Table 2 Updating software protocol: open-source software development vs. Bitcoin
From: Bitcoin and the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations
| Goal | Protocol update | |
|---|---|---|
| OSSD | Bitcoin (BIP) | |
| Mechanism | Community governance | Voting: Bitcoin improvement proposal (BIPs) (social consensus) |
| Task division | Some centralization based on the structure provided by the founder; evolvable with community. | Founder is unknown; BIPs proposed by developers and voted on by miners coordinate code modification. Centralization is undesirable. |
| Task allocation | Open participation through self-selection into the community | Developers contribute to code upgrades through open participation and self-selection. Miners vote on the protocol change based on to computing power. |
| Reward distribution | Intrinsic motivation, professionalism, visibility | Developers volunteer and are motivated by intrinsic motivation. Miners are paid in Bitcoin and are driven by mining profitability. |
| Information flow | Information is processed through “virtual support infrastructure and tools” (Puranam et al. 2014) | Information is shared and communicated through BIPs communication on the code repository (i.e., GitHub) and reflected in miners’ voting outcomes on the blockchain. |
