The Evolution of Control

It’s a common mistake to think that DePINs, or Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks, are decentralized at birth.

The great hope of all DePINs is to come up with a network that doesn’t have centralized control, where fairness is baked in and anyone willing to pay a market-set price can participate without asking a single by-your-leave.

So far, it doesn’t exist. It’s like asking a baby to mow a meadow; they’re not ready for the task.

The first mistake is to think that’s not OK. It’s fine. It’s where we’re at. In the evolution of companies, and really of agency in the world, we are still at a point where we need a person, or maybe a very few people, to make the crucial decisions about what to do.

As Harvard professor Dr. Gary King has said tongue-in-cheek, “the best form of governance for any given situation is a benevolent dictatorship, but there’s no clear way to find one, or if you have one, to find the next one.”

T.E. Lawrence’s flash of the kingfisher quote illuminates another issue with full decentralization:

Nine-tenths of tactics are certain, and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pool, and that is the test of generals.

T.E. Lawrence, ‘The Evolution of a Revolt’, The Army Quarterly and Defence Journal October 1920

The nine-tenths are the easy bit; you can write rules for those. However, as Silicon Valley loves to say, it’s all about the edge cases. Having a method that isn’t a centralized authority to determine the final tenth is what will mark true decentralization.

For my money, a reliable arbiter of human issues is more likely to come from displacement through a thoughtful AI than any distribution of human power in a system, but that is another article.

Still, what we’re exploring today isn’t about the eventual form and function of a fully decentralized autonomous organization. This is a reminder that in any DePIN there is an evolution of control. It is a natural process. Whether you’re a founder, investor, or community member, knowing where you are in it can help guide your decisions about what needs to happen next.

If one were to map it out, it might look very similar to the growth of an organism, with both mitosis (replicating cells you already have to scale your existing network) and meiosis (creating new cells to do new jobs as the network grows.)

At first, all you need is one self-directing cell, within which lies as much of a map as they need in order to get where they’re going. They may not have every detail in the map, but they know how to make the units that can figure out those details.

DePINs are the same. All sustainable growth follows evolutionary patterns. It starts with a few founders who, between them, have enough of a map to build a civilization. In the beginning, all decisions go through those founders. That’s a natural stage, and frankly, where all almost all known blockchain DePINs are.

As we’ve talked about before, other DePINs exist, though they may not be called by that name; McDonald’s franchises are one example. Still, there is no great example of a fully autonomous decentralized organization because most of us humans lack a critical aspect of managing control; the ability to sensibly give it away.

In the frontrunners of the DePIN movement we can see the obstacles. The Working Groups of Helium Foundation have thoughtful and energetic discussions and generate improvement proposals to vote on, but the implementation of those proposals comes down to a centralized entity.

As a thought experiment, it’s conceivable that entity could delay an implementation of a proposal for any number of reasons, survival being the most compelling, but others exist.

The key point here is that it isn’t a bad thing to have centralization along the path any more than being a caterpillar before being a butterfly is a bad thing; it’s a stage in the evolution of control.

It’s more of a reminder when you, whether you are a founder, employee at a DePIN, or community member, look at your own project. Identify where you are in the journey toward decentralization, then drive forward relentlessly from that known point.

If you’re a founder, you have an obligation (one among thousands) to map out a clear enough path towards decentralization that anyone can follow it.

If you’re an employee, your job is to help execute along that path, making sure the vision is achieved.

If you’re a community member, you have a dual responsibility. You are required both to help build the network and to hold it to account along the path. You have the most responsibility and the least overall control. All you can do is your part, putting up infrastructure where you can, connecting it in, and hope the map is good.

This is also a reminder that everyone who participates in a DePIN still qualifies as a risk-on adventurer, working in places on the map that say, “Here be dragons.”

Make no mistake about it; the unknown bits of the map hold all the mystery and danger that unknowns have always held. That risk and excitement is why those of us who are are here have remained and continue to press on. We are bound by our nature to help understand and determine the shape of our world.

Let us hope we are up to the task of dispelling dragons, of knowing both where we are and where we are headed, and that we are ready for that flash of opportunity when it comes, whatever our position.

LFG.

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