Summer of Protocols

Thesis: Protocols have a fundamental bias towards decentralization and distribution of agency and authority, even when they structure interactions with centralized and/or monolithic things (eg royalty interactions protocol). Because codifying procedure tends to empower the weak and constrain the strong.

Blogger at ribbonfarm.com, running summerofprotocols.com, host of /gloom ☀️

I’m using centralized and monolithic interchangeably here because:

Thesis 2: Centralization tends to create monoliths, defined as structures that are hard or impossible to unbundle without losing much of the value. So mainframes are monoliths but equivalent server clusters are centralized without being as monolithic

AT&T and Standard Oil were less monolithic than FAANG. It’s easy to see how to unbundle a large telephone network into small regional ones without much loss. Harder to see how to unbundle Google or Facebook.

So for eg a barbarian royal court can have an unchecked power monarch who can capriciously go “off with his head”

A protocolized court checks monarchical power and protects commoners who might appeal

Modern example: healthcare protocols weaken arbitrariness and negligence moral hazard of doctors, empower patients

Gonna steal that

Can you elaborate on the idea a bit in a forum reply? Will roll up that topic thread in a future essay probably

Governance Public Utilities for @zksync at @thezknation

Gonna steal that

Can you elaborate on the idea a bit in a forum reply? Will roll up that topic thread in a future essay probably

https://forum.summerofprotocols.com/t/monoliths-decentralization-robust-protocols-and-sufficient-interoperability/158

Code is much harder to cheat, and easier to fork.