Yes, everyone agrees on the “terms” of the protocol when they opt in. But that’s basically it. Then consensus happens *because* of protocol incentives.

On monero, and everywhere else, a hardfork is renewed opt in with everyone. And in monero you keep doing it over and over again. Agreeing on hardforks is a consensus mechanism that supersedes protocol incentives. Voting is like a hardfork. It’s not a consensus mechanism. People have decided *before* voting, and there are many reasons on why people vote the way they do.

Hard forks work for now because it’s a community. But money cannot be a community aggregator.