Ostrom Amongst the Machines: Blockchain as a Knowledge Commons

Bodon, Herminio; Bustamante, Pedro; Gomez, Marcela; Krishnamurthy, Prashabnt; Madison, Michael J.; Murtazashvili, Ilia; Murtazashvili, Jennifer Brick; Mylovanov, Tymofiy; Weiss, Martin B. H.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3462648

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…These techno-determinist perspectives are not new, nor a particular issue for blockchain technologies: they resemble, for example, the techno-determinist discourses during the popularization of access to the internet in the 1990s (Wellman et al, 2006). Still, they seem to be reinvigorated from the multiple scenarios that blockchain technology brings, as an exemplification of Hayek-like libertarian views (Bodon et al, 2019).…”

Section: Potentials Of Blockchain For Commons Governancementioning

confidence: 98%

When Ostrom Meets Blockchain: Exploring the Potentials of Blockchain for Commons Governance

et al. 2021

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Blockchain technologies have generated enthusiasm, yet their potential to enable new forms of governance remains largely unexplored. Two confronting standpoints dominate the emergent debate around blockchain-based governance: discourses characterized by the presence of techno-determinist and market-driven values, which tend to ignore the complexity of social organization; and critical accounts of such discourses which, while contributing to identifying limitations, consider the role of traditional centralized institutions as inherently necessary to enable democratic forms of governance. In this article, we draw on Ostrom’s principles for self-governance of communities to explore the transformative potential of blockchain beyond such standpoints. We approach blockchain through the identification and conceptualization of six affordances that this technology may provide to communities: tokenization, self-enforcement and formalization of rules, autonomous automatization, decentralization of power over the infrastructure, increasing transparency, and codification of trust. For each affordance, we carry out a detailed analysis situating each in the context of Ostrom’s principles, considering both the potentials of algorithmic governance and the importance of incorporating communities’ social practices into blockchain-based tools to foster forms of self-governance. The relationships found between these affordances and Ostrom’s principles allow us to provide a perspective focused on blockchain-based commons governance.

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Section: Potentials Of Blockchain For Commons Governancementioning

confidence: 98%

When Ostrom Meets Blockchain: Exploring the Potentials of Blockchain for Commons Governance

et al. 2021

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“…Technological spaces can also be thought of as a commons in the sense that challenges arise from the sheer number of users (Bustamante et al, 2020; Harris, 2018). Blockchain also has a feature of a commons, with its success reflecting the ability of its users to develop rules, procedures, and processes for resolving disputes, as well as processes for establishing boundaries, including excludability, which is a central governance feature of permissioned blockchains (Bodon et al, 2022). Law remains significant, including aspects of contract law, tort law, and property law (Werbach, 2018).…”

Section: Blockchains and Their Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the potential for blockchains in fragile states

Shah,

Murtazashvili,

Murtazashvili

et al. 2023

Chinese Public Administration Review

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Blockchains have been hailed as a game-changing institutional technology. Most of the analysis of blockchains focuses on their uses in the Global North. Though there is increasing consideration of their uses in the Global South, few studies consider the uses of blockchains in fragile states. In this paper, we consider the potential for blockchain deployments by governments, international organizations, and citizens in fragile states. We find that government deployments are unlikely in fragile states, though blockchains can be useful through their increasing use by aid organizations and by providing people with opportunities, such as access to cryptocurrencies. Blockchains may be revolutionary, but the extent to which they have improved the lives of people in fragile states is questionable.

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“…These ideas have been closely examined and found broadly prospective, such as in governing blockchain dispute resolution (e.g., see Allen, Lane, & Poblet, 2020;Howell & Potgieter, 2021). Moreover, some DAO governance analyses (e.g., Bodon et al, 2019;Buterin, 2022;Buterin et al, 2019;Howell & Potgieter, 2021;Murtazashvili et al, 2022;Rozas et al, 2021) draw heavily on Ostrom's (1990) 'governing the commons' model of rules, as well as the broader IAD framework (Ostrom, 2005(Ostrom, , 2010.…”

Section: Blockchains Without Romancementioning

confidence: 99%

The exchange theory of web3 governance

Allen

Berg

Lane

et al. 2023

Kyklos

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Blockchains have enabled innovation in distributed economic institutions, such as money (e.g., cryptocurrencies) and markets (e.g., decentralised exchanges), but also innovations in distributed governance, such as decentralised autonomous organisations. These innovations have generated academic interest in studying web3 governance, but as yet there is no general theory of web3 governance. In this paper, we draw on the contrast between a ‘romantic view’ of governance (characterised by consensus through community voting) and the ‘exchange view’ of governance from public choice theory (characterised by an entrepreneurial process of bargaining and exchange of voters under uncertainty). Our analysis is the first to argue that the latter ‘exchange view’ of governance is best to understand the dynamics of governance innovation in web3, providing the foundations for a new general theory of governance in this frontier field. We apply the ‘exchange view’ of governance to three case studies (Curve, Lido and Metagov), exploring how these projects enable pseudonymous, composable and permissionless governance processes to reveal value. Our approach helps illuminate how this emergent polycentric governance process can generate robustness in decentralised systems.

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Ostrom Amongst the Machines: Blockchain as a Knowledge Commons

Cited by 8 publications

References 53 publications

When Ostrom Meets Blockchain: Exploring the Potentials of Blockchain for Commons Governance

When Ostrom Meets Blockchain: Exploring the Potentials of Blockchain for Commons Governance

Exploring the potential for blockchains in fragile states

The exchange theory of web3 governance

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