From Cryptomoms:
Quote from: Chase on Today at 01:35:03 PM
Bitcoin Fact: Nobody is in charge!
Considering all successful major businesses ( and countries for that matter) in the world have very strong leadership, it makes me wonder how Bitcoin will fare with the way it is structured.
It has been a while since I last actively participated in Cryptomoms’s forum. I will start devoting more time supporting Cryptomom and DNotes soon. In the meantime, I just can’t skip over this leadership issue Chase alerted our attention to. I am not sure where Chase read about it. This is factual, well known, and well regarded as one of the important principals of the decentralized digital currency not controlled or owned by a single individual, group, state or nation. I will be covering these concepts in one of my future posts.
http://www.vox.com/cards/bitcoin/who-is-in-charge-of-bitcoin:
Who is in charge of Bitcoin?
No one is in charge of Bitcoin. The Bitcoin network is based on the consensus of everyone who participates in it. The rules of the Bitcoin game give everyone on the network an incentive to follow the rules that were established by Bitcoin’s founder Satoshi Nakamoto.
The standard Bitcoin software is an open source project. It is managed by Gavin Andresen, a computer programmer who was nominated for the role by Nakamoto. But not everyone on the Bitcoin network uses this software. Others have developedindependent Bitcoin implementations, and people are free to modify the official Bitcoin client for their own purposes.
Andresen is an employee of the Bitcoin Foundation, a non-profit organization that is the closest thing Bitcoin has to a public face. But while the foundation often represents the views of the Bitcoin community, it doesn’t have any formal authority over the Bitcoin network.
« Last Edit: Today at 06:05:42 PM by Shepherd »
I have known about the structure of Bitcoin since I first got involved with it last year, but it wasn't until I saw "nobody is in charge" in writing a while ago, that my eyes were really opened up as to how unusual this really is. The rest of my post is just my mind wondering and wandering - how will Bitcoin fare and compare with the leadership model for business we are all used to.
This is a fascinating subject, but rather tricky to accurately comment on. It is not exactly correct that no one is in charge or that there is no leadership. Since Bitcoin, and all other altcoins, including DNotes, is not owned by a single individual, group, state, or nation; so legally, no one is in charge or obligated to. This can be best labeled as “ownership at will” Hence, one can be a day trade or a long term investor with complete freedom to change ownership position without notice. This makes it nearly impossible for any altcoins to have sustainable stability. The fact that DNotes has been consistently stable is quite an accomplishment. Can it hold up over time is my challenge of the day, everyday. Having the leadership to constantly address this issue has certainly been an advantage.
The community is charge, sometime with additional help from a more formal organization, the foundation. The community can best be described as a group of individuals interested to promote and protect their self interest, in this case, their investment. As they interact with one another, one or more among them become informal leaders expected to lead in different areas. Altcoins thrive or fail by their community. They all claimed at one time or another that they have a strong community. The DNotes team recognized this as a serious weakness right at the onset. We too believe that a strong community is very important. However, what is even more important is a long term leadership commitment to provide strategic directions and funding. This allows DNotes to be managed like a real world business where someone is in charge with dependable long term leadership and strategic directions. We strategize, prioritize, plan, motivate, direct, coordinate, exploit, evaluate and make adjustments, among many things capable leaders do. Dedicated long term leadership commitment with adequate funding is critical to our success, allowing DNotes to do things others can’t or wouldn’t do.
I would venture to say that Bitcoin has done reasonably well under its current model of “No one is in charge.” Sometimes, poor leadership can be more damaging. That is another subject, perhaps for another day. All things being equal, organized groups with a good leader will out perform other groups with no leadership or poor leadership.
The high rate of failure in our industry is troubling. Perhaps being decentralized with no one in charge is a major contributor. This is an interesting subject for further discussion.