When the US Founders innovated governance, their actual lives were at stake. 

I conjecture that these are the conditions under which novel forms of governance — eg onchain — will also begin to actually work. 

(Another reason why real attempts at Network State will be illuminating.)

playing /bracket, assisting /bracky, talking /greatbooks

Lives. Riches. And bloodlines. All at stake. 

Getting it right was a must. There wasn’t a ‘launch another democracy’ button. To fall back on.

Strong agree. Basically the costs of coordination onchain are far too high to justify using right now. They offer tremendous capture-resistance, but the ROI on that cost is insufficient, except in circumstances like you describe

The other thing we can do is work on decreasing the costs

Yeah … without real stakes, onchain governance is just LARPing with extra steps. pressure makes systems honest

Absolutely. The Founders innovated because their lives depended on it. Onchain governance will only truly work when real risks and stakes are involved—making Network States a crucial experiment in this space.