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)
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WE ARE RECRUITING
Communications
Manager
Postdoctoral Researcher
Legal & Constitutional Theory
EVENTS
Upcoming Events
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. […]
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
We are proud to announce the participation of Sofía Cossar, Tara Merk, and Jamilya Kamalova in the Metagovernance Seminar. They will present their findings from a six-month ethnographic study of […]
10th Meeting of European Research Council BlockchainGov Project Genereal Catch-up call Polycentricity report Constitutions literature review Communication update Blockchain & Constitutions KLEROS Internal Discussion on Blockchain & Constitutions PhD developments […]
NEWS
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
Overthrowing The Network State: Dictatorship by Tech CEO with Nathan Schneider
Overthrowing The Network State: Dictatorship by Tech CEO with Nathan Schneider Overthrowing The Network State: Dictatorship by Tech CEO with Nathan Schneider We are excited to announce the 6th episode
Overthrowing The Network State: Colonize the Memes, the Narratives, and the Land
Overthrowing The Network State: Colonize the Memes, the Narratives, and the Land Check out the latest episode of Overthrowing the Network State (OTNS)! In this episode, Primavera de Filippi and
Overthrowing The Network State: Untangling Balaji’s Helical Theory of History
Overthrowing The Network State: Untangling Balaji’s Helical Theory of History Be sure not to miss the latest Overthrowing the Network State (OTNS) episode! Technology historian Quinn DuPont joins the Blockchain
Overthrowing The Network State: Survival of the Richest with Douglas Rushkoff
The third Episode of “Overthrowing the Network State” with Douglas Rushkoff has been published! We are excited to announce that the third episode of the “Overthrowing the Network State” podcast
Overthrowing The Network State: Forming New Publics and Pluralism with Glen Weyl
Exploring Alternatives: The Second Episode of Overthrowing The Network State is Here! We’re thrilled to announce the release of the second episode of the podcast series “Overthrowing The Network State“.
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.