Ann Brody on Organizational Culture in the Ethereum Ecosystem

Video via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxQiUzUrGFQ

Description

"This presentation shares the findings from a paper co-authored with Dr. Paul-Dylan Ennis, which explores the role that culture plays in the organization of the Ethereum blockchain community and its associated economy. Specifically, it focuses on the developers, researchers, and organizers responsible for Ethereum’s maintenance and upgrades, known as the Core Devs. It examines how several previously known social imaginaries remain operative and analyzes their function in contemporary governance within blockchain communities. We also identify a new social imaginary, the “Infinite Garden,” which refers to Ethereum’s ongoing evolution and development while alluding to an eventual point of ossification. We show how, in the absence of a centralized hierarchy and a formal governance constitution, these social imaginaries set boundaries on the legitimacy of decision-making in Ethereum protocol governance. Finally, we comment on the contemporary understanding of sociotechnical imaginaries as institutionally stabilized, finding that in Ethereum’s case, culture is the condition that enables stability."