Invited Paper: Blockchain Governance and Liquid Democracy - Quantifying Decentralization in Gitcoin and Internet Computer

Abstract

Blockchain governance plays a crucial role in projects utilizing blockchain technology, as it defines decision-making and the evolution of the project over time. In this paper, we are particularly interested in liquid democracy governance models which have recently gained attention and which allow to delegate votes. We empirically study existing deployments of these models on Gitcoin and the Internet Computer, and measure the concentration of the voting power. We observe quite a high skew, which contrasts with the otherwise highly decentralized nature of the application. We hope that our preliminary insights can lead to follow-up work in the community and nourish the discussion on the different governance designs.