Blockchain Papers

Igor Calzada

Abstract This article critically examines how Web3 decentralization policy trends impact global digital governance, questioning whether they genuinely distribute power or merely shift influence to a new, tech-savvy elite. Based on fieldwork in Silicon Valley since August 2022 and engagement with scholars and practitioners up to December 2025, the article provides a conceptual analysis with emerging empirical insights around the nascent global Web3 movement. While Web3 advocates challenge centralized data monopolies and traditional state structures, this analysis critiques the assumption that Web3 democratizes power, highlighting both its potential for inclusion and risks of exclusion, insofar as it may reinforce hierarchies rooted in technical expertise and digital access. While acknowledging the broader landscape of Web3 governance (including hybrid and federated models) and scoping the Global North and Global South contexts considering global adoption cases, the article particularly focuses on three post-Westphalian paradigms: (i) Network States, (ii) Network Sovereignties, and (iii) Algorithmic Nations. While Network States advocate for crypto-libertarian governance, Network Sovereignties and Algorithmic Nations emphasize cooperative governance aimed at empowering minority communities, such as indigenous groups, stateless nations, and e-diasporas, through decentralized, data-driven systems. By engaging with both the limitations and some promises, prospects, and pitfalls of Web3, this article questions whether Web3 can create a more inclusive global order or if influence is increasingly concentrated among a new elite. This article contributes to debates on sovereignty, governance, and citizenship by advocating hybrid policy frameworks that balance global and local dynamics, emphasizing solidarity, digital justice, and international cooperation for equitable Web3 governance.

Sandro Lüscher, Uwe Serdült

This paper explores how Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) could inform and shape participatory procedures in democratic governance. We apply DAO decision-making, such as rule-based input aggregation, transparent participation, and programmable decision-making, to a real-world case: the legislative development of the Swiss E-ID law, a proposal to establish a digital identity system for secure online authentication for Swiss residents. Using data from the official legislative consultation, we simulate how DAO-inspired mechanisms could have altered the aggregation of input and policy outcomes. Our analysis contributes conceptually and empirically to debates on digital democratic innovations, showing how programmable governance can be used not only to design new institutional forms, but also to critically assess the procedural dynamics of existing ones.

J.P. Vergne

Abstract This essay argues that social media document (rather than fuel) the decline of political democracy while helping revive organizational democracy, including through ‘decentralized autonomous organizations’ (DAOs). Yet, despite giving everyone a voice and the ability to organize across borders, social media could over‐concentrate power if, in the future, a few large but siloed platforms ended up shrinking viewpoint diversity – the oxygen of democracy. How can we curb corporate platform concentration without dulling democracy? Due to trade‐offs in platform design, no single service can deliver free speech, free usage, and safe usage simultaneously. Fortunately, this ‘trilemma’ can be transcended at the industry level with an interoperability mandate that fosters user multihoming and lets various platforms provide different bundles of democratic benefits. Email works across service providers, and so can social media. Interoperability thus represents a viable answer based on six advantages: practical feasibility; competition on merit; faster complementor innovation; jurisdictional flexibility; unlocking network effects between, rather than just within platforms; and alignment with democratic values. Platform interoperability can make social media social again and future‐proof democracy. This proposal is a clarion call for blaming the Internet a little less for democracy’s problems and instead leveraging its infrastructure strategically to address them.

Janice Jianing, Rainie Siyu Wang, Silvan Bruggmann, Tanusree Sharma · 7 authors

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have emerged as significant governance models, prioritizing transparency and community participation. However, there remains a knowledge gap regarding the impact of online discussions on the decision-making processes within these organizations. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the relationships between engagement metrics and proposal approval rates. We find a strong coherence between the most discussed topics in each DAO’s forums and their stated missions. Our analysis also reveals a nuanced but noticeable correlation between community engagement and voting outcomes. Furthermore, our paper explores the complexities of community coordination and collective governance within DAOs, highlighting existing challenges and providing design recommendations.

Tengku Mohd Diansyah, Nuraminah Ramli, Muzammil Jusoh

This study addresses the limitations of existing decentralized e-voting systems, particularly their reliance on public distributed infrastructures, limited real-world deployment feasibility, and lack of comprehensive evaluation. Previous studies have demonstrated the potential of distributed ledger-based voting mechanisms; however, most focus on conceptual designs or small-scale prototypes without detailed performance and usability validation. To address this gap, this research proposes and implements a decentralized e-voting system deployed on a local server infrastructure using distributed ledger technology and automated validation mechanisms for vote integrity. The system is designed to reduce dependency on external networks while maintaining transparency, immutability, and operational efficiency. The system was evaluated through functional testing, performance analysis, and user acceptance testing involving 30 participants in a controlled environment with 20 simulated voters. The results show that the system achieved a functional accuracy of 96% across 25 test scenarios. The average transaction response time ranged between 0.6 and 1.6 seconds, indicating efficient processing under moderate load conditions. However, the evaluation is limited to small-scale simulations and does not include stress testing, large-scale scalability analysis, or advanced security validation. Therefore, the findings demonstrate system feasibility rather than fully validated effectiveness. These results suggest that decentralized e-voting systems deployed on local infrastructures can provide a practical and efficient solution for controlled election environments, while further research is required to evaluate scalability, security robustness, and real-world deployment readiness.

Hsi‐Peng Lu, Ya-Yuan Ku, Kuo‐Lun Hsiao, Wadee Alhalabi

With the rise of blockchain and decentralized technologies, doubts about traditional financial institutions' efficiency have increased. Meanwhile, Web3 offers transparency, security, and autonomy. However, the existing literature overlooks role the role of doubt as a push factor while focusing on the positive effects of trust. Moreover, the role of crypto wallets as a mooring factor remains underexplored. This study applies push-pull-mooring theory to examine Web3 literacy, trust in machines, doubt in institutions, and switching costs. Data were collected from 165 survey respondents. The results indicate that Web3 literacy increases doubt in traditional institutions but does not significantly affect trust in Web3. Additionally, switching costs moderate the relationship between Web3 literacy and doubt. When switching costs are low, doubt rises significantly. This study provides a new perspective on Web3 adoption, showing doubt's push effect and the role of push-pull mooring in migration, thus addressing gaps in the literature. Furthermore, the findings highlight how decentralized finance's trust mechanism is evolving, offering insights for Web3 adoption.

Salim Yousif Mustafa, Tavga Nasradin Rahman, Zana Abdulrahman Hakeem

The manuscript should contain an abstract. The abstract should be self-contained and citation-free and should not exceed 300 ‎words. The abstract should state the purpose, approach, results, and conclusions of the paper. The author should assume that the reader has ‎some knowledge of the subject but has not read the paper. Thus, the abstract should be intelligible and complete in itself (no numerical ‎references); it should not cite figures, tables, or sections of the paper. The abstract should be written using the third person instead of first per-‎son.‎ This study examines the potential of Web3 technologies to enhance accounting transparency in government budgets through a survey of ‎academics and professionals in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. A structured questionnaire with 25 statements across five dimensions was ‎administered to 55 respondents (74.55% academics in accounting/finance, 20% professionals from the Board of Supreme Audit) using a ‎five-point Likert scale, with data analyzed via SPSS V.27.‎ ‏The empirical results extensively validate Web3's application in enhancing governmental financial transparency. Although the theoretical ‎framework emphasized blockchain immutability as the foundation, statistical evidence revealed stronger endorsement for smart contracts ‎‎(mean = 4.167) and real-time access (mean = 4.06) compared to blockchain immutability (mean = 4.047). All hypotheses were validated at a p ‎‎< 0.000 significance level. Decentralized recordkeeping (mean = 4.12) and interoperability (mean = 4.116) also received strong support, ‎highlighting the need for internal control and cross-government reconciliation.‎ ‏The stronger support for smart contracts and real-time access reflects stakeholders' prioritization of practical, user-facing applications over ‎underlying infrastructure. These tools offer immediate automation of budget controls, measurable cost savings, and direct citizen engage-‎ment—addressing urgent transparency challenges in the Kurdistan Region context more directly than blockchain's foundational security ‎features.‎ ‏From an accounting perspective, Web3 supports fundamental financial reporting principles: blockchain immutability aligns with reliability ‎of accounting records; smart contracts function as programmed spending controls enhancing compliance and restricting unauthorized ex-‎penditures; real-time access corresponds to timeliness and disclosure principles, enabling continuous monitoring by citizens and oversight ‎agencies; while decentralization and interoperability strengthen internal control and promote consistency across governmental financial sys-‎tems.‎ ‏While blockchain provides essential recordkeeping infrastructure for transparent records, stakeholder priorities emphasize automation, ‎accessibility, and integration. These findings suggest governmental accounting reforms should prioritize smart contracts and real-time reporting systems as primary drivers of financial transparency, with blockchain serving as the supporting foundation. The study recommends ‎incremental adoption, development of real-time dashboards, integration with existing infrastructure, and establishment of supportive institutional frameworks.

Ashley Latchu, Shawren Singh

Effective ICT governance is essential in the public sector to drive digital transformation and improve service delivery. This research investigates the corporate governance of ICT Policy Framework (CGICTPF) and Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and State Information Technology Agency (SITA) Act governs the operational activities and strategic directions of Government Information Technology Officers (GITOs) in Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State provincial administrations in South Africa. Using a comparative case study, the research draws on policy analysis and interviews to reveal governance obstacles in procurement and executive ICT engagement. KwaZulu-Natal shows progress due to strong leadership, while Eastern Cape and Free State face delays from compliance-driven cultures and bureaucracy. The study urges a balance between regulation and agility, recommending GITO empowerment through decentralized procurement and leadership development. It advances ICT governance theory by exposing multi-level implementation challenges.

Kiran Hooda

Abstract The President of India, in her address to Parliament in June 2009, stressed on achieving the goals of equity or inclusion, innovation and accountability in public policies and the governance process. She said that the Government is committed to creating an innovation strategy for government, industry, entrepreneurs, technologists and academicians with a focus on inclusive growth and appropriate eco-system necessary to bring about generational change in our approach to development. The Thirteenth Finance Commission emphasized the need for adopting innovative methods and focus on capacity building, decentralization and public accountability in public systems. A number of citizen centric administrative innovations are introduced by the government at center and state level. The paper elaborates on various initiatives taken by the Government of India in using innovative methods and use of technology in the process of governance to make it citizen centric and facilitating good governance.

Roy Kanavheti, Wellington Makondo, Wellington Simbarashe Manjoro

Academic qualification forgery poses a major concern for higher learning institutions, employers, and regulatory authorities throughout the world. In Zimbabwe, the increase in the level of fake degrees has greatly eroded trust in the education industry. Conventional verification processes are time-consuming, manual, and highly vulnerable to tampering. This paper introduces a hybrid blockchain-based and AI-enabled academic qualification verification platform to fight the problems. A prototype was implemented integrating various artificial intelligence algorithms including Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Autoencoder, Random Forest, and One-Class Support Vector Machines (SVM) with Algorand blockchain for secure, transparent, and decentralized record keeping. Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) were utilized to ensure privacy. The system was tested based on a mixed-methods and Design Science Research (DSR) approach across many performance measures. Results show fraud detection accuracy, near-instantaneous verification speed, and satisfaction with privacy standards. The proposed system provides a sustainable and scalable framework for enhancing academic integrity in Zimbabwe's higher education system and primes the region for digital transformation of education.

Maksym Sikalo

The article explores the transitive model of digital statehood as a conceptual response to systemic challenges arising from the dynamic digital transformation of public governance. The author argues that traditional models of state administration no longer provide adequate responses to the rapid evolution of digital tools, infrastructures, and agents that operate within new decision-making spaces — from distributed ledgers to autonomous cognitive systems. Therefore, the concept of transitivity is proposed as a theoretical framework to describe the transition from classical hierarchical forms of statehood to complex, open, and dynamic digital architectures.The methodological foundation of the research combines three complementary approaches: the system-synergetic, institutional-cognitive, and network-platform paradigms. The system-synergetic approach makes it possible to view public governance as a complex open system capable of self-organization and the emergence of new structures in response to external digital impulses. The institutional-cognitive paradigm captures the changing logic of institutional functioning in the context of decentralized knowledge and functions, while the network-platform approach focuses on understanding the state as a digital platform where decisions are formed through the interaction of multiple agents — both human and algorithmic.Within the proposed transitive model, a three-level architecture of digital statehood is introduced: (1) the institutional core, which undergoes cognitive reconfiguration under the influence of digital agents; (2) the infrastructural level, based on the integration of AI and blockchain technologies into functional management mechanisms; (3) the level of external agents — platforms, networks, and users — that actively participate in shaping public decisions. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of smart contracts as a new institutional unit that enables automated, conditional, and irreversible execution of public governance decisions.It is demonstrated that the integration of blockchain and artificial intelligence alters the principles of trust formation, legitimacy, and accountability in digital interaction. At the same time, digital logic becomes the driver of institutional evolution — from fixed models to flexible, adaptive mechanisms functioning in a mode of permanent recalibration. The article also reveals the phenomenon of «post-institutional reflexivity,» in which the role of the state is reimagined — not as a monopolist of authority but as a cognitive integrator of data, platforms, and meanings.The practical value of the study lies in the proposed theoretical construct, which may be applied to the design of digital policy frameworks, the transformation of governance processes in the public sector, and the assessment of risks associated with technological dynamics. The article provides a foundation for further research into the formalization of trust mechanisms, automated decision legitimation, and the synthesis of governance strategies in complex digital environments.

Abhirudh Mahesh

Abstract— This research introduces a Blockchain-based Decentralized Application designed to address these issues. Leveraging Ethereum smart contracts and decentralized storage via IPFS, the application ensures secure peer-to-peer communication, immutable data storage, and enhanced transparency. By eliminating the need for centralized intermediaries, the Blockchain-based Decentralized Application empowers users, prioritizes data privacy, and fosters trust. This research introduces a Blockchain-based Decentralized Application designed to address these issues. Leveraging Ethereum smart contracts and decentralized storage via IPFS, the application ensures secure peer-to-peer communication, immutable data storage, and enhanced transparency. By eliminating the need for centralized intermediaries, the Blockchain-based Decentralized Application empowers users, prioritizes data privacy, and fosters trust. Index Terms—Distributed Ledger Technology(DLT), Smart Contracts, InterPlanetary File System(IPFS), Cryptographic Security.

Polyvios Damianakis

Electronic voting systems have long been proposed as a means of modernizing democratic participation by improving accessibility, reducing administrative costs, and accelerating electoral processes. Nevertheless, existing electronic voting architectures frequently rely upon centralized infrastructures that introduce significant challenges concerning transparency, security, auditability, and public trust. Blockchain technology has emerged as a promising alternative capable of addressing many of these limitations through decentralization, immutability, and distributed consensus. Despite considerable research activity, many proposed blockchain voting solutions remain conceptual, while relatively few studies present fully implemented and experimentally evaluated frameworks integrating multiple complementary security mechanisms.This study presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a secure blockchain-based electronic voting framework built upon Hyperledger Fabric 2.4. The proposed architecture integrates smart contracts, distributed consensus mechanisms, AES-256 cryptographic vote protection, a conceptual zero-knowledge proof layer, and Merkle-tree-based integrity verification within a permissioned blockchain environment. A functional prototype was implemented in Go chaincode and deployed within a simulated regional election scenario representing the four prefectures of Crete, Greece.The study adopts a Design Science Research methodology and evaluates the proposed framework through a series of functional, security, and scalability experiments. The evaluation examined voter eligibility enforcement, duplicate vote prevention, ballot confidentiality, ledger integrity, auditability, and resistance against five distinct attack scenarios, including unauthorized ballot modification, ballot injection, and timestamp manipulation.The findings demonstrate that the proposed framework successfully preserves voter anonymity, prevents duplicate voting, detects unauthorized modifications in all tested scenarios, and enables transparent and independently verifiable election outcomes. While the results confirm the suitability of permissioned blockchain architectures for secure digital elections, several challenges remain, particularly regarding scalability, endpoint security, legal compliance, and large-scale deployment.Overall, this study contributes both a practical implementation and an empirical evaluation of a blockchain-enabled electoral infrastructure, providing insights into the future development of secure digital democratic systems.

Hashim Zahoor

Introduction Web 3.0, also known as "Semantic Web," aims to create a more intelligent, networked, and centralized Web experience by introducing meaning and context to the Web's architecture. Blockchain, AI, and machine learning are some of the technologies that enable decentralized systems, enhanced data security, and personalized experiences. Web 3.0 is founded on a base of secure, transparent, and free-from-central-control applications. It has its most important features as linked data, which enables users to navigate and comprehend interlinked data with ease.[1] The potential use of Web 3.0 in the future can be found in things such as personalized health, decentralized finance, smart home, IoT appliances, digital ownership, social media, healthcare, education, sustainable living, and decentralized governance. The internet's history can be divided broadly into three phases: Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0. [2] In its initial phase, Web 1.0 was all about distributing information-static websites provided content with minimal to no interaction, With the emergence of Web 2.0, the internet became dynamic and social, enabling users to create content, interact with others, and become part of online communities. But with this greater interactivity came issues, with respect to data privacy and security. Today, we are moving into the Web 3.0 era, a smarter, more decentralized web powered by artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, and semantic intelligence. This new era does not just upgrade human-to-human interaction but also human-to-AI interaction, which makes online life more personalized and autonomous. But it also raises challenges like users will now need to deal with an information-rich world where it is harder to separate fact from reality. As the web evolves, the importance of digital literacy, the capacity to comprehend and interact with digital content increases dramatically. But still, it is difficult to define digital literacy.[6] As much as its use has been

Egor Ermolaev, Evgenia Yvonni Tseloni, Tamara Roth, Gilbert Fridgen

In an effort to make companies adhere to green practices, they are increasingly required to publicly disclose environmental, social, and governance (ESG) key performance indicators (KPIs). Typically published within annual reports, the current format may not deliver all legally mandated information, and also does not attract investors who have become more focused on sustainable investing. Thus, various industries aim at improving their ESG KPIs reporting practices, including life insurance companies. Life insurance companies need to integrate ESG-focused strategies into their client interactions to obviate greenwashing allegations and appeal to their environmentally-friendly target group. This helps them remain competitive and build long-lasting institution-based trust. To help these companies address the complexities of ESG KPIs reporting, this study proposes the development of a reporting system architecture supported by Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for compliant, transparent, reliable, and standardized ESG reporting.

Nicolin Decker

No abstract is available for this record.

Grar Hicham, CHAIBI HASNA, Faqihi Moulay Ahmed

Blockchain technology is increasingly recognized as a transformative tool in public sector governance. This paper examines how Morocco’s public procurement process might incorporate blockchain, especially smart contracts. Using blockchain’s primary properties—transparency, traceability, and immutability—the research shows how smart contracts can automate procurement processes, lower fraud, and increase budgetary efficiency. Highlighting its technical feasibility, a simulation of blockchain-based procurement is created using a local Ethereum network. Legal-institutional issues as well as comparative global case studies (Estonia, Chile, UAE) are addressed. Provided that legal, technical, and institutional changes go hand in hand with the deployment of blockchain, the results point to its great potential to enhance governance and service delivery. This study focuses primarily on one of the cornerstones of this technological advance, namely smart contracts, which are true catalysts for automation, securing contractual commitments in public procurement, guaranteeing compliance with contractual stipulations and optimizing budget allocations. These self-executing protocols eliminate intermediaries, streamline bureaucratic processes and establish an immutable audit trail that promotes accountability and public confidence. The study also provides a simulation of the integration of blockchain into a public procurement system, illustrating in concrete terms its potential impact on the efficiency, transparency and accountability of administrative processes. The paper also stresses the importance of interoperability between blockchain platforms and existing administrative infrastructures, which is essential to ensure a smooth and scalable transition. The results highlight considerable potential: the adoption of blockchain in public administration is redefining governance paradigms by fostering trust between stakeholders, including the State, citizens and economic players. This technology not only enhances transparency and accountability, but also paves the way for a fairer, more responsive and resilient administration, capable of meeting the complex challenges of contemporary governance. As such, blockchain can reduce corruption, improve the delivery of public services and optimize the allocation of resources.

Primavera De Filippi, Tara Merk

No abstract is available for this record.

Takudzwa Wayne Mhaka

Can blockchain-based decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) revolutionize regional integration, or is it an evanescent promise? This research addressed the crisis of confidence that has been haunting institutions like the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU), whose central authorities could not deliver on transparency and inclusivity. The objectives were to unbundle DAOs' potential, assess their place in regional architectures, and propose a hybrid governance model. Mixed-methods with qualitative case analysis of the AU, EU, and Aragon DAO complemented with 30 interviews of stakeholders and comparison grounded the research. Findings showed DAOs' potential in making transparency more possible, as the $10 million Aragon's treasury example showed, and enrolling people in it but with accompanying hurdles from digital divides (37% internet reach in Africa) and resistance from elites. A hybrid solution that stacked DAOs for open decision-making, traditional control for stabilization, and interface modules for useability emerged. Five proposals that involved piloting DAOs for transparency, modeling inclusive voting, investing in infrastructures, creating regulations, and fostering cultural dialogue charted the way forward. This research compelled regional leaders to act with haste, coupling code with human trust to make government inclusive. It enriched theory and practice of contemporary governance and foresaw an achievable world where oneness was not elite-driven but common.

Igor Calzada

This article investigates how Web3 decentralization unfolds in practice and asks two guiding questions: (i) How democratic are decentralized governance systems in practice? (ii) Under what institutional conditions can technological decentralization translate into social inclusion? Based on multi-year ethnographic fieldwork (2022–2025) across Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C., Europe, and the Global South, this study draws on participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and comparative analysis of seven ecosystems—Ethereum, MakerDAO, Uniswap, Mastodon, Celo, Grassroots Economics, and GoodDollar. The findings show that participation asymmetries are structural: token-based governance is dominated by a small group of technically skilled or capital-rich actors, while voter turnout often remains below ten percent. Intermediaries such as foundations, developers, NGOs, and cooperatives are indispensable for coordination, contradicting the idea of hierarchy-free decentralization. In contrast, projects that institutionalize clear membership, monitoring, and accountability—particularly in cooperative and federated settings—display stronger democratic resilience. Comparative evidence also reveals oligarchic consolidation in Global North ecosystems and infrastructural exclusion in the Global South. These results substantiate what Richard R. Nelson termed “the Moon and the Ghetto” paradox: extraordinary technical innovation without corresponding social progress. Interpreted through innovation systems theory, the study concludes that advancing decentralized technologies requires parallel investment in mission-oriented institutions that ensure participation, equity, and accountability in digital infrastructures.

Andrey Nechesov, Janne Ruponen

Civic intelligence (CI) represents the collective capacity of communities to address challenges, yet its integration with smart city infrastructure remains limited. This study bridges CI theory with technical implementation through a novel framework combining blockchain and AI technologies. Our approach maps core CI components (knowledge capital, system capital, and relational capital) to specific technical solutions: a civic engagement index for measuring participation quality, a tokenization framework for incentivizing meaningful engagement, and a governance optimization function for resource allocation. Using mixed-methods research, we developed and validated the conceptual CI governance (CIG) framework, which satisfies CI principles through smart contracts and AI-assisted interfaces. The empirical evaluation demonstrates both social and technical improvements: 40% increased civic participation rates, 85% governance efficiency maintenance, and significant gains in engagement quality metrics (knowledge sharing +32%, collective decision making +28%). While technical implementation shows promise, success requires the careful integration of social dynamics, digital literacy initiatives, and regulatory compliance. This research contributes to smart city development by providing a theoretically grounded, feasible framework that introduces the fusion of blockchain and AI technologies to enhance civic participation while preserving governance effectiveness.

Richard Wiputra, Thomas Hardjono

Emerging digital economies are increasingly exploring decentralized infrastructures to expand citizen participation and reduce reliance on a small number of dominant service providers. Indonesia, one of the fastest-growing economies in the global south, has significant potential to integrate Web3 technologies into its national Digital Public Infrastructure. While previous DPI initiatives in countries such as India and Estonia have shown the value of open standards and low-cost digital services, there is limited research on how decentralized systems can support higher level digital functions. This paper examines how real-world asset tokenization can serve as an important DPI component for Indonesia. The study analyzes global initiatives in asset tokenization and decentralized identity systems and evaluates how similar approaches can be adapted to Indonesia's socioeconomic environment. The paper argues that open protocols, standardized APIs, and community operated nodes can create a transparent and interoperable infrastructure for tokenized assets. This approach would allow local communities to participate directly in validating asset information and supporting network operations.

Devansh Mehta, Nidhi Harihar, Siddique Patel, Nishit Lalitkumar Sanil · 11 authors

There is growing demand for innovation in social sector fundraising.The conventional model relies on emotions rather than evidence, brand recognition instead of outcomes and marketing over impact.In this paper, we sketch out a prototype for an online giving platform modelled on a Pay for Success mechanism where donors pay retroactively for tangible impact already achieved.It uses impact certificates, currently limited to the carbon credits industry, to fund verified past impact from three civic participation organizations in India.The demo shows how blockchain can ensure single sale per outcome and enforce a fundraising cap based on impact created.Drawing on the historical database of over 5000 impact reports of the three partner organizations, we minted 27 impact certificates on the Ethereum testnet.Over the course of creating the demo, we raised USD 4034 from 133 contributors through the donation matching platform Gitcoin for purchase of these certificates.

Bruno Henrique Sanches, Marlei Pozzebon, Eduardo Henrique Diniz

Abstract Westernised paradigms dominate the information systems (IS) field, often overshadowing alternative epistemologies. This study challenges the prevailing hegemonic view and contributes to the decolonization of IS research and practice by proposing a Latin American and decolonial approach to technological development that emphasises community centrality and epistemic justice through recognition of local knowledges and Indigenous traditions. Using design ethnography, we follow the development of a solidarity cryptocurrency in a Brazilian favela. Our paper offers two key contributions. By introducing tecnologia social , an underrepresented perspective in IS, we highlight ecology of knowledges, centrality of the local and decolonial reconfiguration as principles that can enrich the understanding of IS projects from a decolonial perspective. In addition, we propose a new concept—epistemic dialogical tension—as a process wherein different epistemologies coexist and accommodate each other, encouraging a dynamic interplay of distinct human experiences and worldviews. It offers new paths to IS scholars and practitioners in navigating the complexities of epistemic plurality. We argue that tecnologia social and epistemic dialogical tension provide fertile ground for developing reimagined, decolonized approaches where multiple epistemologies can coexist, favouring the often‐silenced communities they are intended to benefit.