When should you deliberate, and when should you vote? Updating a timeless question for crypto governance
When should groups make decisions through discussion alone, and when should they employ some kind of voting? This question has shaped how people govern themselves from the ancient world to modern corporations, and is now being debated in crypto. On one side, DAOs use token voting to make decisions. On the other, many layer-1 blockchain networks like Ethereum rely on rough consensus instead of voting. In the middle, projects like Solana use rough consensus along with a limited number of votes.
What do history and research tell us about whether to include explicit forms of voting, over and above deliberation and rough consensus? My answer: it depends.
Where groups…
