Skullduggery in peer-to-peer networks and the need for a new cyber-social theory

Abstract

Distributed ledgers (DL) and ‘blockchains’ are being applied to manage planetary-scale information systems, such as the ledgers for cryptocurrencies, transactions across critical infrastructures for energy, food and water, and for managing public documents such as registries of land holdings. DL/blockchains are operationalised through the combined actions of complex software algorithms and digitally distributed Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks which act together to validate data and transactions, and then create and hold the record of transactions and asset holdings (the ledger). P2P digital networks are both cyber and social in nature; these new organizational forms also exhibit political intentionality, exclusionary behavior, and at times require extra payments (or bribes) to prioritize certain transactions. This paper examines various examples of skullduggery which digital P2P networks have perpetrated, and argues socio-technical theories are not enough to explain these cyber-social collectives, we need a new cyber-social theory.