Company: HODL
Filing Date: 2025-03-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000930413-25-000995
Chunk: 44

Company: VanEck Bitcoin ETF
Filing Date: 2025-03-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 44
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 may negatively affect its ability to grow and respond to challenges.

The governance of decentralized networks,
such as the Bitcoin network, is by voluntary consensus and open competition. In other words, the Bitcoin network has no central
decision-making body or clear manner in which participants can come to an agreement other than through voluntary, widespread consensus.
As a result, a lack of widespread consensus in the governance of the Bitcoin network may adversely affect the network’s
utility and ability to adapt and face challenges, including technical and scaling challenges. Historically the development of
the source code of the Bitcoin network has been overseen by the core developers. However, the Bitcoin network would cease to operate
successfully without both miners and users, and the core developers cannot formally compel them to adopt the changes to the source
code desired by core developers, or to continue to render services or participate in the Bitcoin network. As a general matter,
the governance of the Bitcoin network generally depends on most of the members of the Bitcoin community ultimately reaching some
form of voluntary agreement on significant changes.

The decentralized governance of the Bitcoin
network may make it difficult to find or implement solutions or marshal sufficient effort to overcome existing or future problems,
especially protracted ones requiring substantial directed effort and resource commitment over a long period of time, such as scaling
challenges. Deeply-held differences of opinion have led to forks in the past, such as between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, and could
lead to additional forks in the future, with potentially divisive effects. The Bitcoin network’s failure to overcome governance
challenges could exacerbate problems experienced by the network or cause the network to fail to meet the needs of its users, and
could cause users, miners, and developer talent to abandon the Bitcoin network or to choose competing blockchain protocols, or
lead to a drop in speculative interest, which could cause the value of bitcoin to decline. If the Bitcoin community is unable
to reach consensus in the future, it could have adverse consequences for the network or lead to a fork, which could affect the
value of bitcoin.

Potential amendments to the Bitcoin
network’s protocols and software could, if accepted and authorized by the Bitcoin network community, adversely affect an
investment in the Trust.

The Bitcoin network uses a cryptographic
protocol to govern the interactions within the Bitcoin network. A loose community known as the core developers has evolved to
informally manage the source code for the protocol. Membership in the community of core developers evolve over time, largely based
on self-determined participation in the resource section dedicated to bitcoin