Decentralization and governance

You may be wondering why we are covering such a topic in a blockchain book. After all, aren't blockchain networks supposed to be decentralized and, therefore, guarded against the control of a single entity? The reality is that, behind the technology, there are humans who shape the direction of the solution. For an enterprise-grade blockchain network to succeed, it requires many decisions throughout its life cycle.

Even Bitcoin, the decentralized, anonymous, permissionless network, must deal with hard decisions. A case in point is the controversy around Bitcoin's block size. In the early days of Bitcoin, the developers set a block size limit of 1 MB. As the network scaled up, this limit became problematic. Numerous proposals were issued, but the need for a consensus across the entirety of Bitcoin nodes made the change a challenge to agree upon. The debate started in 2015, but the community had to wait until February 2018...