Understanding governance in business networks powered by blockchain

Governance can be defined as the centralized or decentralized body whose sole responsibility is establishing a set of rules or laws in a given system to make binding decisions. Governance in blockchain networks comes with a set of challenges and, in this section, we want to discuss those challenges along with governance structures in blockchain networks. Within the context of blockchain, the topic of governance presents an interesting paradox.

When a blockchain network is created, the governance structure is generally distributed, with input from the various stakeholders. Blockchain networks are characterized by decentralization and self-governance, with built-in control points and incentives to help maintain the right balance. Transactions go through a series of decentralized processing steps, with a decision that offers transaction finality as the output. This governance structure is based on incentive economics and consensus...