dissensusai

The Problem

Game theory presupposes participation. It does not account for how agents enter strategic interaction, why payoff structures take the forms they do, or what occurs when participation is refused. It does not interrogate who defines the rules, whose interests they serve, or whether the game itself is legitimate.

We study the layer underneath. Before strategy, there is delegation. Before delegation, there is consent. Before consent, there is stake—someone's optimization being transferred to another's control. Regulatory announcements shift sentiment, yet decentralised networks remain structurally unresponsive—the protocol operates outside institutional jurisdiction.

We formalize this friction. Not to eliminate it—friction is the cost of existence in an adversarial environment—but to measure it. To make visible the invisible taxes that coordination imposes. To quantify the legitimacy deficits that traditional political theory only gestures toward.