Challenges of DLT-enabled Scalable Governance and the Role of Standards
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13052/jicts2245-800X.731Keywords:
DLT, blockchain, Bitcoin, standards, scalable governance, decentralizationAbstract
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and its blockchain subclass are emerging as a disruptive innovation with an expanding range of potential applications. While DLT systems promise significant benefits to participants and diverse industries, their use of cryptography and incentive models to displace intermediaries and central authorities present significant challenges to conventional models of institutionally-oriented governance. This is due to the disintermediation of such governance bodies displacing the accountabilities and decision rights such parties typically provide. This paper addresses the emerging research question of how standards can address the assurances lost by the displacement of conventional institutional governance mechanisms in DLT systems.
Downloads
References
Nakamoto, S. 2008, ‘Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system’.
Atzori, M. 2015, ‘Blockchain technology and decentralized governance: Is the state still necessary?’, SSRN.
Weill, P. & Ross, J.W. 2004, IT governance: How top performers manage IT decision rights for superior results, Harvard Business Press.
Beck, R. 2018, ‘Beyond Bitcoin: The Rise of Blockchain World’, Computer, vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 54–8.
MacDonald, T.J., Allen, D.W. & Potts, J. 2016, ‘Blockchains and the boundaries of self-organized economies: Predictions for the future of banking’, Banking Beyond Banks and Money, Springer, pp. 279–96.
Harari, Y.N. & Perkins, D. 2017, Sapiens: A brief history of humankind, HarperCollins.
Klein, D.B. 1997, Reputation: Studies in the voluntary elicitation of good conduct, University of Michigan Press.
Davidson, S., De Filippi, P. & Potts, J. 2016, ‘Disrupting governance: The new institutional economics of distributed ledger technology’.
Scott, J.C. 1998, Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed, Yale University Press.
Williamson, O.E. 1996, The mechanisms of governance, Oxford University Press.
Allen, D.W., Berg, C., Lane, A.M. & Potts, J. 2017, ‘The economics of crypto-democracy’.
Paquet, G. & Wilson, C. 2015, ‘Governance failure and the avatars of the antigovernment phenomena’, Public Administration Theory Network Conference.
Benkler, Y. 2016, ‘Degrees of freedom, dimensions of power’, Daedalus, vol. 145, no. 1, pp. 18–32.
Davidson, S., De Filippi, P. & Potts, J. 2018, ‘Blockchains and the economic institutions of capitalism’, Journal of Institutional Economics, pp. 1–20.
Wright, A. & De Filippi, P. 2015, ‘Decentralized blockchain technology and the rise of lex cryptographia’.
Yermack, D. 2017, ‘Corporate governance and blockchains’, Review of Finance, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 7–31.
Abramaowicz, M. 2016, ‘Cryptocurrency-based law’, Ariz. L. Rev., vol. 58, p. 359.
Kakavand, H., Kost De Sevres, N. & Chilton, B. 2017, ‘The blockchain revolution: An analysis of regulation and technology related to distributed ledger technologies’, Bart, The Blockchain Revolution: An Analysis of Regulation and Technology Related to Distributed Ledger Technologies (January 1, 2017).
Mainelli, M. & Mills, S. 2016, ‘The Missing Links in the Chains’, Mutual Distributed Ledger (aka Blockchain) Standards.
De Filippi, P. & Loveluck, B. 2016, ‘The invisible politics of bitcoin: governance crisis of a decentralized infrastructure’.
Shaw, A. & Hill, B.M. 2014, ‘Laboratories of oligarchy? How the iron law extends to peer production’, Journal of Communication, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 215–38.
Kiviat, T.I. 2015, ‘Beyond bitcoin: Issues in regulating blockchain tranactions’, Duke LJ, vol. 65, p. 569.
Pereira, R. & Silva, M.M.D. 2012, ‘A literature review: IT governance guidelines and areas’, paper presented to the Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, Albany, New York, USA.
Beck, R., Mller-Bloch, C. & King, J.L. 2018, ‘Governance in the Blockchain Economy: A Framework and Research Agenda’, Journal of the Association for Information Systems.
Anjum, A., Sporny, M. & Sill, A. 2017, ‘Blockchain standards for compliance and trust’, IEEE Cloud Computing, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 84–90.
de Meijer, C.R. 2016, ‘The UK and Blockchain technology: A balanced approach’, Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 220–9.
