e for it to become decentralized. Turtles after hatching must crawl, defenseless and exposed, across the beach before reaching the ocean. Many are eaten by gulls and foxes along the way. Likewise, dApps must traverse the chasm of centralization, exposed to hackers and law enforcement, before reaching a state of use that is decentralized enough to protect them.

Once in the ocean of decentralization a dApp is free to do what it pleases. The most power crazed n’t regulate the platform away. The most down the system (assuming it is well-designed). But no dApps have yet gotten to this point- all have some degree of key-man risk, alongside a dependence on a number of centralized services to keep them running.

Deploying smart contracts only goes so far in terms of decentralization. While they cannot be changed or shut off, there are a number of other parts that must be included alongside a smart contract in order for it to be useful. Recently, it has been frontends that come under attack.

Becoming a public good is a stated goal of particular class of DeFi applications. Namely Gitcoin, ENS, and Uniswap. I classify these projects together because their leadership generally follows a few of the same principles:

• Non-revoluust be respected and welcomed.

• Conservative: protocol upgrades and changes must be executed slowly to avoid mistakes.

• Inclusive: priority is given to enfranchise as many users as possible.

These tenets seem to have lead to all three of these protocols becoming so normalized thar projects continue to push the farthest frontiers of what one can do with crypto, the aforementioned projects have become more of a fact of life to the average crypto user. The conservative projects can at least call themselves public goods, but what is to happen if their key leaders are arrested? And what happens in one the below images replaces the content that their domain name resolves?

e for it to become decentralized. Turtles after hatching must crawl, defenseless and exposed, across the beach before reaching the ocean. Many are eaten by gulls and foxes along the way. Likewise, dApps must traverse the chasm of centralization, exposed to hackers and law enforcement, before reaching a state of use that is decentralized enough to protect them.

Once in the ocean of decentralization a dApp is free to do what it pleases. The most power crazed n’t regulate the platform away. The most down the system (assuming it is well-designed). But no dApps have yet gotten to this point- all have some degree of key-man risk, alongside a dependence on a number of centralized services to keep them running.

Deploying smart contracts only goes so far in terms of decentralization. While they cannot be changed or shut off, there are a number of other parts that must be included alongside a smart contract in order for it to be useful. Recently, it has been frontends that come under attack.

Becoming a public good is a stated goal of particular class of DeFi applications. Namely Gitcoin, ENS, and Uniswap. I classify these projects together because their leadership generally follows a few of the same principles:

• Non-revoluust be respected and welcomed.

• Conservative: protocol upgrades and changes must be executed slowly to avoid mistakes.

• Inclusive: priority is given to enfranchise as many users as possible.

These tenets seem to have lead to all three of these protocols becoming so normalized thar projects continue to push the farthest frontiers of what one can do with crypto, the aforementioned projects have become more of a fact of life to the average crypto user. The conservative projects can at least call themselves public goods, but what is to happen if their key leaders are arrested? And what happens in one the below images replaces the content that their domain name resolves?