Dec 23, 2025·Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) integrate blockchain-based automation with novel forms of collective governance, yet research on them remains fragmented across technical and organizational silos, hindering a comprehensive understanding of DAOs as socio-technical systems. To bridge these gaps, we first conduct a systematic umbrella review of 12 prior surveys to map research themes and persistent gaps. Based on this analysis, we propose a novel, three-layer framework that explicitly links (i) technical artefacts (the infrastructure, e.g., tokens, smart contracts), (ii) governance logics (the rules, e.g., incentives, consensus mechanisms), and (iii) organizational manifestations (the outcomes, e.g., proposals, votes). By making cross-layer dependencies explicit, the framework enables more holistic theorizing, supports comparative empirical work, and provides a diagnostic tool for practitioners dealing with design trade-offs between decentralization, efficiency, and participation.
. This study aims to explore the transformation of human resource management in the Web3 era through a bibliometric analysis of global research trends. The research investigates how decentralized technologies, such as blockchain, smart contracts, tokenization, and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) reshape human resource management practices toward transparency, autonomy, and efficiency. Using a descriptive qualitative approach combined with bibliometric analysis, data were collected from the Scopus database (2020–2025) and analyzed using VOSviewer to map keyword networks, identify clusters, and determine research evolution. The findings reveal four major research clusters focusing on blockchain applications, human resource analytics, organizational transformation, and smart contract implementation. Results indicate a paradigm shift in human resource management from administrative functions to strategic, technology-driven roles emphasizing digital competence and data transparency. Moreover, the study highlights challenges in privacy, data regulation, and digital literacy as critical barriers to Web3 adoption in human resource systems. The research provides conceptual insights and a framework for understanding human resource management digital evolution, offering implications for policymakers and organizations to design adaptive, decentralized, and human-centered human resource management strategies.
How may digital platforms be redesigned to better serve the interests of the artists whose creative work gives them value? An artist- and user-owned streaming platform is proposed that would decentralize control and redistribute revenue from corporations to creators. Using Web3 infrastructure, the model enables direct artist payment through blockchain-based transactions that scale based on user consumption, minimizing fees and ensuring transparency. The design also emphasizes community governance and localized music discovery to encourage the regrowth of music culture. By reducing reliance on profit-driven intermediaries, the system aims to create a sustainable environment where independent artists can thrive. Spotify exemplifies how a platform’s designed-in incentives can perpetuate exploitation. The social construction of technology framework suggests that Spotify’s ownership model, pro- rata payment system, and algorithmic design prioritize shareholder value over fairness. Spotify’s supposed mission to “unlock the potential of human creativity” is undermined by its own architecture, which locks artists into dependency. Together, these projects show that achieving fairness in a digital music economy requires not only reforming compensation models but rethinking the infrastructures that define creative labor itself.
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) represent a transformative shift in organizational structures, leveraging blockchain technology to enable decentralized governance, transparency, and automation through smart contracts
Abstract This study aims to sociologically understand the ideas about organizations, mechanisms to realize those contained in Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), and Web3. It specifically focuses on the unique relationship between people and objects in this context. In this study, DAO refers to an organization on the Internet that uses blockchain technology and that has no specific administrator (that is decentralized and flat), whereas Web3 refers to the way that the Web is organized premised on such an organization. A DAO attempts to reduce uncertain elements and create a firm, flat organization by introducing the physical technology of blockchain into an organization composed of people. However, its operation is more intricate. For example, blockchain is not purely an object but humans are embedded within it and their desires are harnessed as its driving force. This study attempts to describe such an intricate construct and specifically focuses on the effort needed to create a “flat” organization. It is not simply realized mechanically through the blockchain but people are also substantially involved, including in the pre-discussion process (off-chain). For example, whether a DAO becomes a flat organization may depend on the original relationships between its members. The workings of the blockchain are more dependent on the people participating in it and their relationships than they appear. Recently, some DAOs have placed less emphasis on protocols, such as on the automatic execution of the content of contracts, and more emphasis on community. However, irrespective of where they place the emphasis, no essential difference exists between them on the point that people are involved in them to a greater or lesser extent.
Blockchain is one of the most consequential innovations since the world wide web. Although blockchain is argued to remove, displace, or redistribute expertise, there is little understanding of the role of expertise in blockchain ecosystems, and more generally the expertise that fuels the development of new technologies by means of open, fluid, and heterogeneous knowledge contributions. An empirical study of the social organization of the Ethereum community, the second largest blockchain ecosystem after Bitcoin, reveals the contrasting tensions involved in setting up a system of decentralized expertise. The alternate community mantras “rough consensus, running code” and “wide consensus, better code?” suggest that the Ethereum community enacts expertise centralization and decentralization practices simultaneously to create a fragile balance between individualized accountabilities and a generalized sense of diffused participation. These practices unfold along a continuum of routine operations punctuated by critical events and are both essential for navigating the uncertainties of decentralized organizations. The study contributes to research on new forms of expertise occasioned by emerging technologies, and in particular to our understanding of blockchain expertise. The study’s relational perspective on expertise adds to research on the dynamics of knowledge de/centralization in online communities.
The rapid rise of the gig economy has reshaped modern labour markets, offering flexibility but also exposing workers to instability, low protection, and algorithmic control. This paper explores how Blockchain technology and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) can address these structural challenges by decentralizing trust, governance, and value distribution. Drawing upon institutional theory, transaction cost economics, and network governance frameworks, the study analyses how blockchain’s core features—immutability, transparency, and smart contracts—enable fairer, more autonomous work environments. DAOs, as digital cooperatives, allow workers to participate directly in decision-making and profit-sharing, reducing dependence on centralized platforms. The literature reviewed highlights both opportunities and limitations: while blockchain can ensure transparent payments and portable reputations, issues of scalability, regulation, and digital inclusion persist. Overall, the analysis suggests that blockchain-enabled DAOs represent an emerging paradigm for equitable and trust-based digital labour, redefining how work, ownership, and governance operate in the gig economy.
Abstract Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) promise to transform governance through blockchain-enabled transparency and communal decision-making. However, unresolved legal responsibilities and speculative governance token dynamics complicate their ability to maintain trust, encourage participation, and secure legitimacy. Drawing primarily on Social Capital Theory (SCT), this study shows how bonding, bridging, and linking social capital intersect with liability ambiguities and token concentration to undermine institutional confidence and grassroots engagement. Public Goods Theory (PGT) clarifies how free-rider tendencies can deter infrastructural support, while Principal-Agent Theory (PAT) highlights incentive misalignments when whales prioritize short-term gains over collective welfare. Through a theoretical lens, this study illuminates how token-based power asymmetries, a lack of regulatory clarity, and conflicting motivations strain the viability of DAOs in fulfilling the promise of decentralized governance. In synthesizing these frameworks, this study advocates tailored governance strategies, ranging from reputation-based voting models to legally compliant organizational wrappers, to mitigate power imbalances, foster inclusive decision-making, and ultimately strengthen DAOs’ resilience in an evolving blockchain ecosystem. By bridging the sociological, economic, and legal perspectives, this study illustrates the interplay of trust, accountability, and incentives that shape DAO sustainability.
ABSTRACT Research Question/Issue Blockchain technology promises to revolutionize governance through strong commitments, trustlessness, and transparency. This paper examines how these promises have failed to materialize in practice. Research Findings/Insights Drawing on case evidence from major blockchains, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, I argue that blockchains have evolved into technocracies where developers, foundations, and companies exercise disproportionate control. Rather than being exceptional, blockchain governance suffers from the same coordination problems, collective action failures, and centralization tendencies that plague traditional governance systems. Theoretical/Academic Implications The paper concludes that while blockchains offer valuable experiments in governance design, their alleged advantages over traditional institutions remain largely mythical. Practitioner/Policy Implications Blockchain organizations should acknowledge their reliance on off‐chain coordination and informal authority. Investors must understand that blockchain governance depends on trusting technical elites, while regulators should recognize that decentralization claims often mask concentrated power structures requiring traditional oversight.
This article examines blockchain governance as a cultural and algorithmic paradigm, moving beyond code to constitutional logic. It analyzes Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) as a form of programmed democracy, highlighting its tension between efficiency and fairness and its risk of oligarchic drift. The study contrasts algorithmic transparency with centralized control in Web2, framing blockchain as a new public square where trust flows through cryptography rather than ballots. Cryptocurrencies are interpreted as algorithmic artifacts—symbols of a democratized code economy—while cases like Dogecoin reveal how humor and creativity shape value systems in decentralized networks. Ultimately, the paper argues that blockchain governance requires not only technical precision but symbolic legitimacy, balancing innovation with ethical responsibility.
Svitlana Popereshnyak, Dmytro Chornobryvets, Oleh Bakaiev
The accelerated growth of freelance platforms has brought to light several systemic challenges, such as elevated transaction costs, increased susceptibility to fraud, limited transparency, and inefficiencies in the selection of service providers. This study presents the design and implementation of an AI-powered platform aimed at improving the management and monitoring of freelance services. The platform architecture incorporates a multi-criteria risk assessment framework, which evaluates users based on their ratings, transaction history, account longevity, and digital wallet balance. To address issues of contractor reliability and operational anomalies, the system integrates advanced algorithms for automated selection and anomaly detection. A smart contract mechanism, implemented in Solidity and deployed on the Ethereum blockchain via Web3.js, ensures secure and verifiable transactions. For data storage and retrieval, the platform leverages PostgreSQL and MongoDB, while ECDSA cryptographic techniques are employed to reinforce transaction integrity and user authentication. Empirical evaluation indicates that the platform substantially mitigates fraud risks and enhances the efficiency and transparency of interactions between clients and freelancers. The proposed solution demonstrates the potential to support secure and scalable freelance operations and may be extended for deployment within decentralized finance ecosystems and digital commerce environments.
PURCAREA LIVIU, RADULESCU CARMEN VALENTINA, Mănescu Andreea Maria
Blockchain technology has rapidly transformed the way decentralized systems operate, offering new possibilities for transparency, security, and autonomy. However, these benefits come with a notable drawback: the significant environmental cost associated with blockchain consensus mechanisms — particularly Proof of Work (PoW) Möser et all (2021). This paper examines the environmental impact of blockchain and investigates more sustainable alternatives, such as Proof of Stake (PoS) and other energy-efficient models. Using Ethereum’s transition from PoW to PoS as a central case study, along with examples such as Algorand and Chia, we explore how different architectural decisions affect energy consumption. Our analysis, based on recent academic research and technical data, suggests that sustainable blockchain models are technically viable—but their success depends on broader systemic changes, including clear regulations, governance reforms, and industry-wide engagement. In conclusion, blockchain can evolve into a sustainable technology, but only through a responsible and coordinated effort
With its potential to address persistent issues like inefficiency, fraud, and a lack of transparency, distributed ledger technology (DLT), and in particular blockchain, has become a game-changing breakthrough in the realm of international trade. With a thorough examination of its potential to revolutionize trade processes, this study examines the applications of DLT in global commerce. It starts by examining the conventional cloud-based models that predominate in global trade procedures and contrasting them with the blockchain-based approach that has been suggested. The viability and effect of blockchain technology (BCT) in this industry are evaluated by the research using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, such as data collecting, comparative analysis, and SWOT analysis. The main impediments to blockchain adoption are noted, along with suggested fixes for them. A discussion of potential future possibilities and suggestions for using blockchain technology into global trade networks round out the report. The purpose of this study is to offer theoretical understandings and useful suggestions for the successful use of blockchain technology in international trade.
The article argues for the sociocultural contextualization of Web3 affordances by examining play-to-earn gaming in the Philippines. It first outlines how socioeconomic factors promote blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Against this background, and based on scholarship in cultural communication, anthropology, and critical platform studies, the article illustrates how sociocultural frames shape the interpretation and enactment of blockchain-based gameplay affordances. A Grounded Theory analysis of interviews and documents reveals that players identify persistent access and ownership as technical affordances, performing them through the cultural frame of cockfighting and its digital economy version, the side hustle. The study challenges universalist notions of Web3 adoption, highlighting how technical affordances both support and disrupt sociocultural and economic reproduction through narratives of family, competition, and inclusivity. The research calls for comparative studies on how platform corporations structure societies in emerging economies, how platforms exploit culture as use value, and how adopters strategically utilize Web3 technologies.
In this paper, we examine the discourses and ideologies that underpin trust in Bitcoin (BTC) as an algorithm-driven socio-technical system, raising critical questions about how trust is established and sustained in complex socio-technical assemblages. Through a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of three significant events in the cryptocurrency, we identify two interconnected, yet sometimes contradictory, ideologies enacted through four discourses that construct specific subject positions to produce and maintain trust in Bitcoin. The first, technical sovereignty , reflects adherence to notions of technical utopianism. The second, which we term peer-to-peer neoliberalism , frames BTC as a political experiment rooted in the individualization of responsibility and risk. Our paper contributes to the existing literature by arguing that algorithm-driven technologies like BTC neither establish trust solely through their apparent technical neutrality and security nor simply replace traditional institutional mechanisms of governance, control, and interaction. Instead, they are enacted through discourses and material arrangements that require continuous maintenance. This maintenance relies on power relations enabled by these ideologies yet remains contingent upon the ongoing reinforcement of the ideologies themselves—rendering trust inherently precarious and always at risk. This insight shifts the analytical focus from the dominant emphasis in the literature on technical features, social arrangements, and user perceptions to the underlying ideological frameworks that shape these elements, as such. • We propose an alternative ideological perspective on trust in algorithms. • The methodology is based on critical discourse analysis. • There cannot be trust without the productive force of ideology shaping and maintaining trust. • We identify two ideologies of technical sovereignty and peer-to-peer neoliberalism.
Ana Alačovska, Christian Fieseler, Victor Renza Avellaneda
This article investigates – based on semi-structured interviews and conversations on cryptoart forums – how digital artists experience the blockchain-enabled assetization of their work through non-fungible tokens, including the transformation of digital artworks (which previously had negligible if any economic value) into assets capable of increasing in price value over time and generating future income from resale provisions. We show how this assetization of digital artworks has kindled artists’ financialized imagination and incentivized them to perform speculative labour – that is, to speculate on the potential capture of future financial proceeds from present-day underpaid or uncompensated activities, while mobilizing fictional expectations of imagined rentiership futures. We suggest that the commodification thesis, which has traditionally explained the future orientation of creative work as tied to commodity exchange, may be insufficient to account for artists’ speculative, asset-based imaginations of the future under financialized capitalism. Therefore, it may be beneficial to complement it with an assetization lens.
This dissertation examines the evolving landscape of non-fungible token (NFT) markets, primarily in the arts, focusing on the experiences of artists and the role of intermediaries in shaping market dynamics. Through three interconnected research papers, it challenges the techno-utopian narratives of decentralization and democratization associated with blockchain technology. The first paper presents an analysis of how NFT marketplaces have become decisive arbiters of value, particularly in royalty enforcement, which reveals the paradoxical coexistence of technological decentralization and organizational recentralization. The second paper presents a novel typology that demonstrates how NFT marketplaces actively construct value and shape participant behaviour through governance mechanisms and curatorial strategies. The third paper foregrounds artists’ lived experiences and unveils how the digital nature of NFT markets intensifies competitive pressure and necessitates constant “visibility labour” on social media platforms. Collectively, the findings unveil how NFT markets, despite the decentralization rhetoric, often reproduce and amplify traditional art market hierarchies while introducing the challenges of cryptocurrency volatility, algorithmic visibility, limited legal and social protections and other forms of digital vulnerability. This dissertation highlights the complexities of an evolving ecosystem in which technological innovation intersects with established power structures and market practices and thereby contributes to the Information Systems literature. It also offers critical insights into the intricate interplay between technological innovation, market configurations, and creative labour in the digital age, which not only advance our understanding of NFT markets but also provide a framework for analysing future developments in digital creative economies.
Emerging evidence suggests a declining labor share alongside rising markups, profits, and rents in parts of advanced economies, and artificial intelligence (AI) may intensify these dynamics by increasing the importance of capital and intangible assets. This paper examines whether broad employee ownership can help workers share in AI related surplus and mitigate distributional risks. First, it synthesizes competing perspectives on factor share measurement and the roles of technology and market structure, and it reviews evidence on employee ownership and profit sharing for wages, productivity, and firm performance. Second, it develops transparent simulation exercises in which AI adoption shifts surplus toward profits under alternative ownership trajectories. In a stylized high adoption scenario with no institutional change, the combined wage plus capital income accruing to workers falls by roughly 5% points of value added. Under expanded employee ownership, workers receive additional capital income on the order of 5% points, largely offsetting the decline in their overall claim on output. The paper concludes by assessing legal and financial architectures, including tokenization and institutional decentralized finance, that could reduce frictions in scaling employee ownership.
The aim of the paper is to present a series of organizational and technical solutions that ensure the preservation of the integrity of cold supply chains. The implications of these technologies on the economic and health aspects of society are more than visible. With the help of the Internet of Things and new sensor technologies, it is possible to automate the monitoring of cold supply chains using smart contract technologies and thus preserve the quality of the goods that are the subject of this type of logistics.
Blockchain technology, though conceptualized in the early 1990s, only gained practical relevance with Bitcoin's launch in 2009. Recent advancements have demonstrated its transformative potential, particularly in the digital art and global payment sectors. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have redefined digital ownership, while financial institutions use blockchain to enhance cross-border transactions, reducing costs and settlement times. Using the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides (DMP) model, this paper examines blockchain's impact on labor markets by improving job-matching efficiency, thereby reducing unemployment. However, high research costs and competition with incumbent technologies hinder early-stage blockchain adoption. We extend the DMP model to analyze the role of government intervention through tax and wage policies in mitigating these barriers. Our findings suggest that lowering firm tax rates can accelerate blockchain innovation, enhance labor market efficiency, and promote employment growth, highlighting the critical balance between technological progress and economic policy in fostering blockchain-driven economic transformation.
Ethereum is a multifaceted ecosystem shaped by diverse commitments and aspirations. This dissertation focuses on a relatively understudied micro-culture within Ethereum, known as “public goods” represented by a subcultural group known as “Regens”. Unlike the dominant financial use cases of blockchain, Regens aim to harness blockchain technologies for communal and participatory purposes, often through blockchain operated digital institutions known as decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). I focus on Giveth - a well-known public goods DAO within the Ethereum ecosystem. Using an empirical approach grounded in ethnography, I map its culture, governance practices, and labour dynamics. Through this analysis, I examine how blockchain mediated infrastructures can both enable and constrain political life. In particular, I trace how blockchain infrastructures challenge traditional conceptions of democracy through the concept of ‘coordination,’ a central organizing principle that characterizes DAO governance. Examining how Giveth’s governance mechanisms operate in practice, I argue that while Giveth and similar public goods DAOs endeavor to address the problems inherent in existing traditional political systems, they often end up producing the same plutocratic outcomes. Drawing on Marxist theory of labour and value, I also demonstrate that despite Giveth’s noble intentions to reimagine non-profit work through blockchain, the reality is that members continue to sacrifice significant time and resources in pursuit of the project’s mission. This reveals a fundamental contradiction within such initiatives: while projects like Giveth aim to dismantle hegemonic neoliberal structures, they paradoxically reproduce and extend many of the same conditions they seek to overcome by embedding market computational logics and game-theoretic principles at the core of their operational design. Nevertheless, I emphasize on the potential of DAOs to foster alternative world-building practices, serving as spaces for the development of creative political imaginaries that can advance collective organizational efforts and greater participation when designed with intention.
Shahbaz Siddiqui, Sufian Hameed, Muhammad Rafi, Syed Attique Shah · 5 authors
The development of blockchain consensus mechanisms has put sustainability, scalability, and efficiency first in the list of cryptocurrency studies. As Bitcoin still uses the energy-intensive Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm, Ethereum is in the process of switching from PoW to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) with the Ethereum Merge in September 2022. The cause of this change was the rising energy prices, bottlenecks in scalability, and increased concerns among the global population regarding the environmental effects of PoW-based mining. Our study provides a rationale for the Ethereum transition by comparing and contrasting the volume of transactions, network performance through hash rate, and electricity consumption of Bitcoin and Ethereum in their PoW stages.With the help of both historical trend and predictive modelling in the form of the ARIMA framework, the obtained results showed that Bitcoin and Ethereum had different dynamics of growth under PoW, which was increased hash and energy expenditures but limited throughput. The ARIMA-based analysis achieved a mean absolute error (MAE) of 27.76, a root mean square error (RMSE) of 31.16, and a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 26.08, which provided an overall forecast accuracy of 73.9%. These measures show that there is a medium predictive reliability, and volatility is mainly caused by sudden changes in mining intensity and market forces. The predictions further indicated that under PoW, Ethereum would have experienced a steep rise in operational energy consumption and congestion of its network transactions, which would have weakened network sustainability.Results thus confirm that the switch of Ethereum to PoS was not only an environmental need but also a strategic optimization of a transaction to scale higher, operational overhead reduction, and alignment with sustainable and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) goals on a global scale. This piece leads to a better comprehension of the trade-offs between PoW and PoS, as well as the Ethereum consensus shift as the turning point in the evolution of blockchains—establishing a precedent of other cryptocurrencies that can select a balance between performance, security, and sustainability.