Decentralisation is a great concept in blockchain technology, but it has some obvious drawbacks. As it is deliberately designed to have no central authority, making decisions for cryptocurrency projects can become very complicated. As blockchains increase in size, competition can arise amongst users who all have a say in network governance.

A classic example of a complex decentralized network is Bitcoin, which has several competing centres of power within its user community. Scaling, for example, was a controversial issue which kept coin miners, businesses and simple users at loggerheads for more than two years.

Some other cryptocurrencies are working on systems that will allow decision-making to be decentralized but not so time-consuming. Such systems might be driven by time-sensitive budget restrictions, or by instituting a two-tier system such as that executed by Dash. In this network, currency miners form the first tier and the second is made up of masternodes, which carry out additional network services and have a greater share of voting rights. Another cryptocurrency network, SmartCash, devotes 80% of its block rewards to community proposals and development, allowing a vote to every coin holder on community decisions.

As the cryptocurrency ecosystem expands exponentially into the future, decision-making controversies will inevitably follow, while the market figures out how to gain consensus and community governance in DLT projects.