blockchain

Realizing the Potential of Blockchain | World Economic Forum

Posted in blockchain, governance, papers, Research Notes

Realizing the Potential of BlockchainA Multistakeholder Approach to the Stewardship of Blockchain and CryptocurrenciesBlockchain, or distributed ledger technology, could soon give rise to a new era of the Internet even more disruptive and transformative than the current one. Blockchain’s ability to generate unprecedented opportunities to create and trade value in society will lead to a generational shift in the Internet’s evolution, from an Internet of Information to a new generation Internet of Value. The key to enabling this transition is the formation of a multistakeholder consensus around how the technology functions, its current and potential applications and how to create the regulatory, cultural and organizational conditions for it to succeed.

Source: Realizing the Potential of Blockchain | World Economic Forum

Understanding the landscape of Distributed Ledger Technologies/Blockchain: Challenges, opportunities, and the prospects for standards | RAND

Posted in blockchain, governance, papers, Research Notes

In this report, we present an overview of the current landscape of DLT/Blockchain developments and closely examine the issues that are central to the development of DLT/Blockchain. We articulate a set of areas for further consideration by the DLT/Blockchain community regarding the potential role of standardization. Rather than providing a definitive list of topics, the aim of the study is to provoke further discussion across the DLT/Blockchain community about the potential role of standards in supporting the development and adoption of the technology. The research has been carried out using a mixed methods approach involving a focused review of the literature, in-depth interviews with experts from public and private organizations, and an internal workshop.

Source: Understanding the landscape of Distributed Ledger Technologies/Blockchain: Challenges, opportunities, and the prospects for standards | RAND

Blockchain Identities: Notational Technologies for Control and Management of Abstracted Entities – Dupont – 2017 – Metaphilosophy – Wiley Online Library

Posted in blockchain, identity, papers, Research Notes

This paper argues that many so-called digital technologies can be construed as notational technologies, explored through the example of Monegraph, an art and digital asset management platform built on top of the blockchain system originally developed for the cryptocurrency bitcoin. As the paper characterizes it, a notational technology is the performance of syntactic notation within a field of reference, a technologized version of what Nelson Goodman called a “notational system.” Notational technologies produce abstracted entities through positive and reliable, or constitutive, tests of socially acceptable meaning. Accordingly, this account deviates from typical narratives of blockchains (usually characterized as Turing or state machines), instead demonstrating that blockchain technologies are effective at managing digital assets because they produce abstracted identities through the performance of notation. Since notational technologies rely on configurations of socially acceptable meaning, this paper also provides a philosophical account of how blockchain technologies are socially embedded.

Source: Blockchain Identities: Notational Technologies for Control and Management of Abstracted Entities – Dupont – 2017 – Metaphilosophy – Wiley Online Library

ECSA

Posted in blockchain, politics, Research Notes

We are a group of radical economists, finance theorists, software architects, game designers, artists, lawyers, peer production experts and decentralized application engineers – exactly what is needed to reimagine what economy can be.

Source: ECSA

Blockchain Working Group – IAB Tech Lab

Posted in blockchain, people, related_projects, Research Notes

MISSION

To investigate the application of blockchain technology to address challenges in the digital advertising space and to develop standards and best practices for the utilization of blockchain technology.

 

STATUS

At present, the working group is working on developing education for blockchain technology and its use in advertising. The members will work on setting priorities for business use cases and required technology standards and best practices.

Source: Blockchain Working Group – IAB Tech Lab

Our CPDP panel on blockchain and copyright is online

Posted in blockchain, copyright, critique, Latest news

Our CPDP 2018 blockchain and copyright panel with Ruslan Nurullaev (International Laboratory for Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law, Higher School of Economics), Primavera De Filippi (CNRS), Susana Nascimento (Joint Research Centre, European Commission), Guido Noto La Diega (Northumbria University), and Alexander Savelyev (Higher School of Economics) is online.

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Governance in Blockchain Technologies & Social Contract Theories | Reijers | Ledger

Posted in blockchain, governance, papers, people, Research Notes

Governance in Blockchain Technologies & Social Contract Theories

Wessel Reijers, Fiachra O’Brolcháin, Paul Haynes

 

Abstract

This paper is placed in the context of a growing number of social and political critiques of blockchain technologies. We focus on the supposed potential of blockchain technologies to transform political institutions that are central to contemporary human societies, such as money, property rights regimes, and systems of democratic governance. Our aim is to examine the way blockchain technologies canbring about – and justify – new models of governance. To do so, we draw on the philosophical works of Hobbes, Rousseau, and Rawls, analyzing blockchain governance in terms of contrasting social contract theories. We begin by comparing the justifications of blockchain governance offered by members of the blockchain developers’ community with the justifications of governance presented within social contract theories. We then examine the extent to which the model of governance offered by blockchain technologies reflects key governance themes and assumptions located within social contract theories, focusing on the notions of sovereignty, the initial situation, decentralization and distributive justice.

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Source: Governance in Blockchain Technologies & Social Contract Theories | Reijers | Ledger

European Commission launches the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum

Posted in blockchain, related_projects, Research Notes

The EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum will play an active role in helping Europe to seize new opportunities offered by blockchain, build expertise and show leadership in the field. It will be gathering information, monitoring and analysing trends, addressing challenges and exploring blockchains’ socioeconomic potential. It will enable cross border cooperation on practical use cases, bringing Europe’s best experts together and promoting an open forum for blockchain technologists, innovators, citizens, industry stakeholders, public authorities, regulators and supervisors, to discuss and develop new ideas in order to learn, engage and contribute in an open way.

ConsenSys, a global player now well established in Europe, has been selected as partner to support the Observatory’s outreach in Europe following a call for tenders launched last year. As an important actor in the blockchain community, ConsenSys will bring strong commitment to blockchain development, solid expertise and connections with the global blockchain ecosystem, and an entrepreneurial approach to engage with stakeholders and experts in the EU and worldwide. It will work in close cooperation with Commission services to run the EU Observatory and Forum, after having signed the contract on 29 January 2018.

Source: European Commission – PRESS RELEASES – Press release – European Commission launches the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum