One of the promises of crypto that its advocates often push is decentralization. It’s the fundamental promise of Bitcoin after all - there’s no one person running the show. We don’t even know who the founder is besides someone with the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto.
Yet every chain has a foundation that seems to be steering the ship.
They’re marketing, building partnerships, improving the protocol, doing interviews, and basically spreading the gospel about the chain.
So is that decentralized?
Ethereum in its latest manifesto claims they are working to move beyond that idea. The foundation announced that its next steps are to set up the chain for a post-Foundation world, where it runs autonomously.
In other words, if the foundation were to disappear, the chain would keep running and improving.
What would happen on your favorite chain today?
If Algorand’s Foundation left tomorrow, how much would still be running?
Transactions would continue of course. Perhaps a DAO could form to steer the ship, though that hasn’t worked out for AAVE recently, which just dissolved its DAO.
It’s unclear who would market the chain or build partnerships.
It’s possible only a chain the size of Ethereum could be foundation-less at this point. It’s well-known enough and ubiquitous enough that it might not need that support.
I’m still skeptical that there wouldn’t be tradeoffs, however.
Sure, the chains would run fine, but would there be enough support to improve the chain and to market it?
Is someone going to volunteer to go meet with Mastercard to set up a partnership? And who? How would it be decided? Via DAO?
Bitcoin might provide the answer. There is technically a foundation but not one with control over the protocol like Algorand or Hedera. It keeps running and innovation does happen on the chain.
With Ethereum moving in that direction, it will be interesting to see how that manifests as it becomes more autonomous and less centralized.
It could be a roadmap for the future of other chains. Or a cautionary tale.
Follow FrugalBC on YouTube, X, and check out our sponsor Haystack for the best trading app on Algorand with the lowest fees. We go live on YouTube, X, Kick and Twitch every Tuesday and Friday at 11 am CST. And find the FrugalBC podcast on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.