Thread by @AdamRusch

.@KenricNelson (cc: @IOHK_Charles, @adamKDean)

I'd like to respond to this open letter. I was also very honored to participate in the #CIP1694 workshop.

I was thrilled to see Adam Dean engage with his usual flair, despite others on either side being FUDish at times.

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https://twitter.com/KenricNelson/status/1636300918793568257

2) But the point I want to drive home is that the time to move to Decentralized Governance is here, now.

We cannot wait for the ideal technology because governance is a messy business. We will never be perfect. We will always be trying to get it right.

3) If we look around at the current regulatory landscape, it's clear that protocols that are not sufficiently decentralized put developers at risk. Bitcoin is deemed to not be a security asset in part because the miners and the nodes can veto the developers. But I digress...

3) Setting aside the issue of whether we should force wallets to Choose a DRep or Abstain, most of the other proposals of how we should change #CIP1694 have involved moving from a 1-coin-1-vote model to a 1-person-1-vote model (with or without qualifications).

4) To create a model of votes per person instead of per coin, we need an identify verification system that would certainly need to be on the L1 protocol to work.

This destroys the permissionless nature of #Cardano making discrimination and sanctioning of individuals easy.

5) Not only would it take us years to create this technology, which would alter our network in ways that are fundamentally against the cypherpunk origins of Nakamoto blockchains, I believe 1-person-1-vote is inferior to token-weighted voting.

6) In our Nation-States we've determined that it is most just for each individual to have equal say in elections.

It's actually a terrible system, as people are buffeted with disinformation and bribed through patronage. Unfortunately, every other system we've tried is worse.

7) But #Cardano is not a Nation-State. Cardano is a voluntary group of people who share a ledger of financial, commercial, and personal information.

People can come and go freely. There are no borders that lock people in or keep them out. All are welcome to contribute, or not.

8) When someone says that 1-person-1-vote is the ideal, what is the basis for that? If someone has been involved with #Cardano for years, that person deserves more of a say on how the blockchain develops than someone who walks in off the street, on their first day.

9) Or let me put this another way - why should I get extra votes for registering my cousins, my parents, and my dog to have #Cardano wallets if they never end up even using the network?

This methodology of vote harvesting is what drives propaganda and demagoguery in elections.

10) I don't like plutocracies and I believe that we need to move beyond a simple 1-coin-1-vote model to make #Cardano representative of all the communities who use it.

But I don't believe we get there by simply falling into the same old systems of the current world.

11) Having DReps chosen by token power is just the first step to creating a system where all people are heard and all communities have a seat at the table.

Token voting is not perfect by any means, but is one way to see who has invested in the network and want to see it succeed.

12) Beyond that, we need to create a culture of inclusivity and outreach. Strong organizations need to find their roles in the #Cardano ecosystem and give people ways to collaborate.

The power of Cardano is not a single Community, it's that we are a Community of Communities.

13) The best part of #Cardano right now is that we don't have individuals trying to go it alone.

Sure, there are some prominent people in the space, but in almost every case I can think of they have people in their projects that they lift up and empower.

14) That's exactly why I got involved with @ADAOcommunity and am working to build the @SummonPlatform, because I sought a community to belong to and wanted to help people have more tools that they could use to lift up their communities.

15) Summing it up, I do believe that #CIP1694 gives us a great start to minimum viable governance.

Adjustments will be made and I have my own quibbles that I am refining and intend to propose - all of them ways to make community representation stronger.

But, hey, it's a start.

16) And now a shameless self-plug. Attend our @SummonPlatform space on Saturday 😉

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