Political economy of distributed capitalism (On the book by D. Tapscott and A. Tapscott “Blockchain revolution. Howthe technology behind bitcoin is changing money, business, and the world”)

Abstract

The review discusses the ideas presented in the book by D. Tapscott and A. Tapscott - specifically, the concept of distributed capitalism allowed for by blockchain technology. The blockchain era is characterized by development of a new institution of trust; disruption of financial intermediation; economic inclusion of hundreds of millions of citizens in developing countries; an increase in competition and a decrease in inequality. The authors see the blockchain revolution as a solution to the problem of discrimination against intellectual property creators, who have to hand over a large part of the value created to intermediaries. They consider the main opposition to distributed capitalism to stem from the feudal financial system which loses ground under new conditions, where economic agents may use alternative currencies and interact directly with each other without risk and high transaction costs.