PUBLICATIONS

EVENTS

MISC

• Blockchain Constitutionalism, Books, PublicationsBlockchain Governance | MIT Press Essential Knowledge VolumeBlockchain 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, and are, in turn, shaped by blockchain technology. How can digital cash truly be “trustless”? What does it mean that blockchain offers a new paradigm of the “rule of code”? How are decisions made when a blockchain system faces an emergency, and who gets to make those decisions? In Blockchain Governance, Primavera De Filippi, Wessel Reijers, and Morshed Mannan offer answers to these questions and more, in an accessible, critical overview of legal and political issues related to blockchain technology, now the foundation of a multi-billion-dollar industry. Moving beyond the hype, they show how blockchain offers fertile ground for experimentation with radically new ways to govern people and institutions. Blockchain-based systems, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tezos, and countless others, offer new ways of organizing digital cash, “smart” contracts to execute transactions, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to collect art, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to coordinate humans and machines. What these applications have in common is that they govern the behavior of people and artificial agents through distributed systems. Drawing from their extensive experience in researching blockchain technologies and communities, the authors discuss the origins of Bitcoin in cypher-anarchism and extropianism, spectacular events like the million-dollar theft of the DAO Attack, and the hostile takeover of the Steem platform. While engaging with political and legal thinkers such as Hobbes, Kelsen, and the Ostroms, these narratives explore how blockchain governance problematizes fundamental concepts such as rule of law, sovereignty, legality, legitimacy, and polycentric governance. The book is the result of years of extensive research in blockchain technologies and communities and it feels like an excellent introduction to Blockchain Gov’s research work on decentralized governance. Get the book at this link and find the audiobook version on Audible! [...]

  September 24, 2024
• Articles, Books, News, PublicationsSeptember 2023 Papers UpdateSeptember 2023 Papers Update Our team has been keeping busy with a variety of research projects, focus groups, and initiatives, analyzing from different perspectives the evolution of the blockchain space! It’s been a while since we last updated our website with these exciting developments, so we wanted to share some of the latest happenings with you. Here you can find the list of our most recent papers and book chapters. Papers Von Blomberg, M., Reijers, W. (2023) “Who Deserves Credit? Banks for the Virtuous in Rural China” in Journal of Contemporary China. Taylor & Francis. Bühler, M.M.; Calzada, I.; Cane, I.; Jelinek, T.; Kapoor, A.; Mannan, M.; Mehta, S.; Mookerje, V.; Nübel, K.; Pentland, A.; Scholz, T.; Siddharth, D.; Tait, J.; Vaitla, B.; Zhu, J. (2023) “Unlocking the Power of Digital Commons: Data Cooperatives as a Pathway for Data Sovereign, Innovative and Equitable Digital Communities”. Digital 2023, 3, 146–171. https://doi.org/10.3390/digital3030011 Merk, T., Tan, J., Hubbard, S., Oak, E. (2023) “Open Problems in DAOs”, website publication (and under process for submission) De Filippi, P., Santolini, M. (2023) “Extitutional Theory: Modeling Structured Social Dynamics Beyond Institutions” in Ephemera: Theory in Politics and Organisation  Mannan, M., Pek, S. & Scholz, T. (2023) “Platform Cooperatives and Poverty Eradication: Building on the Legacy of Johnston Birchall”, in Journal of Entrepreneurial & Organizational Diversity (accepted, forthcoming) Mannan, M. & Pek, S. (2023) “Platform Cooperatives and the Dilemmas of Labor-Member Participation”, in New Technology, Work and Employment.  https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12273. De Filippi, P., Enguehard, C., Fayon, D., Gagnebien, A., Vidal, G. (2023) “Quelques enjeux de sécurité, juridiques, économiques, et énergétiques des blockchains” in Terminal. https://doi.org/10.4000/terminal.8995   Special Issues De Filippi, P., Enguehard C., Fayon D., Gagnebien A., Vidal G. (eds) (2023) special edition on “Blockchains : enjeux de sécurité, juridiques, économiques, et coûts énergétiques” for Terminal. [...]

  September 11, 2023
• Articles, Books, News, Publications, ReportsNew Academic Papers Alert!New Academic Papers Alert ! De Filippi, P, Mannan, M. presentation of “The BlockchainGov Report on Trust and Confidence in Blockchain Technology”, in the framework of the EUI Tech Cluster research seminar series. European University Institute. 18 May 2022. Florence. Italy     Our team is involved in a variety of research projects, focus groups and initiatives that aim to explore challenges of the blockchain technology. Here are some of the recently published selected papers authored by our members, advisors and affiliates:   1. De Filippi, P., Poux, P., Deffains, B. (2022) “MEV ou la tragédie des blockchains en tant que communs, in Terminal. (forthcoming) 2. Rennie, E., Zargham, M., Tan, J., Miller, L., Abbott, J., Nabben, K., De Filippi, P. (2022) “Towards a participatory digital ethnography of blockchain governance.” 3. Reijers, W., Orgad, L., De Filippi, P. (2022) “The Rise of Cybernetic Citizenship” in Citizenship Studies, Special Issue on “Digital Citizenship in the Post-Pandemic Urban Realm. 4. De Filippi, P., Mannan, M., Reijers, W. (2022) “The Alegality of Blockchain Technology”, in Policy & Society, special issue: “The Policy Dilemmas of Blockchain”. 5. De Filippi, P., Leiter, A. (2021) “Blockchain in Outer Space” in American Journal of International Law (AJIL) Unbound, special issue: “The Global Governance Implications of Blockchain”   [...]

  August 6, 2022
• Books, PublicationsPeer Governance in Online CommunitiesDe Filippi, P., Schneider, N. (eds.) (2021) Peer Governance in Online Communities. Frontiers in Blockchain. [...]

  November 15, 2021
• Books, PublicationsGlossary of Distributed TechnologiesBodo, B.,  De Filippi, P., Scheuermann, B., Hassan, S., Fischer, A., Palmirani, M. (eds.) (2021) Glossary of Distributed Technologies. Internet Policy Review The glossary is a project of the Blockchain and Society Policy Research Lab at University of Amsterdam, in collaboration with the P2P Models project at Complutense University, the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin, and the The Future of Distributed Governance project at CNRS. It is supported financially thanks to European Research Council grants. [...]

  November 15, 2021
• Books, PublicationsBlockchains: enjeux de sécurité, juridiques, économiques, et coûts énergétiquesDe Filippi, P., Enguehard C., Fayon D., Gagnebien A., Vidal G. (eds) (2021) special edition on “Blockchains : enjeux de sécurité, juridiques, économiques, et coûts énergétiques” for Terminal. [...]

  November 15, 2021
• Books, PublicationsCryptoart: The Paradox of Digital ScarcityDe Filippi, P. (eds) (2021) Special Issue on “Cryptoart: The Paradox of Digital Scarcity” in Technoetic Arts: A journal of speculative research [...]

  November 15, 2021
• Books, PublicationsProlegomenon to Contemporary Ethics of Machine TranslationReijers, W., Dupont, Q. (2023) Prolegomenon to Contemporary Ethics of Machine Translation. In Escartin, C. and Moniz, H. Towards Responsible Machine Translation. Machine Translation: Technologies and Applications, vol 4. Heidelberg: Springer. Abstract Globalisation has triggered a proliferation of translation practises, many of which are mediated by machines. This development raises fundamental philosophical questions about language, writing, meaning, reference, and representation. This chapter builds a bridge between the ethics of machine translation and philosophy of technology. It starts by considering the activity of translation as such and argues that this is an inherently ethical activity because it involves sacrifice, establishes commonality between foreign elements, and invokes certain professional virtues. Consequently, the chapter asks what machines ‘do’ to translation practises, arguing that they fundamentally transform the activity of translation into the transcription of notations. This raises the philosophical questions of logocentrism, the extent to which machines translate the ‘presence’ of lived experience, and phonocentrism, the extent to which machines transcribe the spoken word. Based on this analysis, the chapter turns to three ethical questions that pertain to machine translation. The first is about responsibility: while machines rely on retrospective responsibility, can they deal with prospective responsibility in translation? The second is about hospitality: can machines adapt to foreign worlds without having the lived experience attached to these worlds? And the third is about virtue: can the exchangeability inherent to machine translation cohere with the incommensurability of the work of translation? More information here. [...]

  November 15, 2021
• Books, PublicationsSolidarity in the Sharing Economy: The Role of Platform Cooperatives at the Base of the PyramidMannan, M., Pek, S. (2021) “Solidarity in the Sharing Economy: The Role of Platform Cooperatives at the Base of the Pyramid.” In: Qureshi I., Bhatt B., Shukla D.M. (eds) Sharing Economy at the Base of the Pyramid: Opportunities and Challenges. Springer, Singapore. [...]

  November 15, 2021
• Books, PublicationsCooperatives: Local Businesses, Global LawsMannan, M. (2021) “Cooperatives: Local Businesses, Global Laws.” In: Lee S. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Public International Law in Asia (3 vols.). Brill, Leiden [...]

  November 15, 2021
• Books, PublicationsDigital Assets, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain TechnologyDe Filippi, P. (2021) “Digital Assets, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology” in “Fintech & Law”, FGV Direito São Paulo. (forthcoming) [...]

  November 15, 2021
• Books, PublicationsLe ​Ius artificiale​ entre intériorité et boîte noire: Le droit de l’IA est-il soluble dans le droit?Aidan, G., De Filippi, P. (2022) “Le ​Ius artificiale​ entre intériorité et boîte noire : Le droit de l’IA est-il soluble dans le droit? » in Gentelet, K. (Ed.) “Social Justice & AI”, Laval University Press (forthcoming). [...]

  November 15, 2021
• Books, PublicationsCompliance with FATF Recommendation 15: Prospects and Challenges of Adopting Emerging Technologies in BangladeshMannan, M., Gazi, S. (2022) “Compliance with FATF Recommendation 15: Prospects and Challenges of Adopting Emerging Technologies in Bangladesh” in Azinge-Egbiri, Esoimeme & Ryder (eds.) Global Anti-Money Laundering Standards: Errors in Transplantation and Unintended Consequences for Developing Countries, Oxford University Press (forthcoming) [...]

  November 15, 2021