Design for the Decentralized World:

Democratization of Blockchain-Based
Software Design

Vladislav Gladyshev(&) and Qiong Wu

Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

fuld18@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn, wla9d@yandex.com,
qiong-wu@tsinghua.edu.cn

Abstract. The decentralized future is now. The blockchain technology and

decentralized applications are changing the way we think about digital software
products and the value they bring to our lives. Traditional ways of software
design and development are not fully applicable, as there is no central authority
to control, decide or direct the future of the product. The blockchain-based
software is not controlled by anyone, and at the same time, it belongs to
everyone, because the value is distributed among all members in the form of a
cryptocurrency. Current product design workflows and methods combined with
the blockchain technology need a transformation to become even more inclu-
sive, democratic, autonomous, seek user participation and decision-making. The
design solution that is accessible, usable and user-centered can be formed only
through the optimization of the product around the users, rather than forcing the
users to change their behavior to accommodate the product. Research methods
like participatory and non-participatory observations, literature and white paper
reviews, analyses, interviews with field experts, are all combined with case
studies and explorations of decentralized technology, user-centered design, and
democratization. All of which is united in the concept of the decentralized
autonomous software, or DAS, which is a software that has decision-making
mechanisms embedded in an open distributed peer-to-peer network, that
requires vote-based human participation to determine the future direction of its
lifecycle, development, and design.

Keywords: Decentralization ! Democratization ! Blockchain-based software !

User-centered design ! Decentralized autonomous software

1 Introduction

On June 12, 1992, Victor Papanek delivered a lecture at Apple (originally Apple
Computer; with less than 10 thousand employees at the time) entitled Microbes in the
Tower [1] in which he said: “I also believe very strongly in decentralization, largely
because I have the conviction … that nothing big works, ever, in any circumstances.”
His design and research at that time were focused on environmental issues and tools
that can promote greater autonomy for people in developing countries: with the final
aim being economical changes and improved quality of life. Victor’s theory is an

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

A. Marcus and E. Rosenzweig (Eds.): HCII 2020, LNCS 12201, pp. 74–86, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49760-6_5
 Design for the Decentralized World 75

example of a bottom-up approach, which suggested affordable design solutions based

on user needs that can solve the existing problem from an entity level.
Fast forward 28 years and Apple (now having more than 137 thousand employees
[2]) became one of the biggest software companies that dominate cyberspace, and
people’s everyday life; along with Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Netflix.
Nevertheless, Victor’s beliefs in decentralization are slowly becoming a reality, with
his lecture just becoming another irony of history.
After the widespread of the World Wide Web and advancements of globalization,
FAANG and BAT together got control of almost all possible user data, thus the
network, making users vulnerable [3]. Therefore, people, that from the beginning
allowed their personal information sharing with these companies, are now exposed and
face many risks that are out of their control. Moreover, the data of users’ daily activity
will be further used to analyze behavior patterns that will help to generate targeted
advertisements, create new paid product features, and other profit-generating schemes
for the companies.
In other words, users helped companies to become big and are continuously
keeping the growth with each product interaction. The generated data could be used in
almost any way the companies want or any bad actor, that gets control of it. Cen-
tralization of data makes companies vulnerable to attacks and hacking, thus makes
users vulnerable [3].
Above all, the user experience of the product is quite often being designed mainly
with business values in mind, not necessarily focusing on the ease of use or the
usability; sometimes even using human psychology as an opportunity to gain users, or
make users perform actions that they didn’t initially intend to. These design practices of
user interface or user experience design are called dark patterns [4]. Put differently, it is
psychological manipulation of people for the sake of business profit. Centralized data
gives power to the companies, that average user is unable to compete with; so, things
like dark patterns can easily happen and be neglected. Here are some of the famous
examples: LinkedIn’s email spamming, Amazon’s account deletion [5] or country
changing process, Microsoft’s aggressive Windows software update, Facebook’s data
leaking, Apple’s automatic two-factor authentication enabling, just to name a few.
The invention of blockchain and Bitcoin (first cryptocurrency and decentralized
application) brought many new possibilities for people, businesses, developers,
designers, economists and many others. More importantly, blockchain and decentral-
ization are leading the Web 4.0 and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as it brings
fundamental changes and groundbreaking questions to our society, economy, gov-
ernment, physical and moral values, thus changing us and the way we think. As the
founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab said
[6]: “One of the features of this Fourth Industrial Revolution is that it doesn’t change
what we are doing, but it changes us.”
The invention of the blockchain brought many new possibilities to an innovative
way of global value decentralization and exchange: which is led by a new technology
of distributed information structuring. New industrial changes are supported by new
ideas. The same way Henry Ford invented the assembly line technique of mass pro-
duction and forever changed manufacturing; Satoshi Nakamoto invented the technol-
ogy of decentralized information and value exchange, and forever changed how we
76 V. Gladyshev and Q. Wu

think about money, freedom, and technology. So, it is for us to find the new methods
and processes that can support the evolution of blockchain adoption and further
innovation.
Decentralization brings challenges to the traditional ways of software product
design: there is no central authority to control, decide or direct the future of the product,
which adds another dimension and requires process automation as its main factor. The
blockchain software is not controlled by anyone and at the same time being controlled
by everyone: as the value is distributed among all members of the network. Current
product design workflows and methods need a transformation to become open,
inclusive, democratic, and autonomous.

2 Research Methods

Methods of research used in this paper are mostly qualitative. Personal participatory
and non-participatory observations are combined with software design experience
inside and outside the blockchain field: as the basis of the problem definition and
understanding of practical blockchain usage. Literature and white paper reviews,
analyses of the decentralization trends and tendencies are coupled with the examination
of design and development tendencies before and after the existence of decentralized
technology. Consultations and interviews with field experts, further brainstorming and
feedback sessions helped to test the proposed concept and compare it to the other
possible solutions. Multiple case studies and comparisons serve as examples of current
state of blockchain technology and decentralized applications, along with the expla-
nations of its possible disadvantages. The final outcome of the discussion is presented
in the form of a blockchain-based autonomous software concept that suggests a more
democratic way of product creation, usage, and development.

3 Research Background

Each part of the research background block will define a concept and question its
possible usage, improvement or advancement in the present and future of the decen-
tralized world. It also discusses the applicability of certain ideas and methods used in
current software design processes. Below are the angles from which the problem of
blockchain software design could be viewed.

3.1 Blockchain
Blockchain is a technology that was created to serve the first digital cryptocurrency
called Bitcoin. At its core, it is an open distributed database, managed by a peer-to-peer
network through protocols and cryptography, supported by a consensus algorithm.
Block is an encrypted group of new transactions and chain is the network of computer
nodes [3].
Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin as an electronic cash system that would allow
online payments without a financial institution. Above all, it was aimed to solve the
 Design for the Decentralized World 77

weaknesses of the trust-based model of the value transaction, through a system based
on cryptographic proof; that allows the exchange without the need for a trusted third
party [7]. In fact, Satoshi’s anonymity and non-intervention is another eliminated
weakness of trust-based model: nobody knows who he is, thus there is no personal trust
involved, everyone can see the code and decide if the system works for them or not.
Will the problem of the third party and trust management remain if the creator of
the blockchain network is not anonymous, and participates in further development of
the blockchain? How can a blockchain system work in an even more autonomous way,
at the same time create consensus between the users and developers?

3.2 Decentralized Applications

Decentralized application (also called dapp) is a software that has been built and runs
on top of a blockchain system; often being Ethereum or Bitcoin. Compared to non-
decentralized application it usually has different computational mechanisms, file stor-
age methods, monetization, and payments. Dapps represent the second generation of
blockchain evolution and advance the technology with more applicable functionalities
through smart contracts, at the same time giving an excellent start for Web 3.0 and
decentralization of the World Wide Web. These applications could be compared to
apps on a smartphone or websites, with the main difference being the decentralized
blockchain technology behind its data storage and transfer.
One of the most popular blockchain platforms for decentralized applications is
Ethereum, created by Vitalik Buterin and launched in 2015. Its general idea is that
blockchain can have general-purpose flexibility and allow developers to build appli-
cations upon the core technology; which will give the application trustworthiness
through the mechanism it’s being built on: the dapps will always run on Ethereum as
they were programmed. In other words, they would be decentralized and no single
person or entity can control them [8].
Blockchains that allow the development of dapps are becoming ecosystems (similar
to Apple iOS/macOS, Microsoft Windows or Linux), that enable design, development,
and usage of the software that is based on open, public and decentralized algorithms.
These decentralized applications combine the new technology of trust management
with already existing methods of application design, and as a result produce public
product that would be able to innovate and replace the prior relationships between the
internet, software, and money.
Bitcoin has fundamental application in money or value transfer that is not con-
trolled by any financial institution; at the same time, because of that, it has limited
functionality. Otherwise speaking, for the first generation of blockchain technology the
protocol is in service of the currency, when for blockchains that have the dapp
ecosystem built on top, the currency is in the service of the protocol. So, for Ethereum
the power of the system is increased (compared to Bitcoin) through the level of its
generalized purpose, which at some point also changes the value concept of two
blockchain generations on a deeper level. Either way, technical issues, scalability and
application of the technology are still the main problems in the mass adoption of
decentralized applications.
78 V. Gladyshev and Q. Wu

Dapps add another level of complexity to the blockchain trust and value paradigm,
as the decentralized application, blockchain, and currency are all involved at the same
time; certain qualities of one are not necessarily being transferred to the other. What
could be the optimal relationship between them and how can the transparency of the
decision-making be maintained? Can the processes of development and design be
autonomous in a way that would originate a better agreement between creators and
users of the blockchain and dapps?

3.3 User-Centered Design

User-centered design is a set of design methods, processes, and practices that focus on
user needs in order to create a product that would be highly usable and accessible. In
other words, designers need to study and research possible future users of the product
to create an interaction that would best serve their needs. The term user-centered design
was coined by Donald Norman and further popularized in his book called The Design
of Everyday Things. In it he defines and explains the four main principles of good
design: visibility, good conceptual model, good mappings and feedback [9]. All of
which require user research, exploration and understanding of user needs, problem
definition, design proposal and solution with further iterations. On a product level, the
process will consist of these steps: understanding the context of use, specification of
user requirements, design solution and iterative evaluation that will loop further pro-
duct updates [10]. Consequently, a design solution that is accessible, usable and user-
centered can be formed only through the optimization of the product around the users,
rather than forcing the users to change their behavior to accommodate the product.
Usability and user-centered design approach in business-to-consumer products
have got great attention in recent years: more companies saw the rise in numbers of
daily active usage and retention, increase in usage duration of apps and websites that
have good user experience; which in combination brought greater adoption and higher
profits. If before it was gaining industry acceptance, now it is a core part of every
design process behind many successful digital products [11].
On the one hand, there are technical problems and issues with scalability. On the
other hand, difficulties with user adoption. Concepts of blockchain and decentralized
applications are technical and complex, thus require knowledge beyond average in
order to build trust and recognize benefits. Also, the field is new, not yet enough
explored and popularized, thus like most of the early technologies it is not necessarily
user-friendly and doesn’t necessarily have the best user experience design. At the same
time, there are problems that have the potential to be solved with a user-centered
design, like clarification of blockchain and dapp benefits compared to currently
available technology, problems with onboarding and accessibility, quality of the user
experience and usability, and reevaluation of the platform-based constraints [12].
What are the possible ways for blockchain developers and businesses to incorporate
the user-centered approach in the software product design process? Are there any
possibilities to introduce user research and inclusion in the updates of the software in a
way that would be autonomous and automated?
 Design for the Decentralized World 79

3.4 Participatory Design

Participatory design (often called co-design) is an approach to design that actively
involves all stakeholders and brings customers to the core of the design process to form
design-led innovation that would be able to give the full potential of user-centered
design approach, and at the end create results that would meet user needs and have high
level of usability [13].
At some point, it is a form of idea generation or exploration of the possible
solutions that involve the end-user as the test subject, after which, designers would be
able to decide if suggested solutions are applicable or what are the outcomes that could
be used in future designs. As the user-centered design is for users, participatory design
is with the users. This form of design process seeks to enable those who will use the
technology to share their thoughts during design creation, without the need to speak the
design language or know the technological sides of the problem [14].
Distributed participatory design approach supports the direct participation of users
and other stakeholders in system analysis and design work that is often technological or
around a certain digital product. This type of design has a very close practical con-
nection with blockchain and decentralized applications and its core beliefs and values,
as decentralization is a form of distribution. If blockchain, cryptocurrencies and dapps
are being open and used by people that have a direct financial investment in them, the
decisions about updates and directions of development should as well include their
involvement, participation and decision-making.
What are the possible ways to combine key benefits of decentralized technology
like transparency, security, trust management and value transferring with greater user
involvement and participation? It could potentially lead to new explorations in the
problem of technological understanding, thus mass adoption. Similar to Xerox Alto that
had the first GUI that allowed people with non-technological backgrounds to use
different functionalities of the personal computer that before were only available
through command line in text-only interfaces. What are the possible solutions to
automate the participatory design process so it would be more democratized, and
people that are invested in it would be able to make decisions of its future evolution?

3.5 Agile Software Design

Agile software design and development is a combination of approaches under which
requirements and solutions evolve through the self-organized collaboration of cross-
functional teams and their end-users [15]. Many of the principles of agile philosophy
are being at the core of a lot of successful products and services. Scrum and Kanban are
the main practical solutions for the product creation process, both for test-driven
development and behavior-driven development as they bring flexibility and structure to
the overall workflow.
Agile principles of software design and development have a close connection with
user-centered design and in combination can create software that is understandable,
easy to use and bring value to the end-user, at the same time keep everyone in the loop
and make participation in decision-making a key solution in the innovation of the
product. Here are some agile software principles that form the mindset: the highest
80 V. Gladyshev and Q. Wu

priority is to satisfy customer, welcome changing requirements, deliver frequent

updates, members of the business and development team work together on many
problems, continuous attention to technical excellence and good design, focus on
simplicity and ROI of features and functionality, self-organizing principles of team
structure, constant reflection and improvement of the design, development and product
features [16]. The agility of the methodology creates an enabling factor in frequent
implementations of the user research insights and solutions found in the participatory
design sessions.
What are the possible ways to combine participatory nature and clarity of the
process in the agile philosophy with blockchain-based development and design? How
can the workflow be changed to involve more people in the evaluation and assessment
of possible product decisions?

4 Case Studies
4.1 Ethereum
Ehtereum was mentioned in this paper before. In summary, it is a next-generation smart
contract and decentralized application platform [17]. Vitalik Buterin, the creator of this
blockchain, took the core concept from Bitcoin and expanded the technology so it
could become more relevant and solve different problems, not just transfer and
exchange of cryptocurrencies. As a result, a global open-source platform based on
blockchain with focus on dapps was created.
Ethereum improved the technological side of blockchain, compared to Bitcoin, but
didn’t necessarily make it more costumer or user-friendly. Decentralized applications
do create value for some users and solve some problems, but the relationship between
the blockchain and dapps is quite subordinative: anyone who would like to use a dapp,
first need to understand how Ethereum works, and in order to do that, they need to
understand Bitcoin and blockchain. Additionally, concepts and technology behind it all
is hard and complex. The onboarding process is difficult especially with many unfa-
miliar technical words like consensus, chain, nodes, miners, etc. There is definitely
some potential for improvement with the change of the mindset and a bit of work from
user research and user experience writing.
Bitcoin was a solution to transfer value without any involvement of a third party
and reevaluation of trust management; Ethereum on the other hand is mainly a platform
for decentralized applications that is built on the same technology. Having the same or
similar technology does not necessarily create or transfer the same values, because the
solutions are different. Methods of design and development of a peer-to-peer electronic
cash system should be different and have additional focus points compared to a plat-
form or an ecosystem for decentralized applications. Ethereum is great compared to
Bitcoin in the aspects of functionality and application of the blockchain technology, but
compared to any other similar application ecosystem, like Apple iOS/macOS, Micro-
soft Windows or Linux, it is very poor and does not necessarily solve all the problems
an ecosystem should. There are many things missing from a good ecosystem: quality
and consistency of the system design and development, synchronization and constant
 Design for the Decentralized World 81

communication between developers and users, high quality user experience and
usability, ecosystem based native solutions, clarity of definitions and functionalities,
strong user and development base, robust collaboration capabilities, high level of
support, just to name a few.
It is said that Ethereum is a foundation of the internet where infrastructure is
neutral, not controlled by any company or person [17]. Contrary to the creation of
Bitcoin, founder of Ethereum and the team behind it is public, so there is no anonymity
involved in the trust management between the developer and the user, which means
that the team behind the blockchain or events associated with them can easily influence
the consensus, value of the cryptocurrency, or the open nature of the platform. Right
now autonomy or neutral aspects are additional to the platform and are not in the core
of its processes. Developers of the blockchain have most of the power over the design
and implementation of future updates so the final product does not necessarily give a
user-centered solution. Even if the project has world class professionals, their decisions
are not necessarily driven by user needs and arrangements as a result will not bring
good user experience. Community, participation and discussions of the solutions are
not necessarily very open, and could be very technical; which leaves the average user in
a vague area.
There are different outside occasions that still influence the course and outcome of
people’s interaction with Ethereum: artificially created rumors about Vitalik’s car
accident made the ETH market value drop by four billion dollars, a blockchain update
led to a break in some smart contacts which created failures in many dapps, decisions
about consensus algorithm for Ethereum 2.0 might be a combination of PoW and PoS.
All of the above suggests that there is openness in the blockchain as a technology, but
not necessarily in the value of the cryptocurrency or in the decisions of the product
design and development; as openness leads to constant participation of many entities
with a result of a consensus.
There are projects similar to Ethereum that have already solved the problem
through implementation of voting mechanisms for the future upgrades: in Cosmos,
validators can vote for the direction they think would work best in the next update of
the blockchain so the solution that got most of the votes gets implemented. On the other
hand, there are projects like Tezos that similarly to Ethereum leave their users behind
the decision-making and create frustrations: after the Babylon update the type of a
delegation address was changed from KT to tz leading to constant errors in the
transaction processes.
Ethereum would move to the next level if it will become more inclusive and
transparent about its decisions and build a better communication between developers
and users. A voting mechanism on the blockchain is needed to truly make it neutral,
open and not controlled by any company or person. Just claiming the values of the
technology is not enough, removing one middleman and adding another one that is less
visible is not a solution.
Vitalik once mentioned in the VICE interview that, “a community can make money
for itself wherever it wants.” Only through democratic principles community will
define the value, logic, and qualities of the currency. ETH can be used by the com-
munity, same way it can use gold, but none of them are truly created by it, as only an
agreement of value is made.
82 V. Gladyshev and Q. Wu

4.2 CryptoKitties
CryptoKitties is a popular decentralized application built on the Ethereum network. It
uses the technology of the non-refundable token and smart contracts to record, breed,
and exchange digital collectibles in a visual form of a cat, that from the code per-
spective describes the relationship between the phenotype and genotype [18]. Many
similar games focus their mechanics and interactions on digital collectibles: Axie
Infinity, Etheremon, Gods Unchained, just to name a few.
Some problems of the Ethereum blockchain are also applicable to dapps. Although
these applications run on the blockchain, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the appli-
cation itself is decentralized, as they have the single point of failure being the team
behind it. The development team makes decisions, fixes bugs and decides on the
features of the new version of the dapp. Openness could also be arbitrary or limited as
the genetic algorithm that drives the cat reproduction is secret. Either way, users still
need to trust the team in order to trust the dapp and the network. Most of the decen-
tralized applications are not censorship-resistant as the team behind it would always be
politically centralized. Some even question the application side of the decentralized
applications, because they are being frequently used to do ICOs and raise money. In
other words, a dapp-specific token is used to raise money without any further obli-
gations from the team to deliver, also the project might not be a registered company or
business. In recent years, there were a lot of scam projects that took money from the
users and have never delivered anything.
Dapps are very blockchain specific and are highly dependent on the development
and updates of the chain and price of the cryptocurrency. Even though Ethereum
enables the development of dapps, the process is still hard and each update of the
blockchain might potentially bring some disruptions in the dapp ecosystem. People that
develop blockchain updates and people that develop decentralized applications are
often different, so each might not necessarily know of the possible problems that the
other side has. That is why, there is no surprise if a new Ethereum update will shut
down many of the dapps, as it happened before, and influence the economy of the
applications.
The gaming and entertainment parts of the applications on the blockchain are quite
questionable. CryptoKitties didn’t go far from concepts of coins or cryptocurrencies,
combined with the lack of play elements, dapps leave users with a collection of pure
visual-based value collectibles. Crypto-collectibles work the same way as the cryp-
tocurrencies with its main value being the price and the ability to collect, buy or sell; in
the end, it just becomes another form of investment. The reason behind it could be that
just the original execution of the game was not focused on the entertainment, but on
how to find a way to apply the technology; making the game an added value to the
blockchain, not a created value of the game itself. Moreover, dapps are expensive to
use and require prior studying, which makes the trust a first step of the application
validation for the user. Last but not least, there is not much practical usage of the dapps,
people don’t use them that much, especially if numbers of non-blockchain-based
applications are compared side by side. CryptoKitties is a technology looking for an
application, not a technology solving a problem or creating engaging ways of
 Design for the Decentralized World 83

entertainment: dapps have a steep learning curve that doesn’t lead to entertainment, but
at the end creates a beautiful visual investment based on sophisticated technology.
From a broader socioeconomic perspective, dapps like CryptoKitties are trying to
explore if a digital good could be rare. With all the possibilities of breeding, combined
with the variety of cats on the market, it is almost impossible to understand what is rare
without any definition from the game designers. The concept of scarcity in the game is
also hard to understand because many of the users are driven by their subjective
attraction of the cats’ appearance. Besides, digital scarcity is brand new and unfamiliar.
Last but not least, only the code of that particular digital good belongs to the user, the
visual representation of the cat or the image doesn’t. The CryptoKitties company owns
all rights to the graphical elements of the cat, making it impossible to legally use the
image of the cat elsewhere.
Each user of the game has financial investments in it, as the cats can cost from tens
of dollars to thousands of dollars. But the design, development, other related solutions,
and updates are carried out by the developers that don’t necessarily communicate with
the users. Otherwise speaking, the development team can easily implement an addi-
tional feature to the overall cat genome and reshape the economy of the dapp, making
old cat genome combinations loose value, if they wanted.
At some point, we removed one middleman being a financial institution, added
back another middleman in the form of Ethereum and added another middleman being
the decentralized application development team. It is not as bad as it sounds and there
are some good dapps with teams that do a lot of user research, care to create something
good and highly usable, and solve problems, but it is a very small minority.

5 Discussion

Blockchain and decentralized applications are aiming to be open, transparent, solve the
problem of trust, value transfer, and bring solutions that would not require a third party.
In reality, due to the lack of democratic decision-making, participation of developers
and users in the process, user-centered design practices and autonomous voting
mechanisms, it only remains a slogan. The blockchain technology itself is open and
people can use it instead of a trusted third party, similar to how people use Bitcoin, but
the method through which it has been developed and designed remains subjective to a
small development community that lacks transparency in their decisions. Each
blockchain project, depending on its aim and audience should adjust and incorporate
project-specific processes and values. The design of Ethereum should inevitably be
different from the design of Bitcoin, as their nature and core functions are different.
Ethereum is an ecosystem or a platform with a high level of user and development
interactions, because of that it should focus on democratic, participatory decision-
making and constant involvement of the community.
Autonomous ideas in processes and structure of decentralized organizations are
truly revolutionary and with proper design similar values could be incorporated into the
design of blockchain technology and decentralized applications. The greatest value of
decentralization is autonomy, and the greatest problem with autonomy is its gover-
nance and rules that should at the end create an agreement between entities. The
84 V. Gladyshev and Q. Wu

decentralized autonomous organization is an organization created through a set of rules

encoded in a transparent computer system that is controlled only by shareholders and
not influenced by any government [19]. Its biggest potential is to define decision-
makers in an organization and enable a democratic voting mechanism that would lead
to further agreement and development of the organization. The blockchain technology
behind it can record and keep all the information like names, titles, documents,
interactions, numbers, transactions, but most importantly create a consensus mecha-
nism around it, that will allow democratized and fair voting at any step that would
require a decision. Even though there was an example of The DAO project (first ever
decentralized autonomous organization) that had a vulnerability in the code that led to
the stealing of its funds, which subsequently lead to the hard-fork of the Ethereum
blockchain [20], the concept and the fact that is was the largest crowdfunding campaign
in history gives hopes that more projects like this will happen and maybe lead to a new
form of organization design. Decentralized autonomous organizations represent the
future of the decentralized economy with collective work, openness, automation,
algorithms, votes and revenue sharing.
The proposed solution to the questions previously mentioned in this paper and a
possible direction for further advancement of the practices in the blockchain field is a
concept of decentralized autonomous software. Similarly, to decentralized autonomous
organization it might lead to new ways of software design and development.
Decentralized autonomous software, or DAS, is a software that has decision-
making mechanisms embedded in an open distributed peer-to-peer network, that
requires vote-based human participation to determine the future direction of its life-
cycle, development, and design. It combines key values of blockchain, user-centered
design and agile methodology in the form of an autonomous and democratized solution
to ensure trust management and transparency of the product design process. Decen-
tralized autonomous software could be created in a form of blockchain or decentralized
application with the main value being inclusion and openness of the product decisions.
The incentive of a solution proposal, further design and development could be
given in a form of a cryptocurrency mined or locked from the beginning of the project
creation. Similar to the current workflow of agile development it will follow the steps
of planning, definition, design, development, testing, and deployment, just with an
added step of voting that will ensure that the stakeholders (developers, designers, users)
are on the same page about the decision of the feature or update, at each step of the
process. In other words, voting and democratized decision-making would be the main
force in the selection of project features and functionalities. On the other hand, rules for
voting could be further defined, it may be possible to vote for addresses that have a
certain amount of coins or that remained active during a certain period of time.
In its ideal form, decentralized autonomous software is a combination of democ-
ratized practices that help to further develop the values of the decentralized world:
blockchain and decentralized applications create the technical background for the
software, user-centered approach in the form of participatory design creates direction
and evaluation of the software application, agile software methodology creates the
process that would connect and systemize all the pieces in a form of a self-driven
software evolution.
 Design for the Decentralized World 85

6 Conclusion

Even though blockchain technology and decentralized applications create a certain

openness and trust, it is not enough to fully support the open blockchain-based software
design and development, as there are no processes that would help to democratize the
decision-making. Decentralized autonomous software is a concept that rethinks the
software design and development, potentially leading it to a new way of execution that
would truly be autonomous and potentially not only reevaluate the blockchain tech-
nology, but also change the way people think about decision-making and participation
in the new decentralized economy.

Acknowledgments. Conference registration grant of this research was supported by the

National Social Science Foundation as part of the Artificial-Intelligence-Based Interaction Design
Method Research project in 2019, with the associated grant number being 19BG127. I would
also like to thank and acknowledge the support of Pine Du, Jun Soo Kim, Dmitrii Vasilenko,
Alessio Casablanca, and professor Qiong Wu for their precious contributions and constructive
feedback.

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