Blockchain-powered distributed governance
for communities, institutions and the world.
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)
Descubra los bonos deEl Casino Playuzu tiene buenos bonos para los jugadores
WE ARE RECRUITING
Communications
Manager
Postdoctoral Researcher
Legal & Constitutional Theory
EVENTS
Upcoming Events
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 […]
Past Events
Lisbon, Portugal
BlockchainGov will be participating in the upcoming International Conference on DAO Regulation, hosted by the Lisbon DAO Observatory. The event will take place on April 20th, 2023, at the Faculty […]
DAO Harvard: Exploring the Implications of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are an emerging technology with immense potential to revolutionize how we think about social and economic organization. […]
NEWS
Compliant Book-Keeping for DAOs through “Proof of Trusted Origin:” A Technical Guide
Isaac Patka, Sofia Cossar, Eric Alston, Primavera De Filippi, Frederick Dudley, Fatemeh Fannizadeh, Jake Hartnell, Rolf Hoefer, Aaron Lane, Will Papper, Joshua Tan, & Michael Zargham The Problem As novel
OTNS: Critiques and Alternatives from a Former Professional Libertarian
OTNS: Critiques and Alternatives from a Former Professional Libertarian In this episode, The Blockchain Socialist and Primavera De Filippi talked with Chris Berg a crypto economist and co-director at the RMIT Blockchain Innovation
OTNS: Institutional Design and Recognizing the Value of Politics
Overthrowing the Network States: “Institutional Design and Recognizing the Value of Politics” with Jason Potts For the first time of the series, Primavera de Filippi and The Blockchain Socialist welcome
The BlockchainGov Newsletter #3 | April 21st, 2023
The latest edition of the BlockchainGov Newsletter is out!This edition covers a wide range of topics, such as the recent research papers published by BlockchainGov members, upcoming events, the various
OTNS: Maximum Freedom in Complex Social Organizations
New episode of Overthrowing The Network State (OTNS) online! This time, Primavera De Filippi and The Blockchain Socialist are joined by Eric Alston, a researcher at BlockScience and Scholar-in-Residence at
Overthrowing The Network State: How to Optimize for Reality
Overthrowing The Network State: “How to optimize for reality?” with Michael Zargham We are thrilled to announce the newest episode of Overthrowing The Network State (OTNS), featuring Michael Zargham, the
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.