Historical retrospective · Ethereum
The DAO fork made Ethereum governance a public, contested choice
After an exploit drained funds from The DAO contract, the Ethereum community debated how to respond; a fork created the chain that retained the Ethereum name.
The decision did not reverse a defect in Ethereum’s base protocol; it reflected a social choice about a particular application and its consequences.
Ethereum Classic continued on the non-forked history, making the disagreement visible in two independent networks.
The episode is still relevant whenever people claim that blockchains are either wholly immutable or centrally controlled: the reality includes social coordination and trade-offs.
Primary source
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