{"id":17455,"date":"2016-11-03T12:11:06","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T20:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/?p=17455"},"modified":"2017-12-11T16:41:12","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T13:41:12","slug":"governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/","title":{"rendered":"Governance Is a Critical Need and a Critical Weakness of Blockchains"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-transparent ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/#The_four_key_blockchain_layers\" >The four key blockchain layers<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/#The_network_and_transaction_layers\" >The network and transaction layers<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/#The_consensus_and_application_layers\" >The consensus and application layers<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/#Challenges_in_decentralized_ledgers\" >Challenges in decentralized ledgers<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/#How_centralized_ledgers_make_a_difference\" >How centralized ledgers make a difference<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/#Governing_the_governance\" >Governing the governance<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/#Blockchain_is_still_chaotic\" >Blockchain is still chaotic<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/#Want_details_Watch_the_video\" >Want details? Watch the video!<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/#Related_slides\" >Related slides<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/#Related_reading\" >Related reading<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/#About_the_speaker\" >About the speaker<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_four_key_blockchain_layers\"><\/span>The four key blockchain layers<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The recent <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.ethereum.org\/2016\/10\/18\/faq-upcoming-ethereum-hard-fork\/\" target=\"_blank\">hard fork<\/a> of the Ethereum blockchain and the ongoing <a href=\"https:\/\/en.bitcoin.it\/wiki\/Block_size_limit_controversy\" target=\"_blank\">block-size debate<\/a> within the Bitcoin world have focused Arthur Breitman&#8217;s mind.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17477\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17477\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/arthur_breitman-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Arthur Breitman\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-17477\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-17477\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><small>Arthur Breitman<\/small><\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/arthurbreitman\" target=\"_blank\">Arthur<\/a> is a founder and a senior software engineer with Tezos, which calls itself the world&#8217;s first self-amending ledger and which is scheduled to be launched in Q1 2017. He gave a presentation at a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/Hyperledger-SF-Bay\/events\/229797367\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hyperledger meetup<\/a> in Silicon Valley, speaking of the current blockchain landscape.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m a blockchain realist,\u201d Arthur said, \u201cI think they&#8217;re very cool but also a little overhyped.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before discussing centralized \/ decentralized blockchains, the advantages, and problems therein, he gave a brief overview and some key technical details of the four key blockchain layers:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>network (wire protocol)<\/li>\n<li>consensus<\/li>\n<li>transaction<\/li>\n<li>application<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_network_and_transaction_layers\"><\/span>The network and transaction layers<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>When speaking about the <em>network<\/em> layer, Arthur pointed out that it ensures communication between the nodes and typicaly represents a gossip network. The issues to handle within this layer were enumerated as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>DDOS<\/li>\n<li>synchronicity<\/li>\n<li>scalability<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>According to Arthur, traditional innovation is possible at this very layer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/arthur_breitman_governance_and-blockchain-v3.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/arthur_breitman_governance_and-blockchain-v3.jpg\" alt=\"arthur_breitman_governance_and-blockchain-v3\" width=\"640\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17478\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Then follows the <em>transaction<\/em> layer that defines the semantics of the ledger. Arthur outlined that this layer has more to offer than just &#8220;transactions&#8221;, e.g. it can:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>originate a contract<\/li>\n<li>issue an asset<\/li>\n<li>create an identity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Though introducing first-class semantics requires consensus, the derived semantics is still possible at the transaction layer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_consensus_and_application_layers\"><\/span>The consensus and application layers<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The <em>consensus<\/em> layer determines a canonical version for the state of the ledger. It has a number of models:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>traditional <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Byzantine_fault_tolerance\" target=\"_blank\">BFT<\/a> algorithms (PBFT, Zyzzyva, and HB-BFT)<\/li>\n<li>proof-of-work (Nakamoto Consensus)<\/li>\n<li>proof-of-stake<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Within this layer, innovation is harder in existing systems, requiring consensus.<\/p>\n<p>Arthur advocated throughout his presentation for making the first three of these layers \u201cas thin as possible, with a rich application layer that does as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, the <em>application<\/em> layer is built on top of the ledger, using its underlying functionality:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>wallets<\/li>\n<li>notary services<\/li>\n<li>merchant services<\/li>\n<li>ledger visualization<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He highlighted that innovation in here is easy, particularly in permissionless environment.<\/p>\n<p>However, even the coolest applications won&#8217;t work in blockchain \u201cunless everyone agrees to what is going on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/arthur_breitman_governance_and_blockchain-v1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/arthur_breitman_governance_and_blockchain-v1.jpg\" alt=\"arthur_breitman_governance_and_blockchain-v1\" width=\"640\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17479\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cDon&#8217;t use it as a decentralized or distributed database (for example). In fact, you should treat transactions (simply) as data operations, with no semantics at all. There should be a complete abstraction in which the blockchain has no idea of value, but just has information.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014Arthur Breitman, Tezos<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Challenges_in_decentralized_ledgers\"><\/span>Challenges in decentralized ledgers<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Speaking of Hyperledger, Arthur noted there is not the consensus problem associated with Bitcoin and Ethereum, because the idea is to have a set of known parties and trusted validators within a closed, permissioned system. On the other hand, \u201cyou do need a rich transaction protocol if you have a decentralized ledger,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n<p>He outlined that decentralization is achieved by entangling the <em>transaction<\/em> and <em>consensus<\/em> layers. Consensus is therefore achieved with pecuniary incentives. So, the challenges brought along by thin transaction layers are the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>dilute the value of the token<\/li>\n<li>present scalability challenges (less concise)<\/li>\n<li>may fail to build network effects<\/li>\n<li>essentially parasitic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_centralized_ledgers_make_a_difference\"><\/span>How centralized ledgers make a difference<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Talking centralized ledgers versus decentralized ones, Arthur accentuated that decentralization didn&#8217;t necessarily imply &#8220;permissionless&#8221; environment, while centralization didn&#8217;t imply &#8220;permissioned&#8221; one. Still, centralized ledgers can be tamper evident.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;Number one feature of decentralization is censorship resistance.&#8221; \u2014Arthur Breitman, Tezos<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Concerns about censorship and interference from third parties (especially including governments) have been raised since the earliest days of Bitcoin, but may be of less concern with a centralized blockchain, Arthur said. \u201cIf your application doesn&#8217;t care about a concerted, global effort of governments to stop it, then you have can have a centralized network and it will work beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/arthur_breitman_governance_and_blockchain-v5.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/arthur_breitman_governance_and_blockchain-v5.jpg\" alt=\"arthur_breitman_governance_and_blockchain-v5\" width=\"640\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17534\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Examples of this kind include financial contracts between and among established financial institutions, tracking of appliance warranties, and land registries, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Arthur exemplified why thin transaction layers make sense in such a case:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>scalability is less of an issue<\/li>\n<li>no issues with token value<\/li>\n<li>facilitates innovation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Arthur summed it up saying that Hyperledger should strive for a thin transaction layer and build modular, swapable transaction semantics.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Governing_the_governance\"><\/span>Governing the governance<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Although he noted some key challenges with decentralized ledgers (such as scalability and a failure to produce network effects), Arthur returned to this theme that governance problems present the real hazards.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/arthur_breitman_governance_and_blockchain-v6.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/arthur_breitman_governance_and_blockchain-v6.jpg\" alt=\"arthur_breitman_governance_and_blockchain-v6\" width=\"640\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17536\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He noted how the recent Ethereum fork \u201cwas a governance decision that happened behind close doors\u201d and how the Bitcoin block-size \u201cblunder\u201d (in his word) is far from resolved. The idea of \u201c<strong>meta-consensus<\/strong> capability\u201d within the Tezos project addresses governance issues, he said. The company&#8217;s website says that \u201cTezos not only comes to consensus about state, like BTC or ETH. It also comes to consensus about how the protocol and the nodes should adapt and upgrade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Blockchain_is_still_chaotic\"><\/span>Blockchain is still chaotic<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>If human beings were better wired to be trustworthy, blockchain would be moving forward much more quickly. Of course, most societal ills would also cease to exist. Due to our species&#8217; potential for mischief, the world of blockchain still appears very chaotic.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Bitcoin having been around now seven to eight years, we&#8217;re still in the very early moments after the Big Bang it created. Tezos is taking an intriguing new direction, particularly in the world of decentralized blockchain.<\/p>\n<p>At the meetup, Arthur did a great job in outlining and balancing the relative strengths and weaknesses of each. We look forward to the Tezos launch early next year, at which point we can thoroughly evaluate the idea of self-amending blockchains and how effective this approach will be in practice.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Want_details_Watch_the_video\"><\/span>Want details? Watch the video!<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<table width=\"100%\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"video-details-td\">\n<div style=\"float: right; width: 45%; padding-left: 15px; font-size: 14px;\">\n<p><strong>Table of contents<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom: 6px;\">What is the layer model for blockchain? (<a href=\"#wistia_faus98ugdp?time=125\">2&#8217;05<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom: 6px;\">What happens in the network layer? (<a href=\"#wistia_faus98ugdp?time=570\">9&#8217;30&#8221;<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom: 6px;\">What happens in the consensus layer? (<a href=\"#wistia_faus98ugdp?time=795\">13&#8217;15&#8221;<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom: 6px;\">What happens in the transaction layer? (<a href=\"#wistia_faus98ugdp?time=980\">16&#8217;20&#8221;<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom: 6px;\">What happens in the application layer? (<a href=\"#wistia_faus98ugdp?time=1095\">18&#8217;15&#8221;<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom: 6px;\">What are centralized ledgers? (<a href=\"#wistia_faus98ugdp?time=1492\">24&#8217;52&#8221;<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom: 6px;\">What exactly is a decentralized ledger? (<a href=\"#wistia_faus98ugdp?time=1970\">32&#8217;50&#8221;<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom: 6px;\">What are applications for decentralized ledgers? (<a href=\"#wistia_faus98ugdp?time=2180\">36&#8217;20&#8221;<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom: 6px;\">Q&#038;A. Where does governance come in? (<a href=\"#wistia_faus98ugdp?time=2580\">43&#8217;00&#8221;<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom: 6px;\">Q&#038;A. What are the risks involved in implementing decentralized ledgers? (<a href=\"#wistia_faus98ugdp?time=2860\">47&#8217;40&#8221;<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<p><script charset=\"ISO-8859-1\" src=\"\/\/fast.wistia.com\/assets\/external\/E-v1.js\" async><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"wistia_embed wistia_async_faus98ugdp\" style=\"height:320px;width:440px\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Related_slides\"><\/span>Related slides<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/slideshow\/embed_code\/key\/6rzIlq9nogXuIa\" width=\"427\" height=\"356\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Related_reading\"><\/span>Related reading<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/fireside-chat-blockchain-security-scalability-and-energy-consumption\/\">Fireside Chat: Blockchain Security, Scalability, and Energy Consumption<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/the-royal-bank-of-scotland-builds-a-hyperledger-digital-wallet-the-lessons-learned\/\">The Royal Bank of Scotland Builds a Hyperledger Digital Wallet: the Lessons Learned<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/opinion-the-impact-blockchain-can-bring-upon-finance-and-banking-and-how-it-may-happen\/\">Opinion: The Impact Blockchain Can Bring upon Finance and Banking and How It May Happen<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/managing-risk-and-building-trust-for-blockchain-in-finance\/\">Managing Risk and Building Trust for Blockchain in Finance<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr\/>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"About_the_speaker\"><\/span>About the speaker<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<div>\n<div style=\"float: right;\"><a href=\"\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/arthurbreitman\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/arthur-breitman-bio-v1-150x150.png\" alt=\"arthur-breitman-bio-v1\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-17483\" \/><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 600px;\"><small><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/arthurbreitman\" target=\"_blank\">Arthur Breitman<\/a> is CEO at Dynamic Ledger Solutions, a company that develops Tezos, a self-amending cryptographic ledger. He has expertise in machine learning, robotics, algorithmic trading, and financial cryptography. Before founding Tezos, Arthur worked as Vice President at Morgan Stanley. Arthur holds a MS degree in Financial Mathematics from New York University and Diplome d&#8217;Ingenieur de l&#8217;Ecole Polytechnique Paris in applied math, computer science, and physics.<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr\/>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<p><small>This post was written by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/author\/rstrukhoff\/\">Roger Strukhoff<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/author\/sophie.turol\/\">Sophie Turol<\/a>, with assistance from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/author\/carlo\/\">Carlo Gutierrez<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/author\/alex\/\">Alex Khizhnyak<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The four key blockchain layers<\/p>\n<p>The recent hard fork of the Ethereum blockchain and the ongoing block-size debate within the Bitcoin world have focused Arthur Breitman&#8217;s mind.<\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-17477\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Arthur Breitman<\/p>\n<p>Arthur is a founder and a senior software engineer with Tezos, which calls itself the world&#8217;s first self-amending ledger and which is [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[672,753],"class_list":["post-17455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-opinion","tag-blockchain","tag-hyperledger"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Governance Is a Critical Need and a Critical Weakness of Blockchains | Altoros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Outlining four major blockchain layers, Arthur Breitman of Tezos spoke on the challenges brought along by centralized and decentralized ledgers, censorship sensitivity, and governance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Governance Is a Critical Need and a Critical Weakness of Blockchains | Altoros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The four key blockchain layers The recent hard fork of the Ethereum blockchain and the ongoing block-size debate within the Bitcoin world have focused Arthur Breitman&#8217;s mind. Arthur Breitman Arthur is a founder and a senior software engineer with Tezos, which calls itself the world&#8217;s first self-amending ledger and which is [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/governance-is-a-critical-need-and-a-critical-weakness-of-blockchains\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Altoros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-03T20:11:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-11T13:41:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Hyperledger-Blockchain-Arthur-Breitman-Tezos-feat.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sophia Turol\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta 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