Thank you for writing this post.

I think that, thanks to the discussions here on Steem, my opinions have settled and I now would not define myself as a "code-is-the-law" staunch believer. I have evolved into a "constitution-is-the-law" believer.

If we declare that smart contract code is the law (and this is what any reasonable person can deduce from Ethereum's website combined with the DAO's terms & conditions) then when things go wrong, no matter what, we need to stick to those rules.  Even if there are sound economic arguments to do the opposite and even if the majority supports doing the opposite. This is the meta-rule that should always prevail: *Even if rules are bad, they should never be changed in mid-game*. And this meta-rule should be a crucial part of every blockchain constitution.

Why did people start selling off the DAO token when the hacker attacked? Because they took the Ethereum immutability declaration and the DAO terms & conditions seriously. They sold their token for half the price because they actually believed that this is their last chance to rescue their investment. A now it turns out they were naive fools.

*We were just kidding with this immutability thing and nobody reasonable should have taken it seriously. Our initial declarations and intentions don't really matter. You should have expected that since a hard-fork is possible, then when the majority wants it, it will be done*. 

Is this really the new economic model we want to create? 

**Blockchain without a constitution is an ugly monster which in the long run will do more harm than good. A majority is capable to produce a good constitution. But it is not capable to offer effective minority protection in real-life situations.**

If the Ethereum website had said: *If a smart contract runs amok you can try to convince devs and miners to override the system and get your money back*, then everything would have been fine. I personally think such a blockchain makes no sense but I have no problems if some people decide to create such a platform and then use it. My only demand is this: clearly declare those intentions before anything bad happens.