Scaling up without blowing up: How Bitcoin collective manage growth-driven conflict
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2023-06-21
Author(s)
Abstract
Self-organized collectives, such as the Bitcoin community, need to adapt their participation architecture—the sociotechnical framework that extends participation opportunities to potential contributors and integrates their contributions—as their internal and external environments change. Without any formal authority to guide redesigns, how do self-organized collectives adapt? To answer this question, we examined the "Scaling War" (2015-2017), a period of intense debate and conflict within the Bitcoin community over how to solve a scalability bottleneck in its participation architecture. Drawing on a three-year field study entailing in-person and online observations, archival data, and podcast interviews, we show that a combination of two mechanisms allowed “Bitcoiners” to rally around one approach and implement it without triggering the dissolution of the collective. First, sociotechnical structures enabled the exploration of different approaches by coding a decentralized decision-making procedure in the software and organizational design. Second, peer regulation facilitated the formation of consensus over one approach by encouraging participants to adhere to shared cultural codes. Together, these two mechanisms enabled members to redesign their participation architecture through consensus rather than by resorting to managerial intervention.
Language
English (United States)
Event Title
Decentralization Conference
Event Location
London
Event Date
June 21-22, 2023
Subject(s)