Decision Rights and Governance within the Blockchain Domain: a literature analysis

Abstract

Blockchain is a young research area, where the distribution of publications regarding blockchain has only significantly risen since 2012, leaving specific fields within blockchain yet to be explored. One of these is governance of blockchain, and within that scope, decision rights. To explore and provide meaning to decision rights in the context of governance of blockchains, a systematic literature study is conducted in which 23 relevant contributions were identified. Based on thorough analysis of the literature, the Blockchain Lifecycle Model (BLM) is created that sheds light on the context of governance of blockchains and how decision rights are organized in public and private blockchains. Our findings together with the contextual BLM model aim to enhance further discussion and research on this emerging topic. This is increasingly important as blockchain project slowly evolve and grow overtime, requiring increasing attention to proper design of governance and decision rights for involved stakeholders.