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Paper Type
ERF
Abstract
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) promise to replace hierarchy with algorithmic coordination, yet their legitimacy depends on human actors, shared narratives, and reputational authority. This paper examines how legitimacy is enacted, maintained, and repaired when the infrastructures of automation fail. Drawing on a reflexive ethnography of the Axie Infinity and Ronin DAO ecosystem, including personal journals and public records spanning December 2021 to June 2022, the study traces how a $600 million bridge exploited destabilized collective belief and how the community restored it. The paper introduces promissory governance: the process by which legitimacy is sustained by projecting decentralization into a perpetually deferred future. Three mechanisms sustain this dynamic: temporal deferral, narrative reframing, and reputational anchoring. The study contributes to information systems research by theorizing how digital institutions endure not through technical perfection but through the narrative infrastructures that sustain collective faith.
Paper Number
1781
Recommended Citation
Ozuna, Xzavier; Dhillon, Gurpreet; and Kaur, Joti, "Reflexive Ethnography of Digital Legitimacy: Promissory Governance in Decentralized Organizations" (2026). AMCIS 2026 Proceedings. 34.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2026/sig_sec/sig_sec/34
Reflexive Ethnography of Digital Legitimacy: Promissory Governance in Decentralized Organizations
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) promise to replace hierarchy with algorithmic coordination, yet their legitimacy depends on human actors, shared narratives, and reputational authority. This paper examines how legitimacy is enacted, maintained, and repaired when the infrastructures of automation fail. Drawing on a reflexive ethnography of the Axie Infinity and Ronin DAO ecosystem, including personal journals and public records spanning December 2021 to June 2022, the study traces how a $600 million bridge exploited destabilized collective belief and how the community restored it. The paper introduces promissory governance: the process by which legitimacy is sustained by projecting decentralization into a perpetually deferred future. Three mechanisms sustain this dynamic: temporal deferral, narrative reframing, and reputational anchoring. The study contributes to information systems research by theorizing how digital institutions endure not through technical perfection but through the narrative infrastructures that sustain collective faith.
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