HOW CRYPTO PROJECTS FOLLOW A 2,200-YEAR-OLD SCRIPT

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Crypto governance repeatedly cycles through historical political models. They start with founder “monarchy,” move through cults of personality, core-dev “aristocracy,” token-whale “oligarchy”, DAO “democracy,” mob-rule “ochlocracy,” and back to emergency centralization. Each phrase concentrates or disperses power until inefficiencies or self-interest triggers the next revolution. Pure decentralization leads to governance paralysis or mob rule, while centralization restores order at the cost of censorship resistance.