The Geopolitical Blockchain: Infrastructural Power of Protocols and the Architecture of a Polycentric Order

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of protocol geoeconomics — an analytical framework in which the infrastructure of digital governance is treated as an autonomous instrument for the distribution of power amid the systemic crisis of the multilateral order. The central argument holds that as the traditional mechanisms of global governance lose their function as neutral arbiters, control over the rules of verification, enforcement, and sanctioning of international commitments becomes a key resource of geopolitical agency. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in this perspective is not a replacement for diplomatic institutions but the next logical form of infrastructural power — the appropriation of political influence through the ownership of coordination protocols. The paper introduces two operational categories: the sovereign node (a national point of participation in a distributed ledger that cannot be unilaterally disconnected) and protocol Westphalianism (a digital-age analogue of the Westphalian system in which a state's sovereignty is defined by its capacity to maintain a verifying node in critical international coordination systems). A formal model of algorithmic stability is developed through a slashing function and quadratic weighting of influence, providing structural protection against unipolar capture of the system. The dynamic National Influence Index (NI) operationalises representation as a function of verifiable contribution rather than historical privilege. Three contributions emerge. First, infrastructural power is established as a self-standing analytical category describing power exercised through rules of computation rather than through resources or territory. Second, the sovereign node operationalises the concept of digital sovereignty, hitherto largely declarative in the literature. Third, protocol Westphalianism provides a structural exit from the false dichotomy between national sovereignty and global governance. The framework is positioned as the digital extension of Infrastructure Projection of Geopolitics (IPG, WP-IPG-2026-01), with strategic implications for Russia, BRICS+, and the Global South in the construction of Multipolar World Order 2.0.