  Blockchain has been increasingly used as a software component to enable
decentralisation in software architecture for a variety of applications.
Blockchain governance has received considerable attention to ensure the safe
and appropriate use and evolution of blockchain, especially after the Ethereum
DAO attack in 2016. However, there are no systematic efforts to analyse
existing governance solutions. To understand the state-of-the-art of blockchain
governance, we conducted a systematic literature review with 37 primary
studies. The extracted data from primary studies are synthesised to answer
identified research questions. The study results reveal several major findings:
1) governance can improve the adaptability and upgradability of blockchain,
whilst the current studies neglect broader ethical responsibilities as the
objectives of blockchain governance; 2) governance is along with the
development process of a blockchain platform, while ecosystem-level governance
process is missing, and; 3) the responsibilities and capabilities of blockchain
stakeholders are briefly discussed, whilst the decision rights, accountability,
and incentives of blockchain stakeholders are still under studied. We provide
actionable guidelines for academia and practitioners to use throughout the
lifecycle of blockchain, and identify future trends to support researchers in
this area.
