7 . 01 . 2021

Blockchain as a Confidence Machine: The Problem of Trust and Challenges of Governance

De Filippi, P., Mannan, M., Reijers, W.: “Blockchain as a Confidence Machine: The Problem of Trust and Challenges of Governance” presented at the seminar on “Trust & Regulatory Governance in the Age of Crisis” organised by TIGRE (Trust in governance and Regulation in Europe). 7 January 2021 (online).

Blog posts / PublicationsFebruary 16, 2022
Announcing ERC Grant for Regenerative ICOsHow will it work? Say you invest €100,000 in a Company and get an equivalent of €500,000 in their tokens. To pay you back, the company agrees to put 20% of their profits to buy back and burn the tokens you hold. In a given month, the company makes €1m profit and pays you €200,000. Now you have 300,000 tokens left. You decide that you want to sell the remaining token before their payback through the company for €200,000 on the open market to another buyer. This buyer will ultimately get €300,000 and thus make a profit of €100,000. What enforces the capped investor profit is the fact that the buyer wouldn’t pay more than €300,000 because they wouldn’t make any profit on it when the company’s profit share is paid out and their tokens are automatically burned. The discount of €100,000 you give to the buyer is what will produce market signals about the current health of the company and enables price discovery. The anticipated business model of the Regenerative ICO SaaS platform is to offer every organisation to raise €20,000 for free and from then on take a percentage fee on the total investment sum. This fee is paid in tokens of the token-issuing organisation to increase alignment between the long-term success of the company and the Regenerative ICOs team. What good will come from this? The project could make it possible: for cooperatives, businesses, communities, and individuals to raise funding from a diverse set of supporters, while avoiding mission drift and profit maximization incentives. to support businesses that aim for sustainable profitability instead of growing-at-all-costs and that have the economic freedom to invest in alleviating societal challenges without lowering investor profits.to experiment with different contractual agreements and governance models with economic incentive structures potentially leading to higher decentralisation of power, transparency, accountability and support of public interests. What are the next steps? The project has three phases: Research the legal constraints and opportunities to develop basic (smart) contract templates for capped profit investments.Develop the software prototype for organisations to create & distribute their own tokens and smart contracts, customisable with a set of predefined parameters (not extendable yet), and enforcement of profit sharing to token holders.Validate product market fit with the Zebras-Unite community of capped profit organisations and productive communities. Stay tuned to learn more and get involved!... Read more...
Blog posts / PublicationsDecember 6, 2021
1st Meeting of ERC BlockchainGov ProjectAfter introductions, the agenda included sessions on Legitimacy, Outreach & Policy, OpEds, a potential documentary, PhD Consultancy, and multiple sessions on theory concerning the following topics: Blockchain, Coercion & Legitimacy: Dyzenhaus, David. 1997. “Legality and Legitimacy: Refractions from Weimar”Decentralized/Polycentric governance: Aligica, Paul D., and Vlad Tarko. 2012. “Polycentricity: From Polanyi to Ostrom, and Beyond.”Blockchain and Commons-based governance: Grisel, Florian. 2021. “How Migrations Affect Private Orders: Norms and Practices in the Fishery of Marseille“Constitutional guarantees in blockchain tech: Suzor, Nicolas. 2018. “Digital Constitutionalism: Using the Rule of Law to Evaluate the Legitimacy of Governance by Platforms.” Stay tuned to learn more about our new scholars! From left to right: Primavera De Filippi, Morshed Mannan, Tara Merk, Philemon Poux, Vashti Maharaj (virtual), Sofia Cossar (virtual), Jamilya Kamalova (virtual), Nathan Vandy, Yann Aouidef, Simona Ramos, Wessel Reijers.... Read more...
Conference Presentations / EventsDecember 6, 2021
How to Govern Decentralized Digital Public Goods? Blockchains Between Innovation and RegulationYouTube De Filippi, P. “How to govern decentralized digital public goods? Blockchains between innovation and regulation” panel presentation at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2021, organised by the United Nations. 6 December 2021 (online).... Read more...
Conference Organizations / EventsDecember 2, 2021
European Crypto-Initiative (EUCI) WorkshopCo-organiser of the first European Crypto-Initiative (EUCI) Workshop, organised in collaboration with COALA and the BlockchainGov project of the European Research Council (ERC). December 2-3, Citizen Corner Brussels, Belgium.... Read more...
Conference Organizations / EventsDecember 2, 2021
1st Meeting of ERC BlockchainGov ProjectOrganiser of the 1st Meeting of European Research Council BlockchainGov Project, December 4-5, 2021, CERSA – Paris, France ... Read more...
Conference Organizations / EventsNovember 30, 2021
Cryptogovernance WorkshopCo-organiser of the Cryptogovernance Workshop, organized by Wharton’s Blockchain & Digital Asset Project at University of Pennsylvania. 30 November 2021 (online)... Read more...
Misc / TeachingNovember 28, 2021
Smart Contracts & Legal ContractsDe Filippi, P., Guest Lecture: “Smart Contracts & Legal Contracts” at Fordham Law School (1 hour) as part of the “Securities” course, run by Donna Redel.... Read more...
Misc / TeachingNovember 28, 2021
The Economic Impact of BlockchainDe Filippi, P., Module 3: Deep Dive Blockchain – Unit 0: The Economic Impact of Blockchain at DT2 Invest Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Online course sponsored by the European Commission, developed by France Digitale.... Read more...
Misc / TeachingNovember 28, 2021
Role of Platform Cooperatives at the Base of the PyramidMannan, M., Guest Lecture: “Role of Platform Cooperatives at the Base of the Pyramid” for the Online Course “Platform Cooperatives Now!” at The New School, New York City & Mondragon University, Spain (1 hour)... Read more...
Events / Focus GroupsNovember 28, 2021
Platform Cooperative Working GroupDe Filippi, P., Mannan, M., “Platform Cooperative Working Group” at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University... Read more...

Blockchain as a Confidence Machine: The Problem of Trust and Challenges of Governance

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