[ANN][DCR] Decred - Community Governance | Bitcoin Devs | Lightning Network

[Flodner]

Hi everyone,

I became interested in Decred recently and I plan to be involved more in different aspects.
I'm happy to see that here on my favorite forum there are 554 pages! It will take me a while to read it)

I think there are 2 aspects which interested me the most Politeia and the "Contributors" part. I recently wrote article about Telos governance experience and I'm going to test Politeia soon, I will buy some Decred today and vote, when it will become possible. I actually planned to vote for MondePR, watched the video on Twitter and decided to vote. It seems that vote is over and MondePR won, so congratulations! 

Also I wrote in "DCR Event" section about 20 March - Blockchain conference in Kyiv (Ukraine), if there might be speaker from Decred, it would be great. If somebody just wants to visit biggest conference in Eastern Europe - fine too, tickets are cheap and we (as media partners) can provide discount promo-code. It would be good, I didn't hear much about Decred here, and only recently discovered that one of Decred Voting Service Provider is from Kyiv as well.

[Ferdo]

Hi everyone,

I became interested in Decred recently and I plan to be involved more in different aspects.
I'm happy to see that here on my favorite forum there are 554 pages! It will take me a while to read it)

I think there are 2 aspects which interested me the most Politeia and the "Contributors" part. I recently wrote article about Telos governance experience and I'm going to test Politeia soon, I will buy some Decred today and vote, when it will become possible. I actually planned to vote for MondePR, watched the video on Twitter and decided to vote. It seems that vote is over and MondePR won, so congratulations! 

Also I wrote in "DCR Event" section about 20 March - Blockchain conference in Kyiv (Ukraine), if there might be speaker from Decred, it would be great. If somebody just wants to visit biggest conference in Eastern Europe - fine too, tickets are cheap and we (as media partners) can provide discount promo-code. It would be good, I didn't hear much about Decred here, and only recently discovered that one of Decred Voting Service Provider is from Kyiv as well.

Welcome, I'm sure you won't be disappointed

[ivanrsj]

Hello guys.

People usually misunderstanding what decentralization means, thinking on equality.

Most of us, already know that inequalithy is human intrinsic.

The Decred's governance model, put the decision makers under a "skin in the game" set.

This model ain't better, but a different way from bitcoin.

Bitcoin has a tough governance, almost immutable via hardforks when it needs, always creating another coins instead of solving or improving the technical rules.

It could be perfect over decades as SOV, but as a softfork's hostage, some basic implements could be impossible to make, becoming it outdated.

Decred allows HF without creating another chains.

About centralization, new coins tend to be more centralized than old ones.

Greetings.

[MrSunshine]

Hello guys.

People usually misunderstanding what decentralization means, thinking on equality.

Most of us, already know that inequalithy is human intrinsic.

The Decred's governance model, put the decision makers under a "skin in the game" set.

This model ain't better, but a different way from bitcoin.

Bitcoin has a tough governance, almost immutable via hardforks when it needs, always creating another coins instead of solving or improving the technical rules.

It could be perfect over decades as SOV, but as a softfork's hostage, some basic implements could be impossible to make, becoming it outdated.

Decred allows HF without creating another chains.

About centralization, new coins tend to be more centralized than old ones.

Greetings.

Right the governance models between BTC and DCR are almost complete opposites. Some say it is a strength of BTC to be almost immutable, but some day a fork may be necessary, and allow DCR to jump near or ahead of BTC. We will see what happens. I own both.

[Ferdo]

Agree. Also hold both. I see DCR as a great way to hedge BTC governance wise.

I'm also hedging BTC in terms of:
- fees & speed
- privacy

Won't shill other coins here but I presume people who think alike know which ones I'm referring to.

I think these 3 areas are main threats for BTC.

[EmilioMann]

On Saturday, February 8th, the Decred blockchain will have been adding blocks for 4 years. #DecredGlobalMeetups are taking place across the world in at least twenty different cities across five continents. The heartbeat of the community and its thriving ecosystem has never been stronger, as Decred continues its long-term approach to re-building the financial system in a fairer way.

The robust and decentralized community of OG cypherpunks and intellectuals embody the core principles of the project and represent its greatest strength. They have built hardware, started stakepools, and represented Decred at events. They have staked their coins in exchange for direct sovereignty over Decred, and made and commented on Politeia proposals and voted at an unprecedented rate. They have visually, emotionally and rationally defined what it means to be one of us.

Year markers are a time to reflect, cognizant of the hardening force of the Lindy effect. Bootstrapped by Company 0 and two pseudonymous entities, Decred approaches it’s fourth birthday with a robust ecosystem of blockchain economics. The supply side is strong, and the contractor system supports a vibrant community of diverse contributors to sustainably build, research, document and communicate the project. The decentralization is such that Company 0 now makes up a minority of developers working on Decred.

While other projects launched ICOs, competed to see who had a bigger white paper, and talked about how their project would revolutionize X, Y, or Z, Decred kept its head down and coded. At a total cost of 7M USD, here is a list of some of the deliverables it has generated.


- Tools for atomic swaps
https://github.com/decred/atomicswap

- Wallet with graphical user interface (GUI)
https://github.com/decred/decrediton

- Changed consensus rules repeatedly per the stakeholder’s direction
https://voting.decred.org/

- Project management system, Politeia
https://github.com/decred/politeia

- Decentralizing control of the Treasury https://proposals.decred.org/proposals/c96290a2478d0a1916284438ea2c59a1215fe768a87648d04d45f6b7ecb82c3f

- Experimented and iterated community resource allocation
https://proposals.decred.org/

- Built Contractor Management System (CMS) to govern contributors
https://cms.decred.org/

- Privacy system ensures auditability of the blockchain
https://blog.decred.org/2019/08/28/Iterating-Privacy/

- Approved, specified and building alpha decentralized exchange (DEX)
https://github.com/decred/dcrdex

- Mobile app for Android https://github.com/decred/dcrandroid and iOS
https://github.com/raedahgroup/dcrios

- Simple Payment Verification (SPV)
https://docs.decred.org/wallets/spv/

- Lightning Network
https://github.com/decred/dcrlnd


The infrastructure being put into place is built for the long horizon. These are the foundations that will enable the Decred community to grow, make decisions, and operate on the multi-decade horizon to become a superior store of value, medium of exchange, and serious alternative to Bitcoin. With the evolution of features, including privacy, a decentralized exchange, and Lightning Network, the future of Decred’s ecosystem becomes complete. That is, until the community decides they should be augmented, for which there is a formal process for doing so. These systems are, critically, strongly aligned with project values:


- Free and open source software

- Free speech and consideration

- Multi-stakeholder inclusivity

- Incremental privacy and security

- Fixed finite supply

- Universal fungibility


These values and foundations drive the community and ensure sustainable community growth. The reasons to Iterate Bitcoin persist, and they continue to be proven with the passage of time. The cause has attracted a talented community of developers and contributors. Decred is secure, adaptable, and sustainable, and internal development and external forces will make 2020 a great year to be one of us.

by Dustin LeFebvre
https://medium.com/@dlefebvr/on-saturday-february-8th-the-decred-blockchain-will-have-been-adding-blocks-for-4-years-17fe3038f3bf

[Lauda]

Bitcoin has a tough governance, almost immutable via hardforks when it needs, always creating another coins instead of solving or improving the technical rules.

It could be perfect over decades as SOV, but as a softfork's hostage, some basic implements could be impossible to make, becoming it outdated.

You have no idea what you're talking about. There's a very good reason why Bitcoin is hard to change. Any coin that is easy to change will not survive. I highly advise you to start thinking from the perspective of somebody who doesn't own Decred nor Bitcoin and you'll find that your bias affects your beliefs very strongly. Bitcoin governance has shown that in the event of an imminent thread (see inflation Bug 2019), all genuine actors (which represents almost everyone, regardless of politics) will swiftly (and sometimes even blindly - which is bad) act to re-secure the network. Any claims of "being outdated" is also nonsense.

- fees & speed
- privacy

Won't shill other coins here but I presume people who think alike know which ones I'm referring to.

I think these 3 areas are main threats for BTC.

No, they are not. The cost of transactions is a deterrent against bloating it to the point of centralizing it. Too much privacy on layer 1, and regulators will throw your coin into the bin. Speed, what speed? All transactions are near instant. Fast confirmations =/= secure confirmations. The former is worthless in comparison to the latter.
Don't read advice from Medium, Telegram, Twitter et. al. "Crypto enthusiasts", they usually don't even have half the knowledge that they claim to. Decred, like only a couple other altcoins which stand out, is a good test bed for new technologies that may work in theory but may not work in practice (we can't know until we try). That's about it as far as to the actual usability and worth of these networks goes (today - may change in the future).

[EmilioMann]

https://medium.com/decred/decred-journal-january-2020-616d919784ff

[MrSunshine]

PSA: Block Header Commitments Change (DCP0005) Locked In -- ~28 days left to update - This means you MUST upgrade to the latest version of the software if you have not already before the lockin period expires to avoid being forked from the network.

https://old.reddit.com/r/decred/comments/f3meqz/psa_block_header_commitments_change_dcp0005/

[Wind_FURY]

Hello guys.

People usually misunderstanding what decentralization means, thinking on equality.

Most of us, already know that inequalithy is human intrinsic.

The Decred's governance model, put the decision makers under a "skin in the game" set.

Are you saying that Decred's governance model is Plutocratic?

This model ain't better, but a different way from bitcoin.

Bitcoin has a tough governance, almost immutable via hardforks when it needs, always creating another coins instead of solving or improving the technical rules.

It could be perfect over decades as SOV, but as a softfork's hostage, some basic implements could be impossible to make, becoming it outdated.

Decred allows HF without creating another chains.

About centralization, new coins tend to be more centralized than old ones.

Greetings.

I already said it before, if a motivated minority wants to fork, it will fork. Yes, it will be costly. Bitcoin Cash was the same. We were laughing at it, but they developed the EDA to save, and keep their network going.

[hd49728]

I already said it before, if a motivated minority wants to fork, it will fork. Yes, it will be costly. Bitcoin Cash was the same. We were laughing at it, but they developed the EDA to save, and keep their network going.

Instead of making an announcement like "We clone the coin, Decred, for example, from their source code and start to develop our coin from it."

They make their projects look more legit (in fact they are not): "We fork Decred coin because of its drawbacks and develop our better coin".

Fork ~ clone and they will end with no interests from community, investors, zero value.

[Wind_FURY]

I already said it before, if a motivated minority wants to fork, it will fork. Yes, it will be costly. Bitcoin Cash was the same. We were laughing at it, but they developed the EDA to save, and keep their network going.

Instead of making an announcement like "We clone the coin, Decred, for example, from their source code and start to develop our coin from it."

They make their projects look more legit (in fact they are not): "We fork Decred coin because of its drawbacks and develop our better coin".

Fork ~ clone and they will end with no interests from community, investors, zero value.

But blockcain networks are made up of people, if there's a motivation to fork, it will be valuable for those people.

We laughed at Bitcoin Cash, but it's still fighting a war of attrition against Bitcoin, still supported by a motivated minority.

[EmilioMann]

www.decred.org has been revamped:

    • New visual aesthetic

    • New explainer video

    • New subpages to detail Decred’s:

        ◦ History

        ◦ Security

        ◦ Adaptability

        ◦ Sustainability

[hd49728]

Fork ~ clone and they will end with no interests from community, investors, zero value.

But blockcain networks are made up of people, if there's a motivation to fork, it will be valuable for those people.

We laughed at Bitcoin Cash, but it's still fighting a war of attrition against Bitcoin, still supported by a motivated minority.

Clone coins ad clone ones no matter their developers refuse that fact or admit it. What you said is right but I believe you forgot one important thing of clone coin. Fundamentally, clone coins don't have any new technical specifications (modified or improved from original coins). They simply are cloned and renamed before running marketting to attract investors.

Fork coins, on the other hand, have some technical improvements from original coins. Such fork coins can get attraction from investors and community (or can not) but they are truly fork coins.

[Wind_FURY]

Fork ~ clone and they will end with no interests from community, investors, zero value.

But blockcain networks are made up of people, if there's a motivation to fork, it will be valuable for those people.

We laughed at Bitcoin Cash, but it's still fighting a war of attrition against Bitcoin, still supported by a motivated minority.

Clone coins ad clone ones no matter their developers refuse that fact or admit it. What you said is right but I believe you forgot one important thing of clone coin. Fundamentally, clone coins don't have any new technical specifications (modified or improved from original coins). They simply are cloned and renamed before running marketting to attract investors.

Fork coins, on the other hand, have some technical improvements from original coins. Such fork coins can get attraction from investors and community (or can not) but they are truly fork coins.

I'm not talking about the Github repository copied, and a new blockchain boot-strapped, with a new Genesis Block. I'm debating/hypothesizing about an actual fork of Decred, with true/loyal support by a determined minority.

[EmilioMann]

Decred Journal February 2020

https://medium.com/decred/decred-journal-february-2020-8ff1eac92305

[Makleyhill]

The Decred Drive (March 12), which is released every week on Thursdays, last week turned out to be very hot due to the coronavirus epidemic
https://medium.com/@decreddrive/the-decred-drive-mar-12-c8638c131b2e

[Flodner]

Are you saying that Decred's governance model is Plutocratic?

I would call this model - Decentralized Feudalism
(But as well I would apply this model to many other cryptocurrencies, as I like the saying that we are now entering New Middle Ages)

One of the features of Decred is its governance system - Politeia
But only big holders can vote, as ticket price is over $2000 last time I counted DCR rate, may be now little bit less.
And this amount I consider "big" as per personal investment in crypto (of course it's nothing for early adopters or institutions)

[Praxis]

I would call this model - Decentralized Feudalism

That's a hilarious but wild comparison.  There are specifics about feudalism that don't apply to crypto even metaphorically.
The less hyperbolic analogy would be shareholder corporate governance... the more shares you have, the more skin-in-the-game, the more the decisions affect you so naturally your voice weights more.
In your model, cryptos are progressing towards democracy, but I would disagree; democracy is not the culmination of the governance evolution.  I'm more with Plato here who considered democracy a degeneration.
Democracy is what got us into this mess in the first place (brrrrrrrrrrr); the most oppressed minority in the world is the individual, and it's oppressed by the whims of those who represent the majority.

[Flodner]

That's a hilarious but wild comparison.  There are specifics about feudalism that don't apply to crypto even metaphorically.
The less hyperbolic analogy would be shareholder corporate governance... the more shares you have, the more skin-in-the-game, the more the decisions affect you so naturally your voice weights more.
In your model, cryptos are progressing towards democracy, but I would disagree; democracy is not the culmination of the governance evolution.  I'm more with Plato here who considered democracy a degeneration.
Democracy is what got us into this mess in the first place (brrrrrrrrrrr); the most oppressed minority in the world is the individual, and it's oppressed by the whims of those who represent the majority.

No, in my model cryptos are not progressing towards democracy, but are progressing towards the neo-feudalism.
We can observe the tendency that the rich are becoming richer and the poor remain poor. The nowadays crisis might slow down these tendencies (like big wars in the past caused shift in power and less economic inequalities), but I think they will remain. I agree with you, Plato and Aristotle on democracy, that's why I don't want to repeat stupid phrases that "we need to increase taxes", "we need to help the unbanked", etc. etc.

Some day I plan to evolve more in writing on this subject. In a way, this progress might be cruel especially for some categories (the latest Black swan already harmed many people, and along with future conflicts and technological advances such as robotization and AI more people will lose jobs, etc.) but what's positive is that the rise of crypto might bring more interesting people to power and to important positions ("social lift")