Governance
The processes a blockchain community or protocol uses to propose, decide, and implement changes.
Governance covers how networks and protocols make decisions about rules, upgrades, treasury spending, and operational responsibilities. It can be informal social consensus, formal improvement proposals, on-chain voting, multisig administration, or a mix of these.
On-chain governance offers transparent records and faster execution, but can overweight large token holders. Off-chain governance can encourage broader discussion, but may be slower and less explicit.
Governance only matters if decisions can be safely implemented. Mature processes include review periods, public specifications, emergency procedures, and clear separation between advisory votes and executable permissions.
Related terms
3 linkedExplore connected entries beyond the alphabetical index.
DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)
→A DAO is an on-chain organization where members coordinate proposals, treasury actions, and rules through transparent governance processes.
Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)
→An EIP is the formal proposal process for Ethereum protocol changes, interfaces, and application standards.
Fork
→A fork is a blockchain divergence caused by competing blocks, software changes, or incompatible consensus rules.
All terms and definitions may update as the Cryptionary improves.
