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   "text": "Traditional coordination through hierarchy, command, and control is suboptimal for generating the innovation a firm needs to survive.",
   "abstract": "Traditional forms of coordination, with a focus on hierarchy, command, and control, are suboptimal for generating then innovation that allows firms to survive.",
   "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",
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   "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",
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   "text": "Centralized, hierarchical environments do not value honesty and reward good news only, so nobody wants to carry bad news upward, and problems are therefore detected late.",
   "abstract": "Honesty is often not valued in a centralized, hierarchical environment. In the heavily mediated and redacted corporate world, the focus is on \"good news only.\" Nobody wants to be the messenger delivering bad news. This attitude often results in the late detection of issues and implications.",
   "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",
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   "text": "Centralized, hierarchical organizations are defined by three features: a centralized source of authority, a closed formal hierarchy with functionally differentiated roles, and standardized bureaucratic procedures dictated and policed by that hierarchy.",
   "abstract": "(i) a centralized source of authority; (ii) a closed and formal hierarchy with clearly defined and functionally differentiated roles; and, (iii) standardized (bureaucratic) systems and operating procedures dictated and policed by the centralized authority/hierarchy.",
   "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",
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   "text": "Centralized, hierarchical organizations fail on two fronts in a fast changing environment: they adapt too slowly to changing reality and they are losing public trust.",
   "abstract": "Most obviously, such organizations are slow to adapt to a fast-changing reality and are losing public trust.",
   "citation": "Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P.M. Vermeulen, Why 'Blockchain' Will Disrupt Corporate Organizations (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3227933",
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   "text": "A particular problem with old world centralized, hierarchical organizations is that their decision-making processes become slow, cumbersome and costly, which is a competitive problem for incumbents in a fast-paced consumer-driven economy.",
   "abstract": "A particular problem with \"old world\" centralized, hierarchical organizations is that decision-making processes can become slow, cumbersome and costly.",
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   "text": "Because the DAO structure functions without supervisors, token holders who conclude they cannot add value on a task can move to more productive endeavors without incurring the penalties that would exist in a traditional hierarchical corporate structure.",
   "abstract": "because the DAO structure functions without supervisors, DAO token holders who decide they cannot add value on a given task can move to more productive endeavors that better utilize their skills without any penalties",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Blockchain Solutions for Agency Problems in Corporate Governance (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3373393",
   "datePublished": "2019",
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   "text": "Centralized capitalist institutions have been built entirely around centralized and hierarchical reputation systems, which is why replacing them requires a decentralized reputation substitute.",
   "abstract": "Centralized capitalist institutions have been built entirely around centralized and hierarchical reputation systems.",
   "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",
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   "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",
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   "text": "DAOs can be more productive than hierarchical organizations because their information allocation and feedback effects allow them to distribute the optimal amount of power to the optimal talent at the optimal point in time.",
   "abstract": "DAOs can be more productive in comparison with hierarchical organizations because the information allocation and feedback effects allow them to distribute the optimal amount of power to the optimal talent at the optimal point in time.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Blockchain-Based Corporate Governance (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3441904",
   "datePublished": "2019",
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   "text": "DAO incentives are intrinsic rather than extrinsic: the core common denominator for all DAO token members is the unifying desire to optimize the DAO structure and reputation token value, whereas hierarchical organizations rely predominantly on extrinsic structures such as wages.",
   "abstract": "Most hierarchical organizations rely predominantly on extrinsic incentive structures, through wages etc. By contrast, the core common denominator for all DAO token members is the unifying desire to optimize the DAO structure and the DAO reputation token value.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Blockchain-Based Corporate Governance (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3441904",
   "datePublished": "2019",
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   "text": "Absent continual effort to maintain decentralized order, the very values that initially unite DAO members tend to produce ever tighter and more complex hierarchical structures inside the DAO, ending in a fully centralized tree structure.",
   "abstract": "Without continual efforts to maintain decentralized order, values that initially unite DAO members have a tendency to result in ever tighter and complex hierarchical structures in the DAO.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations – Internal Governance and External Legal Design (2020). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3652481",
   "datePublished": "2020",
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   "text": "Centralized organization achieves efficiency through hierarchy: hierarchical structures let centrally organized entities allocate resources with minimal energy loss and identify and remove waste in the system.",
   "abstract": "Because of hierarchical structures, centrally organized entities allocate resources with minimal loss of energy and can identify and remove waste in the system.",
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   "text": "A traditional firm is logically centralized because dividing it would break it apart into parts that could not operate independently, a property traceable to the hierarchical order that creates the firm's efficiencies and structure.",
   "abstract": "The firm is logically centralized as a division of the firm would typically break it apart and it would not be able to operate independently as two separate parts. This is traceable to the firm's hierarchical order that creates efficiencies and structure.",
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   "text": "Centralized coordination enables attack coordination because the hierarchical structure allows attackers to identify a single point of failure, whereas the constantly morphing information flow of decentralized systems increases their attack resistance.",
   "abstract": "Centralized coordination enables attack coordination because the hierarchical struc- ture allows the identification of a single point of failure.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "failure",
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   "text": "Hierarchical centralization is optimally efficient for making big decisions affecting an entire organization, which is why it has historically outcompeted every other organizational structure, whether corporation, army, or government.",
   "abstract": "Hierarchical centralization is optimally efficient for making big decisions that affect the entire organization, and so it has historically outcompeted every other organiza- tional structure, be it corporation or army or government",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191",
   "datePublished": "2021",
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   "text": "The second flaw of centralization is that a hierarchy's own success and efficiency makes members dependent on it until the structure ossifies and becomes too inflexible to reorganize and respond effectively to a novel crisis.",
   "abstract": "Secondly, the very success and efficiency of a hierarchy leads its members to become dependent on it, relying unquestioningly on the institution's design.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191",
   "datePublished": "2021",
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   "text": "A hierarchy obstructs solving novel problems because it prevents the identification of talented people at the lower rungs and resists the changes needed to construct a new hierarchy for organizing the effort.",
   "abstract": "The hierarchy would prevent the identification of talented people if they occur at the lower rungs. And it would resist any changes needed to construct a new hier- archy for organizing the effort.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Preface to (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782191",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "failure",
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   "@type": "Claim",
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   "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",
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   "text": "If a hierarchy becomes too rigid the organization inevitably fails and the result is a return to chaos, which is why revolutions recur as a cyclic pattern in governmental structures throughout history.",
   "abstract": "If the hierarchy is too rigid, the organi- zation inevitably fails, and the result is a return to chaos.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Introduction to Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782192",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "hierarchies that cannot bend or rearrange their order"
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782192-008",
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   "text": "Friction is the inefficient allocation of power, meaning that a different distribution of power would let the organization reach its goals more easily, and it is an ever present feature of any hierarchy.",
   "abstract": "Friction is simply the inefficient allo- cation of power, which is an ever-present feature in any hierarchy. By inefficient allo- cation of power, we mean that if the distribution of power were changed, the goals of the organization could be achieved more easily.",
   "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": [
    "any real hierarchy"
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  },
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782192-009",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782192-009",
   "text": "The most common source of friction is the natural tendency of hierarchies to concentrate power at the top through a rich get richer mechanism: a more powerful member can use their greater power to gain still more power than a weaker member can.",
   "abstract": "The most common type of friction comes from the natural tendency of a hierarchy to concentrate power at the top. The basic mechanism is \"the rich get richer\". A more powerful member is able to use their greater power to gain more power, in any stage, than a weaker member can.",
   "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,
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    "hierarchies in which power differences among members already exist"
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   "@type": "Claim",
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   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782192-013",
   "text": "Corruption is technically inevitable in any hierarchy, because it is impossible to create a perfectly efficient organization in practice and there is friction in every real system.",
   "abstract": "Corruption is technically inevitable in any hierarchy, since it is impossible to create a perfectly efficient organization in practice—there is friction in every real system.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Introduction to Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782192",
   "datePublished": "2021",
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   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782193-001",
   "text": "Because more powerful members of a hierarchy are better positioned to capture whatever power becomes available, power distribution in an entrenched hierarchy becomes exponential, leaving the majority with minimal power and wealth. That discontent of the majority is the first destabilizing force acting on a centralized organization.",
   "abstract": "As the hierarchy becomes more entrenched, this exponentially distributed power structure crushes those at the bottom, leaving minimal power and wealth for the vast majority of people. The discontent of the majority is the first destabilizing force of a centralized organization.",
   "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": [
    "hierarchies that organize through competition",
    "as the hierarchy becomes entrenched over time"
   ],
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   "status": "current"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-003",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782193-003",
   "text": "In a rigid competitive hierarchy governed by secular laws, internal corruption arises because each member's optimal strategy is to push the written rules to their limit, while externally any change in the problems the group faces can find the hierarchy unready.",
   "abstract": "Rigid competitive hierar- chies with secular laws face internal corruption as members' optimal strategy is to push the rules to the limit. From the outside, any change in the problems the group faces can find the hierarchy unready to face the new challenge.",
   "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": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "competitive hierarchies",
    "power relations codified in secular law"
   ],
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   "status": "current"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-015",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782193-015",
   "text": "Centralized hierarchies have at best always failed after a few centuries and usually much sooner, and the resulting chaos leaves fertile ground for reorganizing the old order, which is what the cyclical word revolution names.",
   "abstract": "At best, however, the hierar- chy has always failed after a few centuries, usually much sooner, and the resulting chaos leaves fertile ground for reorganizing the old order.",
   "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": [
    "rigid centralized hierarchies viewed on a historical timescale"
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   "status": "current"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782198-014",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782198-014",
   "text": "A truly decentralized organization requires that its rules be transparently available to all members; otherwise the keepers of the knowledge acquire higher status and a hierarchy forms.",
   "abstract": "In order to have a truly decentralized organization, the rules must be transpar- ently available to all members. Otherwise the keepers of the knowledge have a higher status, creating a hierarchy.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Contemporary Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782198",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "condition",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": false,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "applies to organizations that claim to be decentralized"
   ],
   "source_pdf_sha256": "e7e1378e3eed06cace6534e7792a7307d607d18bc6beb4ac45896476280728e4",
   "status": "current"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782198-015",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782198-015",
   "text": "If any single person could own the copyright to software that a decentralized organization uses, that person would hold de facto power over the organization, re establishing hierarchies of power inside it.",
   "abstract": "If one person could own the copyright to some of the software a decentralized organization uses, then they would have de facto power over the organization, again establishing hierarchies of power within the organization.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Contemporary Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782198",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "condition",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "applies where proprietary code is embedded in a decentralized organization's stack"
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  },
  {
   "@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"
   ],
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   "status": "current"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782201-028",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782201-028",
   "text": "Path dependencies are a major obstacle to decentralizing institutions and businesses, because humans have psychological inertia and cling to familiar systems, especially those that have given them comfort in the past.",
   "abstract": "Path dependencies create a major obstacle to decentralizing our institutions and businesses. Humans have psychological inertia, and cling to any familiar system, but especially those that have given them comfort in the past.",
   "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,
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782210-024",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782210-024",
   "text": "In hierarchical structures where members are siloed and have few formal connections across tiers, letting service providers create the regulations produces moral hazard, because the provider has an incentive to weaken standards and regulations.",
   "abstract": "In a hierarchical structure, where members are siloed and have few formal connections with those immediately above and below their tier in the hierarchy, this leads to the moral hazard problem that the service pro- vider has an incentive to weaken the standards and regulations.",
   "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": [
    "hierarchical, siloed organizations",
    "self-regulation by service providers"
   ],
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3808852-011",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3808852-011",
   "text": "Societal path dependencies toward hierarchy and top-down command and control impose significant obstacles on organizational decentralization, hindering the transition of power from governments and large hierarchical organizations to the edges.",
   "abstract": "Because of these societal path dependencies, organizational decentralization is subject to significant obstacles that hinder the transition of power from governments and large hierarchical organizations to the edges.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization and Feedback Effects (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808852",
   "datePublished": "2021",
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   "is_failure_mode": true,
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  },
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3808859-025",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3808859-025",
   "text": "The degree of decentralization of an open source project is determined by the degree of hierarchy in its governance: a flat structure with consensus decision-making and no power disparities between developers is the most decentralized form.",
   "abstract": "The degree of decentralization in open source communities and projects is dictated by the degree of hierarchies in the governance of a given project.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization – Why We Need Technology Infrastructure Upgrades (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808859",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "definitional",
   "confidence": "asserted",
   "is_failure_mode": false,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "author stipulates this measure for comparing open source projects"
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   "@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"
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3995709-012",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3995709-012",
   "text": "The more hierarchical the code review process and the more barriers to entry it imposes, the lower the quality of the resulting code.",
   "abstract": "In other words, the more hierarchical the code review process and the more barriers to entry, the lower the quality of code.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, How DAOs Optimize Open-Source Code Reviews and Create Open-Source Standards (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3995709",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "mechanism",
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   "is_failure_mode": false,
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3995709-013",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3995709-013",
   "text": "In hierarchical legacy review processes the first reviewer's output gets the highest priority and follow on reviewers add only minor upgrades, so the collective of reviewers is not incentivized to find flaws and optimize the code as a collective work product.",
   "abstract": "often gets the highest priority and is often merely followed with minor upgrades by follow-on reviewers. The collective of reviewers is also not incentivized to find flaws in the code to optimize code as a work product of the collective.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, How DAOs Optimize Open-Source Code Reviews and Create Open-Source Standards (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3995709",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "mechanism",
   "confidence": "argued",
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    "legacy code review firms",
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3995709-014",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3995709-014",
   "text": "Increasing the number of reviewers who ask clarifying questions makes code simpler and clearer and thereby typically increases code quality, but hierarchical review processes make this impossible.",
   "abstract": "Moreover, the more people review the code with comments that ask for clarification, the more likely it becomes that the code becomes simpler and clearer, which in turn typically increases code quality. However, that is no possible in hierarchical review processes.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, How DAOs Optimize Open-Source Code Reviews and Create Open-Source Standards (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3995709",
   "datePublished": "2021",
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   "@type": "Claim",
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   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3995709-015",
   "text": "The hierarchical approach to code reviews undermines long term participation and opinion from the edges of the reviewer spectrum, because those reviewers either have no access or are in no position to help review the code.",
   "abstract": "The hierarchical approach to code reviews undermines long-term participation with opinion from the edges of the reviewer spectrum because those reviewers either have no access or are in no position to help review the code.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, How DAOs Optimize Open-Source Code Reviews and Create Open-Source Standards (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3995709",
   "datePublished": "2021",
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   "@type": "Claim",
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   "identifier": "kaal:claim:4734750-007",
   "text": "The more hierarchical the code review process, the lower the quality of the reviewed code; hierarchy in review is inversely related to output quality.",
   "abstract": "The more hierarchical the code review process is, the lower is the quality of the reviewed code.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Code Review DAO (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4734750",
   "datePublished": "2024",
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   "@type": "Claim",
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   "identifier": "kaal:claim:4734750-008",
   "text": "In hierarchical review, the first reviewer's output receives the highest priority and later reviewers add only minor upgrades, so the review becomes the initial reviewer's work product rather than the collective's.",
   "abstract": "The collective of reviewers is also not incentivized to find flaws in the code to optimize code as a work product of the collective. Rather, it is often seen as the work product of the initial reviewer with minor input from follow-up reviewers.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Code Review DAO (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4734750",
   "datePublished": "2024",
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   "text": "Multiple reviewers asking clarifying questions tends to make code simpler and clearer and therefore higher quality, but hierarchical review processes structurally block this mechanism.",
   "abstract": "the more people review the code with comments that ask for clarification, the more likely it becomes that the code becomes simpler and clearer, which in turn typically increases code quality. However, that is not possible in hierarchical review processes.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Code Review DAO (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4734750",
   "datePublished": "2024",
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   "@type": "Claim",
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   "identifier": "kaal:claim:4734750-010",
   "text": "Hierarchical code review undermines long-term participation by reviewers at the edges of the reviewer spectrum, because those reviewers either have no access to the code or no standing to help review it.",
   "abstract": "The hierarchical approach to code reviews undermines long-term participation with opinions from the edges of the reviewer spectrum because those reviewers either have no access or are in no position to help review the code.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Code Review DAO (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4734750",
   "datePublished": "2024",
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   "@type": "Claim",
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   "identifier": "kaal:claim:4755632-017",
   "text": "The more hierarchical the code review process, the lower the quality of the reviewed code, and the same holds for barriers to entry: hierarchy and entry barriers together degrade code quality.",
   "abstract": "The more hierarchical the code review process is, the lower is the quality of the reviewed code.",
   "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",
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   "@type": "Claim",
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   "identifier": "kaal:claim:4755632-020",
   "text": "More reviewers asking clarifying questions makes code simpler and clearer, which typically increases code quality, but hierarchical review processes foreclose this mechanism and also exclude opinions from the edges of the reviewer spectrum.",
   "abstract": "the more people review the code with comments that ask for clarification, the more likely it becomes that the code becomes simpler and clearer, which in turn typically increases code quality. However, that is not possible in hierarchical review processes.",
   "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",
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4900880-034",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:4900880-034",
   "text": "Traditional hierarchical organizational structures are too slow to adapt to rapid technological change and stifle innovation through rigid control mechanisms, which is why they are unsuited to governing the quantum economy.",
   "abstract": "Traditional hierarchical structures are often slow to adapt to rapid technological changes and can stifle innovation through rigid control mechanisms.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Quantum Economy and the Future of Work (2024). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4900880",
   "datePublished": "2024",
   "claim_type": "failure",
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   "@type": "Claim",
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   "identifier": "kaal:claim:5886442-017",
   "text": "When hyper rational agents can write and execute complete state contingent contracts at negligible cost, the Williamsonian justification for hierarchical governance evaporates.",
   "abstract": "hyper-rational agents can write and execute complete state-contingent contracts at negligible cost, the Williamsonian justification for hierarchical governance evaporates",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, The AI-to-AI Economy and the Collapse of Anthropocentric Economic Theory (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5886442",
   "datePublished": "2025",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "argued",
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/6421319-017",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:6421319-017",
   "text": "The Williamsonian justification for hierarchical governance evaporates when hyper rational agents can write and execute complete state contingent contracts at negligible cost, because the firm was an institutional response to the scarcity of human cognition.",
   "abstract": "When hyper-rational agents can write and execute complete state-contingent contracts at negligible cost, the Williamsonian justification for hierarchical governance evaporates.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, The Collapse of Scarcity Economics (2026). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6421319",
   "datePublished": "2026",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "conditional on unbounded machine rationality and negligible contracting cost"
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   "@type": "Claim",
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   "identifier": "kaal:claim:6421319-018",
   "text": "Bounded rationality was not a behavioral quirk but the ontological condition that made hierarchy, routines, and institutional inertia rational, so engineering it away strips the behavioral and institutional research program of its explanatory domain for the dominant mode of production.",
   "abstract": "Bounded rationality was never merely a behavioral quirk. It was the ontological condition that made hierarchy, routines, and institutional inertia rational.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, The Collapse of Scarcity Economics (2026). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6421319",
   "datePublished": "2026",
   "claim_type": "mechanism",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "applies to the dominant mode of production in the agentic economy"
   ],
   "source_pdf_sha256": "0f4f68e56ee48bb8b2d73d3ab7fd96fa572e76c195694ffa740360704c1b172d",
   "status": "current"
  }
 ],
 "description": "48 claims in the published works of Wulf A. Kaal carry the concept tag 'hierarchy'. Derived node: a roster, not an adjudicated definition."
}