maintain the dynamic decentralized fluidity and dynamic decentralized order. Without it, the CHARITYxDAO's values that initially united and reinforced the CHARITYxDAO VAs are at risk of morphing into ever tighter, complex, and hierarchical structures.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, How Decentralized Autonomous Organizations Optimize Charitable Giving (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3981021", "datePublished": "2021", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "DAOs holding fungible assets over long time horizons" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "9d8bc78d119c780c96c89ce3e820f4ac8b037d39b3ade59feb4e40d46b048288", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4015908-022", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4015908-022", "text": "The more decentralized the governance of a fair launch protocol, the less likely the project will be seen as treating public users unfairly, which makes a decentralized autonomous organization design advisable for fair launch projects.", "abstract": "The more decentralized the governance of a fair launch protocol, the less likely the project will be seen as not treating the public users unfairly. In this context, it may be advisable for fair launch projects to be launched in a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) design.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Fair Token Launch (2022). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4015908", "datePublished": "2022", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "governance design is transparent and decentralized" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e0925afde0c42a16cd5310983789fae3eb3d1f121e2954a72afa64191d00fe37", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4015908-023", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4015908-023", "text": "If the DAO governing a fair launch is controlled by a handful of people in a foundation setting, decentralized governance metrics are less likely to take hold and the public is correspondingly less likely to benefit from decentralized community governance over the launch.", "abstract": "controlled by a handful of people in a foundation setting, it is less likely that decentralized governance metrics take hold in the DAO. Accordingly, it is less likely that the public can benefit from the decentralized community governance over the fair launch.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Fair Token Launch (2022). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4015908", "datePublished": "2022", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "DAO controlled by a small group in a foundation setting" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e0925afde0c42a16cd5310983789fae3eb3d1f121e2954a72afa64191d00fe37", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4015908-024", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4015908-024", "text": "DAO governance built on fungible governance tokens is disfavored and dangerous because governance rights can be bought on open exchanges, whereas non-fungible reputation governance assures the highest levels of decentralization.", "abstract": "DAO governance that revolves around fungible governance tokens is disfavored and dangerous in this context as governance rights can be bought on open exchanges. By contrast, non-fungible reputation governance of the DAO assures highest levels of decentralization.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Fair Token Launch (2022). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4015908", "datePublished": "2022", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "DAO governance rights are tradeable on open exchanges" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e0925afde0c42a16cd5310983789fae3eb3d1f121e2954a72afa64191d00fe37", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4015908-027", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4015908-027", "text": "Founders may hold significant influence over DAO votes initially depending on the DAO design, but higher levels of governance decentralization mitigate these centralization effects quickly through the onboarding of new DAO members.", "abstract": "Depending on the DAO design, the founders may have significant influence over the DAO votes initially. However, higher levels of DAO governance decentralization mitigate these centralization effects quickly via the onboarding of new DAO members.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Fair Token Launch (2022). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4015908", "datePublished": "2022", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "early stage of DAO formation", "DAO design permits ongoing member onboarding" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "e0925afde0c42a16cd5310983789fae3eb3d1f121e2954a72afa64191d00fe37", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4067783-038", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4067783-038", "text": "Decentralized structures outperform centralized ones on liquidity because in them market mass and velocity are uncorrelated, which yields more stable and predictable liquidity.", "abstract": "Decentralized structures are better because mass and velocity are uncorrelated", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, DAO Fallacies (2022). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4067783", "datePublished": "2022", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "48f1e307cdbbe28c7843f7744d0ba8cf01662f257a53f2066a7a6c7e03a5acec", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4067783-040", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4067783-040", "text": "Flatter markets with more diverse interests and talents are more effective and efficient at truth discovery, including price discovery and the identification of ideal solutions to new problems, and decentralization promotes that diversity by improving member autonomy and freedom.", "abstract": "Flatter markets with more diverse interests and talents are more effective and efficient at achieving truth discovery, like price discovery and the identification of ideal solutions to arbitrary new problems that arise.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, DAO Fallacies (2022). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4067783", "datePublished": "2022", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "48f1e307cdbbe28c7843f7744d0ba8cf01662f257a53f2066a7a6c7e03a5acec", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4529715-003", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4529715-003", "text": "DAOs in the dataset score well below average on implementing true decentralization, averaging 3.78 out of 10, with the highest score being CRDAO at 8 out of 10 and several DAOs scoring 1 out of 10.", "abstract": "Based on our observations of the data, the maximum score was CRDAO at 8/10 while there were a few DAOs that scored 1/10. Across the board, DAOs are well below average at implementing true decentralization practices in their organizations with a 3.78 out of 10.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Josh Bykowski, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) – A Market Meta Analysis (2023). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4529715", "datePublished": "2023", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "evidenced", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "dataset of DAOs scored by the authors' teams" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "2d71961e8c449afbeaf45ca4f53de8a575d45c77d6960b767d3d1d0874f296b5", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4529715-004", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4529715-004", "text": "The decentralized power structure is supposed to encourage cooperation, free information flow, and decision-making that escapes top-down hierarchy, but with few exceptions the current state of DAOs does not deliver this.", "abstract": "efficiency to organizations. The current state of DAOs, with a few exceptions, doesn't seem to do this.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Josh Bykowski, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) – A Market Meta Analysis (2023). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4529715", "datePublished": "2023", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "evidenced", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "current state of the DAO market at time of study" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "2d71961e8c449afbeaf45ca4f53de8a575d45c77d6960b767d3d1d0874f296b5", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4529715-012", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4529715-012", "text": "There is no consistent standard for DAO governance, which pushes each DAO to invent its own structure, and because decentralized governance is complex many of those structures fail to become truly decentralized, autonomous, or organized.", "abstract": "There is no consistent standard for DAO governance. This leads many DAOs to develop their own governance structure. However, because of the complex nature of decentralized governance, many DAO governance structures fail to become truly decentralized, autonomous, or organized.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Josh Bykowski, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) – A Market Meta Analysis (2023). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4529715", "datePublished": "2023", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "absence of a governance standard", "novelty of decentralized governance" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "2d71961e8c449afbeaf45ca4f53de8a575d45c77d6960b767d3d1d0874f296b5", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4529715-021", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4529715-021", "text": "True decentralization requires the absence of a primary decision-maker, which is very difficult for a decentralized insurance organization to achieve while it is still in its infancy.", "abstract": "Despite the potential benefits, decentralized insurance organizations face several challenges. First, true decentralization requires the absence of a primary decision-maker, which is difficult to achieve in an organization's infancy.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Josh Bykowski, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) – A Market Meta Analysis (2023). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4529715", "datePublished": "2023", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "early stage decentralized insurance organizations" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "2d71961e8c449afbeaf45ca4f53de8a575d45c77d6960b767d3d1d0874f296b5", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4529715-022", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4529715-022", "text": "Decentralized organizations carry inherent risks that require establishing a legal entity, and establishing that legal entity inherently contradicts the notion of decentralization.", "abstract": "Third, decentralized organizations themselves come with inherent risks that require establishing a legal entity, which inherently contradicts the notion of decentralization.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Josh Bykowski, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) – A Market Meta Analysis (2023). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4529715", "datePublished": "2023", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized insurance organizations" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "2d71961e8c449afbeaf45ca4f53de8a575d45c77d6960b767d3d1d0874f296b5", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4529715-025", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4529715-025", "text": "Web3 may not yet be ready for a truly decentralized organization: across platforms there is always a promise of decentralization, yet tangible measures prevent that promise from becoming true.", "abstract": "Despite that ideation, it seems Web3 may not be ready for a truly decentralized organization just yet. There is an overarching theme between platforms in which there is always a promise of decentralization, yet tangible measures prevent that from becoming true.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Josh Bykowski, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) – A Market Meta Analysis (2023). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4529715", "datePublished": "2023", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "evidenced", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "DAO platforms reviewed in the study" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "2d71961e8c449afbeaf45ca4f53de8a575d45c77d6960b767d3d1d0874f296b5", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4529715-031", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4529715-031", "text": "Allocating twenty percent of total token supply to the four person founding team, as Angel Protocol does, means the organization can never become fully decentralized.", "abstract": "will possess 20% of the total tokens in supply. This concentration of tokens in the individuals who created this DANO, will never fully allow Angel Protocol to become fully decentralized.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Josh Bykowski, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) – A Market Meta Analysis (2023). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4529715", "datePublished": "2023", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "evidenced", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "founding team holds 20 percent of supply" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "2d71961e8c449afbeaf45ca4f53de8a575d45c77d6960b767d3d1d0874f296b5", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4734750-016", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4734750-016", "text": "It is ironic that some of the strongest forms of exploitation and centralized economies of scale have been created inside the code review market, which exists to support the decentralization of other industries.", "abstract": "it is a bit ironic that one of the strongest forms of exploitation and centralized economies of scale are being created in a market that is, from the outset, supposed to help support the decentralization of disparate industries", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Code Review DAO (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4734750", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "60eadf91c0913468505afc664c8d8d1e1673d6c5326d031ca7060addb8ab2eda", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4755632-027", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4755632-027", "text": "The code review market is self-undermining: one of the strongest forms of exploitation and centralized economies of scale is being created in a market whose purpose is to support the decentralization of other industries.", "abstract": "it is a bit ironic that one of the strongest forms of exploitation and centralized economies of scale are being created in a market that is, from the outset, supposed to help support the decentralization of disparate industries.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, AI Learning - Decentralized Governance to Optimize Human Output Datasets for AI Learning (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4755632", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "972ccebf0c06ac1767a9e443bb95942b7670e806a63c25ee817c368a64c8eca8", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4796714-012", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4796714-012", "text": "Recentralization is the central obstacle to using blockchain and distributed ledger technology to govern AI: the recentralizing tendency of these networks interferes with their capacity to deliver effective AI governance.", "abstract": "Alas, recentralization may interfere with blockchain and DLT technologies' ability to effectively govern AI.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, AI Governance (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4796714", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to blockchain and DLT based AI governance proposals", "observed in Layer 1 networks as of 2024" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "59fa63bae179e8f9b6b8efbdf90cee28400276512a1b04f9f579a48641305c93", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4796714-013", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4796714-013", "text": "Blockchain can only deliver decentralized AI governance if the blockchain trilemma is first overcome, since decentralization, security, and scalability cannot readily be achieved simultaneously within one network.", "abstract": "The effectiveness of blockchain in achieving the goal of decentralized AI governance is contingent upon overcoming the fundamental blockchain trilemma: the challenge of balancing decentralization, security, and scalability.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, AI Governance (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4796714", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to blockchain networks used as governance infrastructure", "necessary condition, not sufficient" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "59fa63bae179e8f9b6b8efbdf90cee28400276512a1b04f9f579a48641305c93", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4796714-016", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4796714-016", "text": "Decentralized governance structures impose their own costs: with no central authority to coordinate diverse stakeholders, consensus is difficult to reach, negotiations are prolonged, and enforcement of agreements is weak because no single entity is responsible for compliance.", "abstract": "In decentralized systems, the lack of a central authority often leads to difficulties in coordinating and achieving consensus among diverse stakeholders, each with their own priorities and objectives. This can result in prolonged negotiations or weak enforcement of agreements", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, AI Governance (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4796714", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "evidenced", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to decentralized structures without a coordinating authority", "evidenced in the paper by the environmental agreement domain" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "59fa63bae179e8f9b6b8efbdf90cee28400276512a1b04f9f579a48641305c93", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4796714-030", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4796714-030", "text": "Transparency and accountability cannot be assured across all participants in a federated governance model because there is no centralized control, and the author declines to advocate centralized control as the remedy; the consequences are biased or unfair AI systems, inadequate privacy protection, and unequal access to AI benefits.", "abstract": "In a federated model, it can be challenging to ensure transparency and accountability across all participating entities due to the lack of centralized control, which this author does not otherwise advocate.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, AI Governance (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4796714", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "applies to federated models with distributed decision making authority", "the author rejects recentralization as the fix" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "59fa63bae179e8f9b6b8efbdf90cee28400276512a1b04f9f579a48641305c93", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4796714-031", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4796714-031", "text": "Decentralized Federated Learning reaches the global minimum with zero performance gap and matches the convergence rate of centralized methods when the loss function is smooth and strongly convex.", "abstract": "The DeceFL approach ensures that every client can reach the global minimum with zero performance gap and achieve the same convergence rate as centralized methods when the loss function is smooth and strongly convex.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, AI Governance (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4796714", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "evidenced", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "requires a smooth and strongly convex loss function", "demonstrated across convex and nonconvex losses, time invariant and time varying topologies, and IID and non-IID datasets" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "59fa63bae179e8f9b6b8efbdf90cee28400276512a1b04f9f579a48641305c93", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4900878-033", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4900878-033", "text": "Distributing validation and execution across many nodes mitigates central point of failure risk and makes the network more resilient to attacks and disruptions, which is the security payoff of decentralization.", "abstract": "By distributing the validation and execution processes across numerous nodes, blockchain technology mitigates the risks associated with central points of failure and enhances the resilience of the network against attacks and disruptions.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Quantum Economy and Tokenomics (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4900878", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized networks where no single node controls the system" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "75bf96d3b751b4ad0a6ca4a32591cf026094f113e3a372aa6c61790941b391f7", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4900880-035", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4900880-035", "text": "DAOs supply a more flexible and dynamic governance model than hierarchy because they permit real time evolutionary adjustment of governance rules and decentralized decision making.", "abstract": "In contrast, DAOs offer a more flexible and dynamic approach to governance, allowing for real-time evolutionary and dynamic adjustments and decentralized decision-making.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Quantum Economy and the Future of Work (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4900880", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "64ea6e8b7cfb3d9a83801eba54f9b87182b842a963273ddab7f2d5305639db73", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4900880-039", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4900880-039", "text": "Combining quantum computing with blockchain and DAO frameworks makes a governance model possible that is simultaneously transparent, decentralized, and adaptive, supporting efficient and fair resource distribution and continuous innovation.", "abstract": "By integrating quantum computing with blockchain and DAO frameworks, a new era of transparent, decentralized, and adaptive governance is possible.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Quantum Economy and the Future of Work (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4900880", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "64ea6e8b7cfb3d9a83801eba54f9b87182b842a963273ddab7f2d5305639db73", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4941807-021", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4941807-021", "text": "In the federated model of AI governance many challenges cannot easily be decentralized, because distinct entities maintain their own AI systems and datasets, producing variation in standards, protocols, and formats that obstructs a unified governance framework.", "abstract": "In the federated model of AI governance, many challenges cannot be easily decentralized. For example, different entities or organizations maintain their own AI systems and datasets. This can lead to variations in standards, protocols, and formats used", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, AI Governance Via Web3 Reputation System (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4941807", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "where separate organizations maintain independent AI systems and datasets" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "ab66c1e99a88da1fa36b0c6b536df5184231fe6aa427f3dd53287a4e0ac79853", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4941807-022", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4941807-022", "text": "When decision making power is distributed across multiple entities in a federated model, consensus and cooperation become harder to reach, which makes cohesive AI governance mechanisms difficult to establish.", "abstract": "In a federated model, where decision-making power is distributed across multiple entities, it becomes harder to achieve consensus and cooperation, making it challenging to establish cohesive AI governance mechanisms.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, AI Governance Via Web3 Reputation System (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4941807", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "where governance authority is distributed across multiple independent entities" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "ab66c1e99a88da1fa36b0c6b536df5184231fe6aa427f3dd53287a4e0ac79853", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4941807-023", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4941807-023", "text": "In a federated model transparency and accountability across all participating entities are hard to ensure precisely because there is no centralized control, and Kaal notes that he does not otherwise advocate such centralized control.", "abstract": "In a federated model, it can be challenging to ensure transparency and accountability across all participating entities due to the lack of centralized control, which this author does not otherwise advocate.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, AI Governance Via Web3 Reputation System (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4941807", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "in federated models lacking centralized control" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "ab66c1e99a88da1fa36b0c6b536df5184231fe6aa427f3dd53287a4e0ac79853", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4957318-029", "identifier": "kaal:claim:4957318-029", "text": "Web3 systems answer the web2 pathology at the architectural level rather than the content level: decentralized, transparent, community governed designs eliminate the centralized control that drives misinformation and echo chambers, and substitute transparency, decentralization, and user control.", "abstract": "Unlike Web2 platforms, Web3 systems aim to eliminate the centralized control that exacerbates the spread of misinformation and the creation of echo chambers. Instead, they prioritize transparency, decentralization, and user control,", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, The Future of Law - Dynamic Web3 Governance (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4957318", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized and community governed platform architectures" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "137fb77eb82111a85f0ab5581926f762a7414ae84aaf3d56e8299db670e0e0c1", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/5254152-012", "identifier": "kaal:claim:5254152-012", "text": "A decentralization score of 10 is stipulated to mean a fully decentralized organization with anonymous participation, minimal barriers to entry, and well distributed power; lower scores indicate concentration of power.", "abstract": "A score of 10 suggests a fully decentralized organization with anonymous participation, minimal barriers to entry, and well-distributed power.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, DAO Market Meta Analysis 2024 (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5254152", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "the paper's six factor scoring metric" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "bb2052d809a4615f0f3e2526ba6416293c40d00260149ba4fe6f38addf052796", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/5254152-020", "identifier": "kaal:claim:5254152-020", "text": "The average decentralization score across the sampled DAOs is 4.25, with a maximum of 9 and a minimum of 1, showing wide variability in how decentralized these organizations actually are.", "abstract": "The average decentralization score across all DAOs is 4.25, with the highest score being 9 and the lowest being 1.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, DAO Market Meta Analysis 2024 (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5254152", "datePublished": "2024", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "evidenced", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "dataset of 50 DAOs", "decentralization scored on a 1 to 10 scale" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "bb2052d809a4615f0f3e2526ba6416293c40d00260149ba4fe6f38addf052796", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/5095633-017", "identifier": "kaal:claim:5095633-017", "text": "Decentralizing data processing across secure nodes, using techniques such as federated learning and homomorphic encryption, circumvents the privacy and security exposure of centralized data management and lowers breach risk.", "abstract": "Through decentralizing data processing across secure nodes, these startups help circumvent the privacy and security issues associated with centralized data management, thus reducing the risk of data breaches.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Artificial Intelligence The Final Frontier (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5095633", "datePublished": "2025", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "privacy-preserving computation techniques are actually deployed" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "cbb484711f89bcefc9fc6a5730a1ed0a3f764d7999ad9b6f7d8ea05634c26c63", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/5095633-027", "identifier": "kaal:claim:5095633-027", "text": "Adoption of decentralized data platforms is blocked by an expertise barrier: prospective contributors must manage tokens, maintain secure wallets, and understand the underlying technology, which deters users unaccustomed to digital assets.", "abstract": "adoption is hindered by the user expertise required to navigate blockchain infrastructure. Potential contributors or data consumers are often deterred by the need to manage cryptocurrency tokens, maintain secure digital wallets, and understand the underlying technology.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Artificial Intelligence The Final Frontier (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5095633", "datePublished": "2025", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "current blockchain user experience" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "cbb484711f89bcefc9fc6a5730a1ed0a3f764d7999ad9b6f7d8ea05634c26c63", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/5225296-005", "identifier": "kaal:claim:5225296-005", "text": "On comparative metrics of security, energy use per transaction, and governance flexibility, SPoS outperforms contemporary PoS variants such as Casper FFG and Ouroboros Praos in decentralization.", "abstract": "Comparative metrics—such as security (Byzantine fault tolerance up to 33% adversaries), efficiency (energy use per transaction), and governance flexibility—suggest SPoS excels in decentralization", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Cryptographic Foundations and Interdisciplinary Dimensions of the Secure Proof of Stake (SPoS) Conse (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5225296", "datePublished": "2025", "claim_type": "empirical", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "comparison against Ethereum Casper FFG and Cardano Ouroboros Praos" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b2fec675d906334ad67e13b2d97261dc31e38061022867eb3f9ceadd95f4878d", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/5245185-006", "identifier": "kaal:claim:5245185-006", "text": "The decentralized architecture of blockchain itself complicates accountability by rendering oversight across distributed networks opaque, and that opacity jeopardizes adequate regulatory supervision of AI agents.", "abstract": "The decentralized nature of blockchain complicates accountability, rendering oversight across distributed networks opaque.42 This opacity jeopardizes adequate regulatory supervision of AI agents.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, How can we Best Monitor AI Agents (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5245185", "datePublished": "2025", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "evidenced", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "AI agents operating across distributed blockchain networks" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "4d7adba83ec722480e97bde6528cbe9ce98c709e45cb18794f157a64b8fe7da2", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/5554218-012", "identifier": "kaal:claim:5554218-012", "text": "The authors contest the prevailing scholarly proposition that harmonized conflict of laws principles are necessary to govern digital assets across common and civil law jurisdictions, arguing that this proposition misconstrues the foundational ethos of blockchain technology.", "abstract": "The proposition that harmonized conflict of laws principles are necessary to govern digital assets across common law and civil law jurisdictions, as advocated by scholars like Aleinieh, Zoboli, Atiyah, and Kasatkina, misconstrues the foundational ethos of blockchain technology", "citation": "Furrer Andreas, Wulf A. Kaal, Universal Digital Law Codex (UDLC) Building the Legal Infrastructure for the Digital Era (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5554218", "datePublished": "2025", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "proposals advanced by Aleinieh, Zoboli, Atiyah, and Kasatkina" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "55738b4035a91b70aa2ddaa127552fe4b373ec641afee2719fbdcabebdcbea44", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/5554218-013", "identifier": "kaal:claim:5554218-013", "text": "A constructive balance to the inherent and unavoidable centralized character of national law cannot be achieved by imposing uniform legal standards on digital assets, because uniformity privileges the centralist features of law over the decentralized, permissionless nature of blockchain.", "abstract": "We argue that a constructive balance to the inherent and unavoidable centralized characteristics of national law cannot be found in imposing uniform legal standards on digital assets as this favors the centralist features of law to the decentralized, permissionless nature of blockchain.", "citation": "Furrer Andreas, Wulf A. Kaal, Universal Digital Law Codex (UDLC) Building the Legal Infrastructure for the Digital Era (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5554218", "datePublished": "2025", "claim_type": "condition", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "cross-jurisdictional governance of digital assets", "permissionless blockchain systems" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "55738b4035a91b70aa2ddaa127552fe4b373ec641afee2719fbdcabebdcbea44", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/5554218-017", "identifier": "kaal:claim:5554218-017", "text": "Decentralized dispute resolution relies on decentralized networks of jurors, which raises unresolved concerns about juror competence and bias.", "abstract": "DDR's reliance on decentralized networks raises concerns about juror competence and bias, as noted by Salger.", "citation": "Furrer Andreas, Wulf A. Kaal, Universal Digital Law Codex (UDLC) Building the Legal Infrastructure for the Digital Era (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5554218", "datePublished": "2025", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "complex disputes over tokenized real world assets" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "55738b4035a91b70aa2ddaa127552fe4b373ec641afee2719fbdcabebdcbea44", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/5886342-030", "identifier": "kaal:claim:5886342-030", "text": "A DAO is defined for the Codex as a collective of identities pursuing a common goal through a decentralized and transparent decision making process, a definition that turns on process rather than on legal form.", "abstract": "(DAO) is a collective of Identities that pursues a common goal through a decentralized and transpar-", "citation": "Furrer Andreas, Wulf A. Kaal, Stephan D. Meyer, Universal Digital Law Codex (UDLC) (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5886342", "datePublished": "2025", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "dc456a1ce2ea4a356dbcb35dc900ec36be94b8c9b6da4a2c8c268d6301f66359", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/5887242-008", "identifier": "kaal:claim:5887242-008", "text": "Separating internal on-chain governance from external legal relations maximizes decentralization while preserving real-world enforceability, thereby avoiding the fatal centralization that undermined earlier DAO concepts.", "abstract": "This duality maximizes decentralization while preserving enforceability in the real world, avoiding the fatal centralization that has undermined earlier DAO concepts.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, The UDLC DAO Operationalizing a Continuously Evolving Universal Digital Law Codex Through Weighted (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5887242", "datePublished": "2025", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "4e5c2e2b4304af6d22e0b0939b1fddeabcf091e19a1b00b7bfccf77cbd6280c5", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/6192998-001", "identifier": "kaal:claim:6192998-001", "text": "Reputation systems that depend on persistent identity collapse in decentralized settings because agents can create new identities at no cost, so a poorly performing agent abandons its account and starts fresh, a practice known as whitewashing.", "abstract": "First, the identity problem: Reputation systems built on persistent identity5 collapse when agents can costlessly create new identities. A poorly-performing agent simply abandons their account and starts fresh, a phenomenon known as whitewashing.6", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Evolution of Domain-Specific Reputation Systems From Binary Validation to Citation-Weighted Knowledge Attribution (2026). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6192998", "datePublished": "2026", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "decentralized or pseudonymous environments where identity creation is costless" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b04292561ee041e0c9eaa7eca28a410ed440e76a95743a539361a3f76c97f2b3", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/6192998-002", "identifier": "kaal:claim:6192998-002", "text": "Solving the identity problem through centralized control fails on its own terms: it reintroduces rent seeking intermediaries who extract value, censor participants, and create single points of failure, which is precisely what decentralized systems exist to eliminate.", "abstract": "Second, the centralization problem: Platforms that solve the identity problem through centralized control8 introduce rent-seeking intermediaries who extract value, censor participants, and create single points of failure.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Evolution of Domain-Specific Reputation Systems From Binary Validation to Citation-Weighted Knowledge Attribution (2026). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6192998", "datePublished": "2026", "claim_type": "failure", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": true, "scope_conditions": [ "platforms that impose centralized identity or rating control" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "b04292561ee041e0c9eaa7eca28a410ed440e76a95743a539361a3f76c97f2b3", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/6192998-003", "identifier": "kaal:claim:6192998-003", "text": "The tension between the need for regulation and the desire for decentralization produces what the author terms the pacing problem: regulatory frameworks cannot keep pace with technological innovation, so the remedy lies in dynamic autonomous governance rather than static centralized control.", "abstract": "this tension between the need for regulation and the desire for decentralization creates what I term the \"pacing problem\"—regulatory frameworks cannot keep pace with technological innovation.10 The solution lies not in static centralized control but in dynamic, autonomous governance", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Evolution of Domain-Specific Reputation Systems From Binary Validation to Citation-Weighted Knowledge Attribution (2026). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6192998", "datePublished": "2026", "claim_type": "definitional", "confidence": "asserted", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "b04292561ee041e0c9eaa7eca28a410ed440e76a95743a539361a3f76c97f2b3", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/6421319-012", "identifier": "kaal:claim:6421319-012", "text": "The correct response to the binding constraint cascade is rigorous decentralization of the compute and energy infrastructure underpinning AI production, pursued through decentralized compute networks, energy decentralization, open source models, and antitrust enforcement of compute markets.", "abstract": "The appropriate response is rigorous decentralization of the compute and energy infrastructure that underpins AI production.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, The Collapse of Scarcity Economics (2026). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6421319", "datePublished": "2026", "claim_type": "design", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [ "required to prevent scarcity from migrating rather than dissolving" ], "source_pdf_sha256": "0f4f68e56ee48bb8b2d73d3ab7fd96fa572e76c195694ffa740360704c1b172d", "status": "current" }, { "@type": "Claim", "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/6607458-035", "identifier": "kaal:claim:6607458-035", "text": "Coordination in computative settings runs through the interaction of generation functions rather than through a central coordinator, and this decentralization is structural rather than optional, since a central coordinator would itself be a computative agent generating an infinite regress.", "abstract": "The generative network is decentralized in the sense that coordination occurs through the interaction of generation functions rather than through a central coordinator. This property is structural rather than optional.", "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Computative Economics A Framework for Economic Analysis under Computational Abundance (2026). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6607458", "datePublished": "2026", "claim_type": "mechanism", "confidence": "argued", "is_failure_mode": false, "scope_conditions": [], "source_pdf_sha256": "75cca35350378eb8904866d068b5d2f3e1504629e6031457ce6c12152a88e3e8", "status": "current" } ], "description": "205 claims in the published works of Wulf A. Kaal carry the concept tag 'decentralization'. Derived node: a roster, not an adjudicated definition." }