Zero-Fee Cryptocurrency Storecoin Announces Public Governance Peer Review Process
Storecoin has announced the launch of a new working group and public peer review process around its ‘decentralized republic’-model governance of checks and balances.
“For today’s public blockchains to move past prototypes and low usage dApps – to where entities trust a decentralized blockchain enough to process millions of utility-based daily transaction volume – blockchains need an enforceable rules engine that has no centralization of power, that key network participants trust, and that is censorship resistant,” said Storecoin CEO Chris McCoy. “This is only possible through a robust system of checks and balances”
Blockchain governance refers to the set of processes by which a protocol makes decisions and evolves to changing circumstances. The domain of governance includes important issues like responding to security threats or hacks; evolving monetary policy such as token issuance; or ongoing questions of updating and improving protocol features.
To date, blockchain governance systems have been an exercise in tradeoffs. Those that employ autocratic systems face a centralization of power, either in the form of a powerful corporate entity (like Ripple), an overly strong foundation (like Stellar), or a benevolent dictator (like Ethereum). Plutocratic systems like EOS delegated proof of stake model enshrine rule by the wealthy. Voluntaristic systems like Bitcoin’s tend to elevate a group of core developers with inevitably opaque change processes. Finally, would-be democratic systems like Decred find themselves buckling under the weight of populism, as absolutely every operational decision becomes subject to a full community vote.
For today’s mainstream enterprises and major economic actors, the downsides of each of these systems represents risk that must be factored in to any decision to be involved.
Storecoin is designing a new, on-chain governance approach based on a system of checks-and-balances. Through Storecoin’s proposed systems, the community of participants can shape protocol-level feature changes, leadership positions, and even monetary policy. The governance is divided into different branches based on roles in the network, whose incentives and power distribution within the network provide a counterweight to one another and ensure that changes and updates are truly to the benefit of the protocol network as a whole, rather than any one type of participant alone. Decisions reached by the community are enforceable, and unlike in other systems, nodes who participate in the network agree contractually to update to the software reflecting the latest consensus.
Storecoin believes that this system will create trust and inspire confidence among major enterprises. The Governance Peer Review Process and Working Group is an open, invitational process meant to facilitate input on this proposed governance model from the Storecoin community.
Session 1 of Storecoin’s Governance Peer Review was an overview of the process and invitation to participate
Session 2 was an essay about the trade-offs inherent in blockchain governance models and a discussion of the origins of Storecoin’s checks-and-balances model
Additionally, an essay by McCoy on the crypto community’s growing focus on governance was published on Token Daily.
“We’ve spent many years researching governance models - both within crypto and beyond,” said McCoy. “This Peer Review is a way to invite our community into the process to review, debate, and ultimately improve the system by which the economics, security and consensus of Storecoin is coordinated.”
