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 "name": "Profit motive",
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 "author": {
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Wulf A. Kaal",
  "identifier": "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0757-275X"
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   "@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"
   ],
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   "text": "Giving the Apaches cattle in 1917 succeeded where military force had failed because the valuable assets created a zero-sum battle over resources between lineages, generating the internal competition necessary to produce a hierarchy of power over the disbursement of resources and property.",
   "abstract": "As Nevins explained, the introduction of the cattle created \"a zero-sum battle over resources between lineages\".26 The valuable assets created the internal competition necessary to generate a hierarchy of power over disbursement of resources and property.",
   "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": [
    "introduction of divisible valuable assets into a decentralized group"
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   "text": "The authors accept Brafman and Beckstrom's thesis that the best way to convert a decentralized organization into a centralized one is to introduce the profit motive, since money supplies a focal point for internal competition.",
   "abstract": "The thesis of The Starfish and the Spider is that the best way to convert a decentral- ized organization to a centralized organization is to introduce the profit motive.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782193",
   "datePublished": "2021",
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    "decentralized organizations in which profits become available to members"
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   "@type": "Claim",
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   "text": "Bitcoin does not refute the thesis that money centralizes decentralized projects: hashing power has slowly become concentrated in mining pools until the majority of that power resides in the single country of China.",
   "abstract": "Slowly, Bitcoin hashing power has become more concentrated in mining pools, until today the ma- jority of power resides in the single country of China.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782193",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "empirical",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "Bitcoin after roughly ten years of operation, as of the authors' writing"
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782193-028",
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   "text": "Almost every blockchain project the authors are aware of is suffering under the centralizing force of competition for equity control and profit, and such projects predictably move toward centralization when unconscious of these forces.",
   "abstract": "In fact, almost every blockchain project we're aware of is suffering under the central- izing force of competition for equity control and profit.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Historical Sketches of Centralization vs. Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782193",
   "datePublished": "2021",
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    "contemporary for-profit blockchain and Web3 projects"
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   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782205-012",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782205-012",
   "text": "Historically, whenever a healthy decentralized organization began to earn money it quickly devolved into a centralized institution, because its uniting ideals shifted from transcendental value to a desire for money.",
   "abstract": "Whenever a healthy decentralized organization in the past began to earn money, it quickly devolved to a centralized institution. Their ideals shifted from the transcen- dental value which originally united them to a desire for money.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Eight Institutions for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782205",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "historical decentralized organizations that became profitable"
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   "text": "Once the equalizing ideal that moderates a decentralized organization is lost, competition generated by the profit motive leads inevitably to centralization with rigid rules about who holds power and wealth.",
   "abstract": "Without the previous equalizing ideal to moderate, the competition generated by the profit motive led in- evitably to the organization centralizing with rigid rules for who has power and wealth.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Eight Institutions for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782205",
   "datePublished": "2021",
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782214-014",
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   "text": "When currency is the entire proximal goal of a transaction, all participants naturally behave as selfishly as possible and exploit any opportunity for individual profit at the group's expense, which makes cash profit a bad immediate incentive for both business and government.",
   "abstract": "If the entire proximal goal of a transaction is currency, all participants will naturally be- have in the most selfish manner possible, exploiting any opportunity for individual profit at the expense of the group.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Governance (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782214",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "mechanism",
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   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "anonymous members staking currency on rigid smart contracts"
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   "text": "Internal competition for profit creates a natural tendency to centralize power as members differentiate themselves through wins and losses, and this centralizing tendency is an additional destabilizing force on a decentralized organization.",
   "abstract": "The internal competition for profit creates the natural tendency to centralize power as the members differentiate themselves with wins and losses. This centralizing tendency is another force further destabilizing the organizations.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Governance (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782214",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "mechanism",
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   "is_failure_mode": false,
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    "for profit organizations with internal competition"
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   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782214-026",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782214-026",
   "text": "The alternatives to a reputational system for countering profit driven instability, namely external stabilizing forces such as governmental fiat and rapidly expanding profit opportunities, are inadequate because expansion driven stability lasts only as long as the expansion does.",
   "abstract": "Alternatives to reputational systems for countering the instability generated by profit competition include external stabilizing forces (such as governmental fiat) or rapidly expanding profit opportunities (which will only stabilize a group until the ex- pansion stops).",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Governance (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782214",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "failure",
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    "organizations destabilized by profit competition"
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 "description": "10 claims in the published works of Wulf A. Kaal carry the concept tag 'profit-motive'. Derived node: a roster, not an adjudicated definition."
}