Blockchain-powered distributed governance
for communities, institutions and the world.
We are a 5-year long, transdisciplinary research effort aimed at restoring trust in institutions at the community and global levels, by promoting better on chain and off chain distributed governance practices.
We are funded by the European Research Council (grant ID: 865856).
THE PLAN
Despite the promises of decentralization, the governance of most blockchain networks is highly centralized.
Yet, these are still early days, and there’s time to move things in a different direction.
Here’s our game plan:
GOAL #1
Diving in
We will examine the onchain and offchain governance of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tezos, to provide an empirical overview of the multiple forces that collectively govern these networks.
GOAL #2
Looking out
With a transdisciplinary approach, we will articulate a set of principles that can support the emergence of distributed governance models, with greater transparency, accountability, representativity and inclusion.
GOAL #3
Building with
We will work in collaboration with selected communities to support and guide them in the process of choosing and implementing their own mechanism of distributed governance.
THE TACTICS
EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS
While on chain governance rules are clearly defined within the code of a blockchain, off chain rules are often loosely defined, poorly formalized, or simply non binding. To understand how these underlying power dynamics operate, our team will engage in digital ethnography and analyse specific case studies where the “trustless” nature of blockchains is challenged.
THEORICAL FRAMEWORK
There are several missing links between the existing literature on blockchain governance and previous work on legal theory & philosophy as well as the social & political sciences. Our goal here is to reconceptualize ideas as they apply to a new setting; use existing theories to better explain, predict and understand blockchain governance; and identify whether parts of these theories may need to be revisited or expanded, to better reflect the specificities
DESIGN & MODELLING
Here we will synthesize our empirical and theoretical findings into specific governance models aimed at public and private institutions on the one hand, and blockchain communities on the other hand. We want to explore new ways of leveraging blockchain technology to restore confidence in public and private institutions, companies and organizations; and design new governance models for decentralized communities—local and global.
EXPERIMENTATION
Our premise is that “you cannot understand a system until you try to changeit”. With a Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology, our research team will engage in real world settings to work with communities and test the feasibility, acceptability and social implications of new governance models. BlockchainGov will engage in a real world setting to test the feasibility, acceptability and social implications of new governance models
TEAM
PhD Candidate (Legal Theory)
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WE ARE RECRUITING
Postdoctoral Researcher
Legal & Constitutional Theory
EVENTS
Upcoming Events
There is no Event
Past Events
Following the successful launch of the 'The Blockchain Governance Toolkit - A Cookbook for a Resilient and Robust Ecosystem', BlockchainGov decided to start putting its recommendations to work by integrating […]
Blockchain networks and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) have seen a surge in adoption in recent years. However, to fulfill their promise of widespread structural innovation and change meaningfully, they require […]
NEWS
Blockchain Governance | MIT Press Essential Knowledge Volume
Blockchain Governance By Primavera de Fillippi, Wessel Reijers, Morshed Mannan An engaging and comprehensive exploration of how fundamental ideas in political and legal thought shape the governance of blockchain communities,
Blockchain Technology and Polycentric Governance – A research report
Blockchain Technology and Polycentric Governance – A Research Report Download the report here. This report, released in its final version in July 2024, addresses the polycentric governance of blockchain systems, following
The Blockchain Governance Toolkit – A Cookbook for a Resilient and Robust Ecosystem
The Blockchain Governance Toolkit – A Cookbook for a Resilient and Robust Ecosystem Download the report here. BlockchainGov works to support and guide decentralized communities in the process of choosing and
Coordi-nations: A New Institutional Structure for Global Cooperation
Coordi-nation: A New Institutional Structure for Global Cooperation Primavera de Filippi and Jessy Kate Schingler, June 13, 2023. Introduction Networked communications have enabled new ways for people to coordinate
Proof of Humanity: Ethnographic Research of a “democratic” DAO
Jamilya Kamalova, Sofia Cossar, Tara Merk. In early 2021, the first Sybil-resistant registry of humans was launched. The Proof of Humanity (PoH) registry and the PoH DAO is the first
Overthrowing The Network State: New Episodes
Ovethrowing The Network State: New Episodes In the second half of 2023, Joshua Davila (The Blockchain Socialist) and Primavera De Filipppi continued their podcast series ‘Overthrowing The Network State’ (OTNS).
This site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The BlockchainGov project has been funded by an European Research Council Grant.