Blockchain Technology and Decentralized Governance: Is the State Still Necessary?

Author(s):  
Marcella Atzori
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcella Atzori

The core technology of Bitcoin, the blockchain, has recently emerged as a disruptive innovation with a wide range of applications, potentially able to redesign our interactions in business, politics and society at large. Although scholarly interest in this subject is growing, a comprehensive analysis of blockchain applications from a political perspective is severely lacking to date. This paper aims to fill this gap and it discusses the key points of blockchain-based decentralized governance, which challenges to varying degrees the traditional mechanisms of State authority, citizenship and democracy. In particular, the paper verifies to which extent blockchain and decentralized platforms can be considered as hyper-political tools, capable to manage social interactions on large scale and dismiss traditional central authorities. The analysis highlights risks related to a dominant position of private powers in distributed ecosystems, which may lead to a general disempowerment of citizens and to the emergence of a stateless global society. While technological utopians urge the demise of any centralized institution, this paper advocates the role of the State as a necessary central point of coordination in society, showing that decentralization through algorithm-based consensus is an organizational theory, not a stand-alone political theory.


Author(s):  
Myroslav Kosіak ◽  
Inna Kosіak

The purpose of the article. The article considers the Blockchain technology asan innovative tool. In particular, the essence and background of the developmentof blocks, the principles and specifics of the functioning of the system, as well asthe scheme of its work, are determined. The article presents the prospects forusingdistributed registry technologies (blockchain) in various socioeconomic spheresrelated to state administration. Provided examples and forecasts of the use ofblockchain technologies in the provision of state and municipal services forindividuals and legal entities in the following areas: formation of a unified registercontaining the history of the placement of the state, municipal order, as well asprocurement of corporations with state participation and / or control; registers ofdocuments (diplomas, certificates, lost and disavowed passports, policies for movableand immovable property insurance, health, etc.); database of court decisions andexecutive proceedings; public participation portals for citizens of Ukraine district- city – country. The fact that the blockchain technology is, first of all, theprinciples, and not the only possible way of implementing them, allows us to counton maximum openness and multivariate application in a dynamically changingchanging«digital world». Methodology. The research methodology is to use a combinationof methods: analytical, historical, comparative. The scientific novelty. The priorityof state blockchain systems introduction in stationary and distant voting, distributeddocument circulation, medical data registration, land resources registration,electronic auctions (auctions) in Ukraine was grounded. Conclusions. Already today,blockchain systems can change the role and participation of citizens in the conductof the state-management process, by raising the responsibility level, from thetransparent will expression in the elections to regulating the government serviceactivity in the society’s digitization conditions. The main advantages blockchainsystems using by public authorities that will increase the level of citizens trust todigital technologies using in general, namely: reliability and reliability of datastorage, transparency of transactions and virtually absolute protection of informationfrom distortion and unauthorized removal (relocation), are determined. In furtherscientific research it is proposed to consider the promising areas of the blockchaindigital technology usage: service activities of public authorities, legal proceedings,property rights management, implementation of migration control, verification ofgoods and services, registration of data on passing qualifying tests, patenting,intellectual property, digital identification, logistics , taxation, accounting ofbudget funds movement.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Ankur Lohachab ◽  
Saurabh Garg ◽  
Byeong Kang ◽  
Muhammad Bilal Amin ◽  
Junmin Lee ◽  
...  

Unprecedented attention towards blockchain technology is serving as a game-changer in fostering the development of blockchain-enabled distinctive frameworks. However, fragmentation unleashed by its underlying concepts hinders different stakeholders from effectively utilizing blockchain-supported services, resulting in the obstruction of its wide-scale adoption. To explore synergies among the isolated frameworks requires comprehensively studying inter-blockchain communication approaches. These approaches broadly come under the umbrella of Blockchain Interoperability (BI) notion, as it can facilitate a novel paradigm of an integrated blockchain ecosystem that connects state-of-the-art disparate blockchains. Currently, there is a lack of studies that comprehensively review BI, which works as a stumbling block in its development. Therefore, this article aims to articulate potential of BI by reviewing it from diverse perspectives. Beginning with a glance of blockchain architecture fundamentals, this article discusses its associated platforms, taxonomy, and consensus mechanisms. Subsequently, it argues about BI’s requirement by exemplifying its potential opportunities and application areas. Concerning BI, an architecture seems to be a missing link. Hence, this article introduces a layered architecture for the effective development of protocols and methods for interoperable blockchains. Furthermore, this article proposes an in-depth BI research taxonomy and provides an insight into the state-of-the-art projects. Finally, it determines possible open challenges and future research in the domain.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amrita Dhillon ◽  
Grammateia Kotsialou ◽  
Dimitris Xefteris

Recent developments in blockchain technology have made possible greater progress on secure electronic voting, opening the way to better ways of democratic decision making. In this paper we formalise the features of ``liquid democracy'' which allows voters to delegate their votes to other voters, and we explore whether it improves information aggregation as compared to direct voting. We consider a two-alternative setup with truth-seeking voters (informed and uninformed) and partisan ones (leftists and rightists), and we show that delegation improves information aggregation in finite elections. We also propose a mechanism that further improves the information aggregation properties of delegation in private information settings, by guaranteeing that all vote transfers are from uninformed to informed truth-seeking voters. Delegation offers effective ways for truth-seeking uninformed voters to boost the vote-share of the alternative that matches the state of the world in all considered setups and hence deserves policy makers' attention.


2019 ◽  
pp. 143-149
Author(s):  
O. Makhalina ◽  
V. Makhalin

The advantages of cryptocurrency, its distribution and application experience in different countries have been considered. The results of the analysis of the state and ways of development of national and supranational cryptocurrencies in the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia) have been introduced. Conclusions and recommendations have been formulated: 1.it is necessary to develop a single regulatory framework for the regulation of the crypto sphere in the EAEU countries. 2.digitalization of the cryptosphere should be carried out according to the General scheme; 3.to make maximum use of blockchain technology to create a digital economy in the EAEU countries.


2020 ◽  
pp. 014920632091675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Chen ◽  
Igor Pereira ◽  
Pankaj C. Patel

Over the past decade, the rise of blockchain technology has led to the emergence of a growing number of decentralized platforms that are governed less by platform owners and more through community efforts. The emergence of blockchain platforms offers a unique opportunity to examine alternative structures for platform governance and to develop a theory around the value of centralized, semi-decentralized, and decentralized governance. Drawing on mechanism design theory, we evaluate the tradeoffs between centralization and decentralization and hypothesize semi-decentralization as a higher performing governance structure. Empirical evidence from the blockchain industry shows that decentralization has an inverted U-shaped relationship with platforms’ market capitalization, developer attention, and development activity. We further examine factors driving the decentralization of platform governance and find that digital platforms of the infrastructure layer—relative to those of the application layer—have a tendency to become more decentralized. This tendency, nevertheless, can be offset by experienced leaders to achieve semi-decentralization. Overall, this study contributes new insights on the characteristics, antecedents, and consequences of effective platform governance.


Author(s):  
T.G. Volkova

Due to the introduction of the digital economy on the territory of the Russian Federation and the urgency of the problem of implementing the distributed registry system (Blockchain) in various financial spheres, including the system of accounting for pension rights and obligations in the state and non-state pension systems, an attempt was made to assess the principles of implementing the Blockchain mechanism in the system of accounting for pension rights, insurance premiums and pension payments. The current system of centralized registries is based on the full confidence of its participants-clients. In particular, persons insured in the pension system. The non-transparency of the non-state pension component and the periodic changes in the state pension system seriously undermine this trust of citizens. Thus, the system of distributed registries that will solve this problem operates on the principles of transparency, availability for verification, reliability (security of transactions), economy, and trust on the part of customers. The article also considers the problem of formation and distribution of the accumulative pension component. The analysis of its losses and features of transfer to different pension organizations - participants of the state pension insurance system is carried out. It is proposed to solve the problems associated with these processes by implementing a system of distributed registries and smart contracts. In conclusion, the advantages and disadvantages of the distributed registry system are presented, as well as the difficulties of its implementation in the near future in the pension system of the Russian Federation are analyzed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Hyrynsalmi ◽  
Sonja M. Hyrynsalmi ◽  
Kai K. Kimppa

Blockchain is a software innovation which is based on a cryptographically secured, decentralised, and distributed storage of data. The technological breakthrough was done as a part of and became familiar through cryptocurrencies, where it is used to openly store currency transactions among its users. Blockchain technology has been since proposed and used in various domains ranging from open contracts to electronic voting—as well as in various purposes in eHealth, medical and well-being applications. However, its usage in these sectors possesses several ethical questions as these environments are full of personal and private patient information. To study the state-of-the-art of the blockchain ethics in healthcare, this study presents a systematic literature study (SLR) on this phenomenon. By collecting the relevant primary studies from Scopus, the results show that the utilisation of blockchain is swiftly maturing with new research and applications published constantly in this domain. However, the ethical discussion related to the use of blockchain technologies is still taking its baby steps in healthcare. Despite a few openings, ethical research is practically non-existing when compared against the full extant literature on the topic. Therefore, remarkable amount of further work is needed to cover the potential ethical questions related to the adoption and use of the technology.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 317
Author(s):  
Judit Glavanits

Blockchain technology and its industrial use cases can be detected worldwide. It is time for the state to think about the blockchain as an opportunity to reduce costs and build trust in the public spending. The paper and the presentation give an overview on how the state can apply the distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain technology in the public administration: there are several countries with best practices already, and even more are in the introduction phase of opening to Industry 4.0 in the public services as well. On the field of FinTech area the state has great responsibility to regulate (or at least define) the phenomena of cryptocurrencies, that is already in use for more than 10 years now without any responsible governmental acts. Within this topic the Central Bank Digital Currency projects are also discussed in the paper, which are supported by IMF, and declared as the next natural step forward on financial markets. Keywords: blockchain, DLT, SDG, public spending


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document