One of the best, if not the best feature of a blockchain like Blurt is that everyone has an opportunity to participate in blockchain governance.
What is Blockchain Governance?
In short it's a governance system in many ways the same as many other "real life" governance systems.
Here in the digital world of the Blurt blockchain, governance refers to the system in which network participants can vote to elect a group of 20+ blockchain users known as "witnesses". The top 20 witnesses are able to accept or deny the implementation of future hard forks.
How does this work? In order for major blockchain changes to take place, at least those that impact the core consensus mechanisms, a hard fork is required. In order for a hard fork to be accepted and change the blockchain code it must be approved by a majority of the top 20 consensus witnesses.
This puts the top 20 witnesses in the special position of being able to protect, decide on, and influence the direction of the blockchain. It is the responsibility of the top 20 consensus witnesses to review and understand the core code changes, understand the impact they have on the network, and ultimately decide if they are in the best interest of the network. An important job!
Best case scenario, most witnesses are aware of and onboard with the proposed changes in advance, or better yet are participating in the discussions that lead to the proposed changes included in a hard fork. Worse case scenario, core developers propose a change to the blockchain that is malicious or controversial in which witnesses may choose to vote against it.
Eventual Shift to Decentralized Governance
At present time Blurt blockchain governance is centralized and controlled by the Blurt Foundation, which is operated by three accounts being @jacobgadikian, @megadrive and @baabeetaa. In order to secure the network the foundation has used it's large stake to vote for and prop up enough top 20 consensus witnesses that they can ensure that 1) any proposed changes to the blockchain can be passed without any friction and 2) prevent bad actors with large stake from deploying witness servers and implementing code changes that are undesirable, or intentionally damaging to the network.
It is the Foundations intention to shift to decentralized governance in the future, at a point in time when it's safe to do so. At that point the foundation would no longer control the actions of the top consensus witnesses, and would need to direct core development in a direction agreeable by the majority of consensus witnesses, or risk changes not being implemented.
When will the foundation relinquish control? This is still being discussed, but it will only be safe to do so when we have a high enough rate of network participation in the form of witness voting. This can be measured in terms of X million BP voting for consensus witnesses.
Let's Increase Voter Participation!
At present time network participation is too low, there are simply not enough Blurt users voting for witnesses. We can see this in the amount of Blurt Power currently being voted with, there's lots more to come.
This is where you come in! We need The network needs your participation to function at it's best. Everyone's vote matters, small or large, you have an opportunity to participate in the future of decentralized governance.
You can currently vote for up to 30 witnesses. Remember that at a future point in time the top 20 consensus witnesses will be responsible for accepting or denying core code changes to the Blurt blockchain. This is a big responsibility, so please consider voting for witnesses that you trust to have the best interests of Blurt users and the Blurt blockchain in mind.
Blurt will need a competent core group of consensus witnesses to position the blockchain for success.