1 min read

Who's the boss? (decentralized coordination)

Blockchains are rarely static. The chains that actually get used are able to rally developers to their cause. These developers need a way to coordinate their efforts-- a decentralized process. Decentralized coordination is unlike most other project work where a company implements a unified strategy, manages the work, and releases their products. Companies may seek support from platform vendors or interview customers to verify they're solving the right problem, but ultimately, they are able to make decisions on their own.

Decentralized coordination is a process of proposals, discussion, iteration, and voting. The most ubiquitous example of this is the internet's "Request For Comments" series. Since 1969, researchers have been publishing RFCs for all kinds of ideas and improvements to the systems and standards used to keep the internet turned on.

Blockchains generally copy this structure. Ethereum has EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals), some of which are ERCs (Ethereum Request for Comments). If you want to make a change to the Ethereum code, you'll need to submit an EIP. If you want to propose a new standard, you'll submit an ERC.

Koinos recently started a KCS (Koinos Contract Standard) process, thanks to the team over at Kollection and their need for an NFT standard. This is basically the ERC process and doesn't include proposals to improve the Koinos network itself. KCSs don't require a vote. They can and should be discussed and refined, but developers can choose to adopt them or not. A formal proposal discussion and voting process is still in the works. That will be important to get feedback and support before devs invest their time implementing improvements that no one wants.

Any sufficiently decentralized technology needs a proposal process if it intends to improve over time. Koinos has the benefit of all the work that's already been done by other chains, but we still need our own standards and processes because of our unique characteristics. Proof of Burn, contract authorization, smart contract wallets, the mana system, microservices, etc. are being combined in novel ways with new implications for contract standards and improvement proposals.

-Luke

P.S. This is one reason building a blockchain based on EVM is easier. So much of this work has already been done. The developers of Koinos Group and those of us building dApps now are pioneering a lot of new ideas that haven't been tried on any blockchain yet.