Title: Fiduciary Governance of Bitcoin
Subtitle: Partnership, Attribution and the Law of Blockchain Governance Systems
Subject Classification:  Law and Legal Ethics, Economics and Finance  
BIC Classification: LA, KC, KF
BISAC Classification:
Binding: Hardback, eBook
Publication date: 30 Apr 2026
ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-83711-853-3
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-83711-854-0

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Description

This book is a legal-accountability thesis for BTC Core governance framed in orthodox English private law, rather than a technology-first narrative that treats “code” as inherently beyond legal constraint. It differs from prominent governance and “rule of code” treatments by making partnership formation and fiduciary-like obligations the organising centre of the analysis, and by treating protocol control as a legally cognisable locus of responsibility, with concrete private-law consequences.

The book argues that Bitcoin Core governance operates, in substance, as a de facto partnership under the Partnership Act 1890, notwithstanding the public narrative of decentralisation. It explains how a small group of developers, acting through control of the core implementation and the change pipeline, can constitute “persons carrying on a business in common with a view of profit”, and why the practical benefits they receive (including sponsorship-linked and reputational benefits) support that characterisation. On that footing, the book develops the resulting duties of loyalty, care, and good faith, and maps the principal remedies that may follow from breaches, including constructive trusts and disgorgement. It further situates nodes, miners, and exchanges within a real power structure that is legally legible and therefore capable of conventional enforcement and accountability.

Comparable reference points include works addressing power in blockchain governance and the “code is law” tradition (for contrast), and legal/governance monographs that describe hidden power structures in Bitcoin’s ecosystem; this book’s contribution is to convert those descriptive accounts into a structured English-law theory of duties, breach, and remedy grounded in partnership doctrine.

Biography

Author(s):  Dr. Craig Wright is a researcher at the University of Leicester Law School, United Kingdom.

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