InAugust 2015, to little fanfare, the cryptocurrency Dash launched the first functioning decentralized governance system. The Dash Budget System (DBS) was a method for allocating funds from the Dash blockchain’s block rewards to projects that support the Dash network. The DBS was also a governance system, for as the saying goes, “He who controls the purse strings makes the rules.” In the case of Dash, the purse strings would be controlled in a completely decentralized manner, distributed by the blockchain based on voting by the Dash Masternode owners.
It has been sixteen months since that momentous occasion, so I thought it would be useful to review how it has worked in practice since that time. Fortunately, one of the advantages to a blockchain-based governance system is that voting results are transparent and open to the public, and anyone can easily see the results. I have created a tool to make that easier at DashVoteTracker.com, and using this tool we can study the past sixteen months of proposals.
