The blockchain technology - or more generally, the technology of distributed ledgers (DLT) - has been heralded as a ‘game changer’ for the development of African economies. Whilst the focus of the discussion is usually on private sector applications, most notably including digital currencies such as ‘Bitcoin’, blockchain technology could also be used to improve the administration of public services and to strengthen the rule of law. With a view to the latter, this paper outlines the opportunities of DLT for developing nations in particular and offers an analysis of the most pressing legal and factual challenges that African governments need to resolve. The objective is to illustrate solutions which may be suitable for African jurisdictions in particular, hopefully assisting governments across the continent in developing their own tailor-made approach.
Jan 1, 2019·Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Rafael Ziolkowski, Geetha Parangi, Gianluca Miscione, Gerhard Schwabe
The blockchain comes with the promise of being a disruptive technology with the potential for novel ways of interaction in a wide range of applications. Although scholarly interest in the technology is growing, a comprehensive analysis of blockchain applications from a governance perspective lacks to date. This research pays special attention to the governance of blockchain systems and illustrates core governance decisions on 15 blockchain implementations from four application domains. Additionally, this research sheds light on changes brought by the blockchain in terms of governance. Based on academic literature, semi-structured-interviews with representatives from those companies, and content analysis of grey literature, different blockchain governance decisions have been derived and their enactment described. The identification of those enriches the scarce body of knowledge on blockchain-based implementations with a better understanding of how key governance decisions are enacted.
This paper interprets the principles of good governance and corporate governance in the context of distributed ledger technologies, namely blockchain, analyzing specifically how these principles apply to a blockchain-enabled energy market. With blockchain, governance becomes decentralized and automated, creating a new, tech- nical bureaucracy. However, a programmed decision tree does not inevitably produce a digitized democracy and a functional marketplace. While blockchain governance decisions have been predominantly technical, they increasingly embroil legal, moral, cultural and even philosophical considerations. As a result, governance is increasingly recognized as a critical challenge in the future development of blockchain-enabled marketplaces. Future, multidisciplinary research by lawyers, engineers, political scientists and philosophers should venture further into develop- ing good governance principles for blockchain, focusing on equity and inclusion.
Overview:Industries that rely on digital payments (especially micro-transactions) and complex contracting between parties stand to gain the most from the arrival of blockchain technology. In addition, the ability to authenticate a work as it passes from one buyer to the next, and to generate unique digital works, will be a boon to those industries where scarcity is valued. We conclude that the creative industries would benefit greatly from this new economic infrastructure – possibly more than any other segment of the economy. However, the embryonic blockchain-enabled creative economy has a difficult road ahead. Old industry incumbents and new technology platforms alike have failed to demonstrate a willingness to embrace an open and accessible ‘internet of value’ (as blockchain is known). Without concerted efforts to coordinate practitioners and stakeholders (arts organisations, creative firms, funding bodies, collecting societies and others), including shared digital infrastructures and open standards, these benefits may never be realised. We propose what we are calling an ‘industry utility’ approach to cultural policy. An industry utility is a shared infrastructure built to support and grow a segment of the economy. In this scenario, Australia’s cultural institutions would cooperate in the development and use of a shared blockchain infrastructure for the creative industries. We provide some initial ideas on what that might look like for creative practitioners and show how such an approach would position Australia as a leader in the creative economy.Highlights:An overview of distributed ledger technology, including smart contracts.Examples of the way experimentation is already taking place with these technologies in the cultural and creative industries (weighted towards the music and screen sectors where most developments have occurred to date).Consideration of the role that Australia’s cultural institutions might play in the development of a creative industries blockchain economy.
Abstract Blockchain technology represents an emerging source of venture capital crowdfunding for creative ventures, specifically in the music industry. Although music streaming is often portrayed as a success story, the internet has in fact been something of a false dawn for the recorded music industry—particularly for emerging musicians. New music ventures might obtain alternative entrepreneurial finance through token sales or Initial Coin Offerings. Policymakers can play a role in developing this form of seed finance for the creative industries and beyond.
Smart contracts on a blockchain network can be implemented to control digital value. A key question that arises is the extent to which smart contracts can, or should, operate as "smart legal contracts". Simply put, can smart contracts meet requirements of validity at law and practical efficacy. In order to achieve the goal of value maximization, the efforts of policy-makers, standards organisations and regulators should be informed by first principles. Standards, and other regulatory activities, must be driven by consideration of the technolegal functions of contracting. Blockchain-based smart contracts offer the potential to reduce transaction costs through new methods of stateful computation. When applied to commercial transactions, smart contracts can represent enforcement of an executed state. This paper argues that distributed ledger and smart contracts standards should seek to provide sufficient flexibility to facilitate contracting parties to coordinate in an optimal manner.