Purpose Blockchain, which was originally created to enable peer-to-peer digital payment systems (bitcoin), is considered to have several benefits for different sectors, such as the real estate one. In a standard European-wide real estate transaction, several intermediaries are involved. As a consequence, these agreements are usually time-consuming and involve extra difficulties to cross-border operations. As blockchain, combined with smart contracts, may have an important role in these transactions, this paper aims to explore its prospective challenges, limitations and opportunities in the real estate sector and discover how the traditional intermediaries have to face a possible implementation of this technology. Design/methodology/approach This paper analyses the current intermediaries in the real estate sector in European Union (EU), their functions and how can blockchain strengthen the security of these transactions while reducing their time. The author uses a legal methodology to approach it. Findings Blockchain, combined with smart contracts, has both challenges and opportunities for the real estate sector. On the one hand, it may improve procedures, allow EU transactions and the interconnection between public administration. However, to not reduce parties rights, this blockchain should have some special features, such as the possibility of being amended. Originality/value This paper provides a valuable overview of all the intermediaries that could be affected by blockchain protocols. It is of interest of blockchain developers, public administrations and researchers who are working on blockchain and property conveyancing.
Contracts represent the most advanced and least explored frontier of public sector digitisation policies. Smart contracts, totally or partially self-executive contracts operating in the blockchain ecosystem, already widely used in the private sector, received, in Italy, at the beginning of 2019, regulatory coverage, ensure high standards of efficiency and allow to contain the phenomena of maladministration. Contractual automation is close, on the legal level, to the provisional one, but it preserves some irreducible peculiarities as well as specific limits, such as the tendential incompleteness of the negotiation regulations, which can, however, be remedied by exploiting the most recent innovations in the field of artificial intelligence.
Samuel Brülisauer, Anastasia Costantini, Gianluca Pastorelli
"Digitalisation and other advanced technologies are increasingly reshaping our economy, including social economy enterprises. Disruptive technologies can inspire the social economy and vice versa. Blockchain for instance carries an intrinsic decentralisation approach that could have many implications for services and generate a high social added value through traceability, fair pricing, commonly recognised and verified standards and democratization of access to services and products in all societies and areas." - Ms Ulla Engelmann, Head of Unit for Advanced Technologies, Social Economy and Clusters, European Commission, DG Grow In the first two decades of the new century digital technologies have started to reshape work, leisure, behaviour, health, education, money, governance, and other aspects of human life. As people and businesses start using digital appliances for all kinds of interaction, an increasing amount of communication and value exchange shifts to the digital realm. This megatrend holds many promises to spur innovation, generate efficiencies, and improve services, and in doing so boost more inclusive and sustainable growth. But these technologies also tend to disrupt traditional ways to organize our economy and society, entailing important consequences for people, organisations and markets, and raise important issues around jobs and skills, privacy, security. We use the term digital transformation to describe these social, cultural, and economic changes resulting from digital innovations, and identify four socio-technological areas in which people are particularly affected by this transformation: work and income goods and services, money and finance, and state and governance. Digital platforms and blockchains (and other distributed ledger technology) are two of the most impactful technologies. Because of the astonishing possibilities these technologies offer, observers regularly fathom that it is not only unfeasible but also undesirable to ‘stop’ the digital transformation. Rather, it is argued that digital technologies and their impacts must be actively managed and leveraged to ensure their alignment with people-centred development and sustainability. In this context, a growing number of social economy innovations aim to create an internet and digital appliances that put individual users and society first. Social economy enterprises and organizations are either based on participatory governance where users are ultimately in (partial) control over the platform/technology, or bound by a statutory purpose asserting the priority of social and environmental goals before financial returns. The digital social economy innovations discussed in this paper aim to realize this vision in the four areas undergoing digital transformation. Our analysis is informed by insights from the workshop organised by Diesis on “Blockchain, digital social innovation and social economy. The future is here!”, as well as case studies elaborated in close collaboration with various digital social economy enterprises. The study finds a vivid variety of digital social economy enterprises, and important potential for further applications of social economy principles in the digital realm. Yet the realization of this potential depends on whether these enterprises manage the critical challenge to achieve sustainable and user-centred growth. We therefore conclude with a discussion of this challenge and some recommendations for policy, organization and entrepreneurship.
Abstract: Transformation of industrial districts has attracted much attention for long. The Ruhr area in Germany, which used to be a pillar of the industrial economy in the past and is a robust cultural and economic region now, is always a typical case. Based on field visits and semi-structured interviews, this paper takes Zeche Zollverein in Ruhr as an example, trying to find out how multiple agents take part in and cooperate with each other during its transformation and to summarize its mechanism of multi-agent governance. It is found that during the transformation in Zeche Zollverein, administrative, social and market powers actively participate and interact in the protection and development of industrial culture, financing and investment, renovation of buildings and environment, daily operation and management as well as social life and space activation. In the framework of multi-agent cooperation in Zeche Zollverein, different levels of governments combine top-down management and moderate decentralization, acting as a backbone; the public are important elements in the activation of social life while social organizations share public affairs with governments and citizens enjoy participating in public activities; market economies form a virtuous circle between their self-development and the regional transformation. From single subject controlling to multi-agent cooperation, the transformation of governance framework in Zeche Zollverein is a remarkable enlightenment for industrial districts in China. Under the realistic conditions of our country with Chinese characteristics, governments tend to be responsible for every stuff in cities and get overburdened. Learning from Zeche Zollverein, they can try to break away from the idea of "all-around arrangement", and to cooperate more with and release some functions to the society and the market, attracting them to locate in the district and develop themselves on their own initiatives, so as to promote regional transformation jointly.
Samuel BRÃœLISAUER, Anastasia Costantini, Gianluca Pastorelli
Digitalisation and other advanced technologies are increasingly reshaping our economy, including social economy enterprises. Disruptive technologies can inspire the social economy and vice versa. Blockchain for instance carries an intrinsic decentralisation approach that could have many implications for services and generate a high social added value through traceability, fair pricing, commonly recognised and verified standards and democratization of access to services and products in all societies and areas.- Ms Ulla Engelmann, Head of Unit for Advanced Technologies, Social Economy and Clusters, European Commission, DG Grow In the first two decades of the new century digital technologies have started to reshape work, leisure, behaviour, health, education, money, governance, and other aspects of human life. As people and businesses start using digital appliances for all kinds of interaction, an increasing amount of communication and value exchange shifts to the digital realm. This megatrend holds many promises to spur innovation, generate efficiencies, and improve services, and in doing so boost more inclusive and sustainable growth. But these technologies also tend to disrupt traditional ways to organize our economy and society, entailing important consequences for people, organisations and markets, and raise important issues around jobs and skills, privacy, security. We use the term digital transformation to describe these social, cultural, and economic changes resulting from digital innovations, and identify four socio-technological areas in which people are particularly affected by this transformation: work and income goods and services, money and finance, and state and governance. Digital platforms and blockchains (and other distributed ledger technology) are two of the most impactful technologies. Because of the astonishing possibilities these technologies offer, observers regularly fathom that it is not only unfeasible but also undesirable to ‘stop’ the digital transformation. Rather, it is argued that digital technologies and their impacts must be actively managed and leveraged to ensure their alignment with people-centred development and sustainability. In this context, a growing number of social economy innovations aim to create an internet and digital appliances that put individual users and society first. Social economy enterprises and organizations are either based on participatory governance where users are ultimately in (partial) control over the platform/technology, or bound by a statutory purpose asserting the priority of social and environmental goals before financial returns. The digital social economy innovations discussed in this paper aim to realize this vision in the four areas undergoing digital transformation. Our analysis is informed by insights from the workshop organised by Diesis on “Blockchain, digital social innovation and social economy. The future is here!†, as well as case studies elaborated in close collaboration with various digital social economy enterprises. The study finds a vivid variety of digital social economy enterprises, and important potential for further applications of social economy principles in the digital realm. Yet the realization of this potential depends on whether these enterprises manage the critical challenge to achieve sustainable and user-centred growth. We therefore conclude with a discussion of this challenge and some recommendations for policy, organization and entrepreneurship.
Cryptocurrency is a method of remunerating employees (‘cryptoremuneration’). However, crypto-remuneration has not been examined within the existing regulatory framework governing labour. This article explores the regulation of crypto-remuneration in Australia, specifically how labour, taxation and superannuation laws (state regulation), as well as the parties themselves (self-regulation) may regulate cryptocurrency as a method of reward for labour. It is argued that the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and associated state legislation prohibits the payment of wages in cryptocurrency, and treats crypto-remuneration as a non-monetary benefit. The impact of regulation on how the parties may structure the remuneration package in the contract of employment is examined. Regulatory, price volatility and operational risks of crypto-remuneration are identified, as well as recommendations to stakeholders that can manage these risks.
The use of blockchain technology is one of the most promising areas in the development of the digital economy. The high potential of its applicability, obvious benefits from reducing the number of transactions and cutting costs mean that the implementation of blockchain technology is inevitable in social and labor relations (SLR). The impediment to this process is the absence of an established institutional environment that would determine uniform characteristics of the technology, language, ontology, and principles of using distributed ledgers. The purpose of this study is to develop recommendations for establishing framework standards for the application of blockchain technology in SLR. The ecosystem approach, practical analysis and institutional synthesis are used as research methods. As a result, the study proposes a set of areas for standardization of the application of distributed ledger technology in SLR. The pool of basic standardization areas includes institutional, technological, relational (stakeholder) conditions as well as conditions for ensuring security. Analysis of the national project (program) “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” identified areas for developing standards for the use of blockchain technology in SLR. In addition, the study described serious risks and obstacles to the implementation of digital technologies in this sphere of economic relations.
The first part of this article proposes a conceptual framework for a sociological understanding of the uses of bills of lading. We argue that platforms that aim to facilitate an electronic format of bills of lading should be based upon the constituent components of the practices associated with paper bills of lading. In the second part of this article we suggest that Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), including blockchains, is the best technological means for facilitating the use in practice of immaterial bills of lading. The appropriate type of DLT is then evaluated in light of expected legal difficulties.
Blockchain has become much more than simply a fintech technology, and is enabling and inspiring new conversations around politics, governance, organization, institutions and power structures. I published an attempt to start a rigorous academic treatment of ideology in the blockchain space through my master’s thesis titled Toward a Political Sociology of Blockchain at Queen’s University. Since then, there have been continued rich discussions around politics and experimentation in line with the ideals of the blockchain movement. Examples include discussion of blockchain governance as a social contract, discussion of social scalability and how this enables us to organize, forums such as etherean.org, and movements such as RadicalxChange.org and the concept of Liberal Radicalism. Some of these movements have been started by similar actors in the blockchain space: Vitalik Buterin of the Ethereum project co-authored the paper on Liberal Radicalism which is deeply intertwined with RadicalxChange and the ethos of decentralization, and Lane Rettig is an Ethereum core developer and launched Etherean.org to be a non-maximalist community-based discussion of social aspects and implications around the emerging technology. While the cryptocurrency markets trended downward throughout 2018, there have been strong social indicators of a more mature system though increased interdisciplinary participation and development around the technology as well as increased interest by the public sector for use cases such as records keeping and identity solutions. I expand upon some of the concepts discussed in my thesis, and provide further evidence for the particular observations based on additional events I attended and took part in through late 2018 and early 2019. Primarily, additional evidence is taken from my attendance at both the ETHDenver and RadicalxChange conferences. I further develop some of the ideas and connections between the community that has emerged around blockchain technology, and the more recent adaptations in the political sphere, as well as implications of new forms of social organization allowed through the use of such technology.
Over the last decade there has been a continuing decline in social trust on the part of individuals with regards to the handling and fair use of personal data, digital assets and other related rights in general. At the same time, there has been a change in the employment patterns for many people through the emergence of the gig economy. These gig workers include artists, songwriters and musicians in the music industry. We discuss the notion of the data cooperative with fiduciary responsibilities to its members, which is similar in purpose to credit unions in the financial sector. A data cooperative for artists and musicians allows the community to share IT resources, such as data storage, analytics processing, blockchains and distributed ledgers. A cooperative can also employ smart contracts to remedy the various challenges currently faced by the music industry with regards to the license tracking management.
Sociotechnical imaginaries are futures that people envision might be possible and desirable. They have a real impact on how systems are designed and what values they have embedded in their design. This article examines imaginaries about autonomous systems, decentralized systems, and decentralized autonomous systems. Through a discussion of the literature on autonomous and decentralized systems and how these imaginaries play out in the blockchain community based on my qualitative research, I demonstrate how decentralized autonomous systems are related to imaginaries about the organization of and the future of work. I identify three framings of imaginaries about autonomous systems: (1) autonomous technology as physical objects, (2) as mathematical rules, and (3) as artificial mangers. I also identify two sometimes conflicting framings of imaginaries about distributed and decentralized technology: these technologies as a new form of production and as freedom from control. These imaginaries intersect in decentralized autonomous systems, and I examine what they can tell us about the design and governance of such technologies. Lastly, I suggest ways of using the concept of imaginaries in participatory design.
Abstract This position article brings together perspectives from social sciences, computer science and economy to interrogate the emerging meanings of value produced by Distributed Autonomous Organizations (DAO). We explore this process in the context of the wider political economy enabled by Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) and Smart Contracts (SC). The article then questions the ways in which the current implementations of DAO reflect the various regimes of value and the emergent possibilities to rethink the social contract.
The previous part of this article proposed a conceptual framework for a sociological understanding of the uses of bills of lading. We argued that platforms that aim to facilitate an electronic format of bills of lading should be based upon the constituent components of the practices associated with paper bills of lading. In this second part of the article, we suggest that distributed ledger technology (DLT), including blockchains, is the best technological means for facilitating the use in practice of immaterial bills of lading. The appropriate type of DLT is then evaluated in light of expected legal difficulties.
Douglas W. Arner, Ross P. Buckley, Dirk Andreas Zetzsche, Bo Zhao · 7 authors
Abstract Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009, cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchain technology have risen to global attention. It is now clear Bitcoin and a number of other cryptocurrencies were the focus of one of the largest speculative bubbles in history. This chapter explores blockchain, cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), as well as policy and regulatory responses in Asia. It demystifies key aspects of blockchain systems, while also disentangling concepts that are often (incorrectly) used interchangeably, such as distributed ledgers and blockchains. The chapter provides data on total capital raised through ICOs and analyzes the distribution of ICOs by country and region. Based on this framework, it conducts a comprehensive analysis of regulatory statements and disparate policy approaches in Asian countries toward digital assets, focusing on cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and ICOs.
Abstract Blockchains, also known as “distributed ledger technologies” (DLT) are perhaps the emerging innovation that, in the years leading up to and including 2019, is raising the highest expectations for HRM in the 4.0 business environment. In essence, a blockchain is a very specific type of database, with characteristics that made it the ideal application for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Within the context of digital- or e-HRM, there is potential to improve human resource management (HRM) processes using blockchains for employment screening, credential and educational verification, worker contracts and payments, among others, notwithstanding questions about its efficiency vis-à-vis conventional alternatives (Maurer, 2018; Zielinski, 2018). The research questions examined in this chapter include the following: What are the main characteristics of blockchains? Will they be adopted in a widespread form, specifically by HRM departments? Constructs from Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory (Rogers, 2003) are used to inform the Human Resources scholarly and practitioner communities; this robust theory may help companies allocate resources (e.g., budgets, personnel, managerial time, etc.) in an evidence-informed manner. As of this writing, very few blockchain applications, such as credential verification and incident reporting, seem to hold a strong potential for adoption.
Although blockchain is often posed as a revolutionary and disruptive technology, its politics and socio-technical configurations often align with aims to maintain the status quo, and/or aims to concentrate wealth and to make existing powers more efficient. I empirically describe how colonial-contingent, neoliberal economic policies in Puerto Rico have incentivized the techno-capitalist industries of cryptocurrency and blockchain. Portions of the archipelago are being re-made into a so-called “crypto-utopia” to satisfy the desires of new settlers in a new form of crypto-colonialism. Puerto Rican government organizations, institutions, and businesses are also engaging blockchain technology with differing intents, all using rhetoric as a covert design tool. In this paper I will focus on blockchain and cryptocurrency as neoliberal and libertarian technologies adopted by governmental agencies, businesses, organizations, and individuals, as well as efforts of resistance through alternative, decolonial design.
Abstract Abstract This contribution deals with the problem of interoperability of blockchain technologies. Building on the framework offered by Lawrence Lessig, it will be argued that interoperability cannot be viewed as a simple matter of technological design. Blockchain technologies, in fact, give rise to complex ecosystems, which are shaped by both the architecture and social and market forces. The literature has mainly focused on the effects that the blockchain code has determined on the law of contracts. However, the action of the other modalities, in particular those of market and social forces and their interaction with the code has not been deeply investigated. By isolating the reciprocal effects of the different modalities of regulation—in particular, blockchain code and the law, blockchain code and the market, and blockchain code and social norms—this paper intends to fill this gap and sheds some more light on the internal dynamics of public blockchain. Finally, building on the insight so gained, we will explore the problem of interoperability between ledgers by analysing the pros and cons of the solution proposed so far.
Crowdsourcing is a distributed business service model brought by Internet. However, users always pursue the maximum benefits with the least effort, which may lead to the low quality of solutions submitted by receivers. In addition, each user is most concerned about their own benefits, and sometimes they do not objectively evaluate the solutions. Based on blockchain technology, this paper implements crowdsourcing process through smart contract, and proposes credit and arbitration mechanisms suitable for general online industrial services. To be specific, the credit mechanism defines the historical reputation of each user through credit score, which is beneficial for the sender to find a satisfactory receiver, and provides criteria for the selection of members of the arbitration institution. We also combine punishment and incentive measures to ensure the earnest implementation of the crowdsourcing business by users. Arbitration mechanism refers to the arbitration of task solutions submitted by receivers through the decentralized and credible arbitration institution rather than senders or the crowdsourcing platform, which ensures the fairness and impartiality of the solution evaluation. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed credit mechanism and arbitration mechanism.
Simultaneously with the fall of the Berlin wall, we witnessed the process of general acceptance of the Internet as mainstream. Opportunities created in the last 30 years by the Internet, and particularly in the last 10 years with the dramatic increase in the number of smart devices, created new business model. Namely, internet giants such as Google, Facebook, Uber or Airbnb have created on-line platforms through which they aggregate the potential resources of a large number of individuals to provide services to even larger and a group of consumers. The previous business model was based on centralized organizations, often with a dominant position in the market in charge of providing services to a group of passive consumers. The new type of “dematerialized” organizations doesn’t rely on ownership of property. However, the profit generated by this new model is not fairly distributed - mediators who manage and own on-line platforms retain the profits. Recently new technology called blockchain emerged. The purpose of this new technology is to facilitating the exchange in a reliable and decentralized way without intermediaries. Blockchain technology allows substitution of hierarchical model of management with a computer system that is decentralized and distributed among individual participants. This concept can changes the way the profit is distributed, allowing people to work for creation of common good, whereby everyone will be appropriately rewarded for their labour and engaged resources. But when talking about new disruptive technologies we need to be careful due to the fact that at its creation the internet was intended to narrow the gap between small entities and large corporations, yet over time internet giants took control of the digital world. The aim of this paper was to give an overview of the possibilities and challenges of blockchain technology. The paper will make a theoretical analysis of the relevant papers in the subject area and will present concluding observations regarding the dilemma whether this new technology is utopia that is in advance condemned to failure or will succeed in the intention of fair distribution. The conclusions suggest that organisation without hierarchy is utopian, but our finding shows that DAO is possible with using blockchain technology, although it raises many questions (liability, tax payments, jurisdiction etc.). But we need to be careful due to the fact that internet giants took control of the digital world. Finally, social relationships are aspect that will be big drawback for DAO.
Léo Malherbe, Matthieu Montalban, Nicolas Bédu, Caroline Granier
Cryptocurrency innovations such as Bitcoin raise the question of the possible transformation of the monetary regime and how it would operate. The blockchain technology underlying Bitcoin is said to be “trustless” because it has been designed to avoid a “trusted third party.” Drawing on the institutionalist approach of Aglietta and Orléan emphasizing the importance of trust in money and the monetary system, we show that Bitcoin is characterized by: (1) methodical trust through the existence of an objective proof of payment; (2) hierarchical trust due to the concentration in the mining process; and (3) ethical trust organized around the rejection of banks and the state, although the early ethical commitment is unstable. In other words, trust is now materialized in a form of technical institution, the blockchain. However, Bitcoin cannot be used as everyday money as it would bring about a deflationist and dysfunctional monetary regime, as well as high transaction costs. Some other cryptocurrencies could lead to interesting transformations of the monetary regime if they were to provide new forms of sovereignty, avoid a design based on a fixed monetary supply, or if central banks decided to back them.