This paper proposes Platform-Enabled People Governance (PEPG), a conceptual model of public governance organized around public problems rather than around a single institution, bureaucracy, or digital platform. PEPG places a public problem at the center and connects citizens, experts, government institutions, implementers, funders, contractors, and oversight actors through distributed participation spaces. The model distinguishes open public participation in problem identification and solution development from controlled participation in implementation and formal oversight. PEPG is platform-agnostic. WhatsApp, Telegram, X, GitHub, dedicated government systems, or other digital environments may serve as participation spaces without becoming the governance model itself. The paper also discusses transparency, independent oversight, contracts, legislative inputs, tamper-evident records, blockchain as an optional integrity layer, institutional capacity, decision-making speed, prevention of concentration and capture, and safeguards against external influence. This publication represents an early conceptual formulation of PEPG and is intended to support further academic discussion, critique, experimentation, and development.
This chapter discusses the growing challenges faced by cities as their population continues to grow and citizen services become more and more complex and interconnected. It argues that many of the inefficiencies and mistrust are not because of a lack of digitization of urban services, but because of fragmented data, agencies operating in silos, and a lack of transparency in government processes. With that in mind, the chapter introduces blockchain as a distributed ledger technology and a tool that governments can use to fundamentally redefine management of data, processes, and coordination across agencies while maintaining transparency. The chapter further dives into cases where blockchain has been used to manage public records, procurement, utilities, citizen participation, and resource management. It also discusses technical, legal, financial, and social limitations of the technology. The chapter concludes with an explanation of an implementation framework with a strong focus on long-term sustainability, inclusiveness, regulatory compatibility, and incremental adoption. The combination of these makes blockchain a strategic solution to reestablish accountability, transparency, and confidence in urban services instead of a panacea.
This dissertation explores the impacts of blockchain-based audit trails and stakeholder feedback loops on ethical conduct in U.S. federal and state public administration. The study addresses ongoing ethical problems in government, such as low levels of accountability, inadequate procedures, policy manipulation, and a waning public confidence in government, despite the existence of government ethics codes and oversight bodies. Ethical adherence is considered using two complementary theories: the virtue theory (Honesty, Fairness, Integrity, Responsiveness, Trust) and the deontological theory (Duty fulfillment, Rule following, Documentation, Accountability, Procedural compliance). The study was conducted with closed and open-ended answers from public administration participants who have experience in ethics, compliance, audit, procurement, oversight, stakeholder engagement, or other related areas using an anonymous online survey via Google Forms. Ten responses were received and nine valid responses were analyzed. The findings revealed that audit trails linked to blockchain were seen as the most beneficial for holding accountable, tracing, ensuring record integrity, reviewing and ensuring duty-based compliance. Stakeholder feedback loops were seen as most beneficial for fairness, honesty, telling the truth, responsiveness and public trust. The two tools were perceived as complementary tools and not as competing tools. The results, however, also showed that transparency instruments are not necessarily the drivers of ethical behavior. They rely on leadership, staff development, correct data entry, active data review, meaningful follow-up to feedback, and follow-through on actions. The study brings to the public administration literature a connection between mechanisms of transparency and ethical adherence in both virtue-based and duty-based approaches. It provides pragmatic advice to agencies that want to build ethical governance through technology, participation, and organizational culture in complex federal, state, and government-adjacent administrative contexts, in everyday practice.
Jaume Martin Bosch, Marco Combetto, Luca Tangi, A. Paula Rodriguez Müller
Introduction Blockchain technology (BCT) has been widely discussed as a potentially valuable technology for advancing sustainable development in the public sector. Its core features, including transparency, immutability and decentralisation, may contribute to more accountable, efficient and inclusive public services. However, limited empirical evidence exists on how BCT-based public sector initiatives align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Methods This study examines 306 public sector BCT-based use cases across the EU, compiled by the Public Sector Tech Watch observatory. We apply a GPT-4o-based AI text classification pipeline to assess the degree of alignment between project descriptions and the 17 SDGs. The pipeline combines refined SDG descriptors, structured prompting and documented model parameters. Its outputs are benchmarked against a human-coded subset to assess validity. Results The results show strong alignment with SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), followed by more moderate alignment with SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). By contrast, goals such as SDG 2, SDG 6 and SDG 14 remain weakly represented. These findings provide an empirical overview of how BCT applications in EU public administrations are framed in relation to the SDGs. Discussion By highlighting patterns of alignment between BCT adoption and the SDGs, this study offers evidence to inform policymakers, practitioners and future research on sustainability-oriented public sector innovation. It also demonstrates the value of AI-assisted classification for mapping large corpora of digital government initiatives, while recognising that the results capture stated or perceived alignment rather than verified sustainability impacts.
Emerging economies collect substantially less tax revenue relative to national income than advanced economies, and a large share of this shortfall reflects weak enforcement capacity rather than statutory rates. Digital audio technologies and integrated financial information systems are increasingly promoted as instruments for narrowing this gap, yet the evidence on whether, when, and how they raise compliance and transparency remains scattered across public economics, accounting, and information systems scholarship. This review synthesises empirical and conceptual work published between 2006 and 2026 to assess what is known about four interlocking mechanisms: third party information reporting and electronic invoicing, electronic filing and payment platforms, continuous auditing and analytics, and distributed ledger and regulatory technology approaches to data governance. Three consistent patterns emerge. First, technologies that create verifiable third-party information trails produce the most durable compliance gains, with value added tax self-enforcement, electronic sales registers, and consumer incentive schemes generating measurable revenue increases, while technologies that merely digitise existing processes without new information yield smaller and more fragile effects. Second, the revenue and transparency return to digital systems are conditional on administrative capacity, data quality, and political commitment rather than automatic, which explains why similar tools succeed in some jurisdictions and fail in others. Third, the accounting profession is moving from periodic sampling toward continuous assurance and population level analytics, but adoption in emerging economies lags because of skills, infrastructure, and governance constraints. These findings suggest that the design and sequencing of digital reforms matter more than the sophistication of the technology itself. The review offers tax administrators and policymakers evidence graded account of which interventions rest on strong causal evidence and which rest on weaker conceptual or cross sectional foundations, and it identifies the conditions under which digital instruments translate into sustained fiscal gains rather than symbolic modernization.
Omar Al-Jamili, Abdulaziz Fahmi Omar Faqera, Mohd Adan Omar, Shehu M. Sarkintudu · 8 authors
Open Government Data (OGD) has become central to digital transformation and data-driven governance, yet scholarly understanding of how OGD initiatives progress from initial adoption to sustained institutionalization remains fragmented. This study aims to synthesize the existing literature and develop an integrative framework that explains the socio-technical mechanisms underpinning the long-term sustainability and value creation of OGD initiatives. The study integrates bibliometric analysis with a systematic literature review of 481 peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 31 December 2024. Quantitative science-mapping techniques are combined with qualitative thematic synthesis to capture the intellectual structure, technological evolution, and theoretical foundations of OGD research. The findings reveal rapid growth and thematic diversification in OGD scholarship, with increasing attention to advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain. However, the literature remains theoretically fragmented across behavioral, institutional, and public-value perspectives. Two critical gaps are identified: insufficient theorization of institutional legitimacy as a driver of continuity, and limited exploration of user-centric governance mechanisms shaping sustained data reuse. To address these gaps, the study proposes the Socio-Technical Institutionalization Model (STIM), which conceptualizes OGD sustainability as the dynamic alignment of technological infrastructures, institutional arrangements, and user ecosystems. By combining quantitative science mapping with systematic thematic synthesis and proposing the STIM lifecycle framework, this study offers an integrative synthesis that extends prior OGD reviews. The framework bridges fragmented theoretical perspectives and explains how open data initiatives may evolve from adoption to institutionalized value creation within complex digital governance ecosystems.
Current anti-corruption measurement tools are unable to accurately assess local corruption realities because they are disconnected from, and driven by, experts who are far removed from the contexts in which they must be used. In this chapter, we argue that, due to the variable definition of corruption, those best positioned to monitor it are the citizens impacted by it. We examine how and why citizens can be incentivised to participate in monitoring efforts, while also looking ahead to novel methods, such as blockchain and crowdsourcing, to create pathways for reporting, participation, and accountability. We highlight that, with robust protections for citizens and capacity building, citizen-led anti-corruption measurement can be a sustainable method for building transparency and trust.
Novan Ilham Ramadhan, Rizky Parlika, Ardhon Rakhmadi
Electronic voting (e-voting) systems continue to face challenges related to transparency, result validation, and duplicate voting prevention. Blockchain technology offers characteristics such as decentralization, transparency, and immutability that can support more auditable voting processes. This study presents a prototype implementation of a blockchain-based e-voting system using Ethereum smart contracts to support transparent vote recording, public auditability, and wallet-level double voting prevention. The system was implemented using Solidity-based smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum Sepolia Testnet and integrated with MetaMask for transaction authentication. Smart contracts manage election creation, candidate registration, voter registration, vote recording, duplicate vote prevention, and voting result finalization. An audit trail mechanism was implemented to allow voting activities and transaction records to be publicly verified through the Etherscan blockchain explorer. All predefined functional testing scenarios were executed successfully. The evaluation results indicate an average gas usage of 75,109 gas, an estimated transaction cost of 0.000113 ETH, and a transaction latency of approximately 4–5 seconds. The implemented wallet validation mechanism and hasVoted mapping effectively prevent duplicate voting attempts associated with the same wallet address. However, the proposed system represents a prototype-level evaluation conducted on the Ethereum Sepolia Testnet and does not provide voter identity verification, ballot anonymity, or real-world election readiness. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of Ethereum smart contracts for transparent auditability and wallet-level double voting prevention in blockchain-based voting environments.
This article examines whether the procedural framework of the Federal Tax Ombudsman (“FTO”) in Pakistan, established under the Establishment of the Office of Federal Tax Ombudsman Ordinance, 2000, to adjudicate complaints of maladministration arising under federal fiscal statutes, may be strengthened through the integration of Kleros, a blockchain-based crowdsourced dispute resolution mechanism. Drawing upon an original empirical dataset of one hundred and twenty-four cases registered between January 2023 and February 2025, the article finds that the average resolution period of cases before the FTO is approximately 191.3 days, rising to 503.3 days for complex matters that traverse review, representation, and remand, whereas the Kleros mechanism resolves disputes in an average of 13.23 days across 2,111 adjudicated cases. The article also situates its findings within institutional economics, identifying the FTO as a hierarchical governance structure and the Kleros mechanism as a market-based alternative. It views the difference in resolution times as a measure of transaction costs for taxpayers and administration. By measuring these costs, the article depicts that a market-based adjudicatory system significantly reduces them, enhancing institutional efficiency. It provides empirical evidence, illustrating the welfare gains from institutional substitution in transaction cost economics and institutional change. Against this benchmark, three integration models are proposed, namely a hybrid concurrent fact-finding model, a delegated crowdsourcing model with conditional executive review, and an amicus curiae model for technically complex matters such as the taxation of digital assets, each anchored in the updates introduced under Kleros V2, including Soulbound Tokens that enable expert-gated juror selection. The article identifies two structural gaps that necessitate reform, namely the revolving-door capture within the FTO secretariat and the jurisprudential bottleneck created at the Presidential secretariat following the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. It concludes that phased, pilot-based integration, commencing with the amicus curiae model in respect of complex subject-matter complaints, is jurisprudentially defensible, economically efficient, and operationally feasible within the legal framework of Pakistan.
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) represent one of the most consequential experiments in organizational design to emerge from blockchain technology. By encoding governance rules into smart contracts and recording every vote, proposal, and treasury decision immutably on-chain, DAOs offer globally distributed communities a high degree of transparency and accountability in collective decision-making. This study examines governance design and participatory innovation across three DAOs: RARI DAO, Arbitrum DAO, and Optimism DAO. Each has taken a distinct structural approach to the problem of collective decision-making at scale. Using a qualitative comparative case study method, the research draws on governance forum discussions, proposal records, and official documentation, analyzed through thematic coding and cross-case comparison. The theoretical frame draws primarily from Ostrom’s (1990) commons governance principles, with Scott’s (1995, 2014) institutional theory and Donaldson’s (2001) contingency theory applied as supplementary analytical lenses. Across all three cases, the findings indicate the emergence of increasingly formalized governance architectures designed to balance decentralization, coordination efficiency, and operational security. Communities building governance infrastructure from scratch, iterating rapidly in response to community feedback, and developing structural solutions: delegate incentive programs, participation incentive mechanisms, bicameral legitimacy systems, constitutional frameworks, and dedicated legal entities that represent an emerging configuration of governance mechanisms. Two cross-case findings are particularly notable. First, all three DAOs independently converged on a three-body governance architecture comprising a legal foundation, a security council, and token-holder governance — suggesting that similar governance problems, encountered in similar technical and legal environments, tend to produce similar structural solutions. Second, while these architectures are structurally similar, they differ significantly in how governance processes are implemented in practice, reflecting differences in scale, formalization, and community context. These findings contribute to the literature by providing a structured cross-case analysis of DAO governance design and offering practical insights into programmable institutional design and blockchain-enabled coordination systems.
Il contributo analizza il processo di piattaformizzazione della pubblica amministrazione, evidenziando come l’adozione di infrastrutture digitali avanzate rappresenti non soltanto una sfida tecnologica, ma anche un’occasione per ridefinire il rapporto tra Stato, cittadini e imprese. L’Autrice esamina il ruolo delle piattaforme pubbliche nella semplificazione dell’azione amministrativa, nella digitalizzazione dei servizi e nella costruzione di un’amministrazione più efficiente, accessibile e trasparente. Particolare attenzione è dedicata al concetto di fiducia digitale, intesa come dimensione ulteriore rispetto alla mera sicurezza informatica, fondata su trasparenza, protezione dei dati, responsabilità istituzionale e tutela dei diritti fondamentali. Il saggio approfondisce poi l’impatto delle piattaforme digitali nel settore degli appalti pubblici, con riferimento all’e-procurement, alla Banca Dati Nazionale dei Contratti Pubblici, alle Piattaforme di Approvvigionamento Digitale, al Fascicolo Virtuale dell’Operatore Economico e alla Piattaforma Unica della Trasparenza. Vengono inoltre esaminate le potenzialità del Web3, della blockchain e degli smart contracts nelle procedure di gara, con particolare riguardo alla tracciabilità, alla prevenzione della corruzione e alla verificabilità delle garanzie. Il contributo conclude evidenziando che la trasformazione digitale della pubblica amministrazione richiede ecosistemi resilienti, interoperabili e sicuri, capaci di rafforzare la fiducia dei cittadini nell’amministrazione digitale. The contribution analyses the platformisation of public administration, highlighting how the adoption of advanced digital infrastructures is not only a technological challenge, but also an opportunity to redefine the relationship between the State, citizens and businesses. The Author examines the role of public platforms in simplifying administrative action, digitising services and building a more efficient, accessible and transparent administration. Particular attention is devoted to the concept of digital trust, understood as a dimension that goes beyond cybersecurity, based on transparency, data protection, institutional responsibility and the safeguarding of fundamental rights. The essay then explores the impact of digital platforms in the field of public procurement, with reference to e-procurement, the National Public Contracts Database, Digital Procurement Platforms, the Virtual Company Dossier and the Single Transparency Platform. It also examines the potential of Web3, blockchain and smart contracts in tender procedures, particularly with regard to traceability, corruption prevention and the verification of guarantees. The contribution concludes by emphasizing that the digital transformation of public administration requires resilient, interoperable and secure ecosystems, capable of strengthening citizens’ trust in digital administration.
The Right to Information (RTI) is a fundamental pillar of democratic governance, providing citizens with access to public information and helps them hold public authorities accountable. Conventional models of RTI typically have a variety of problems, however: evidence is stripped or embellished, documents are tampered with, there is bureaucratic opacity, and they don't really hold up in court. The Blockchain technology has unique characteristics, such as immutability, decentralization, and cryptographic security, which make it a revolutionary solution. Blockchain can offer end-to-end transparency with legal evidence for requests, answers, as well as all supporting documents, to ensure all stakeholders are transparent and to produce strong legal records. This chapter examines the possibilities of applying blockchain to RTI systems, arguing that the distributed ledger can help to reduce corruption risks, boost public trust and improve the admissibility of judgments.
NGOs Funding Trust, Blockchain and RedChain Prof. Victor Alvarez, MBA ORCID iD: 0009-0001-7933-3830 Department Research in Economic , IEBS Business School, 08840 Barcelona, Spain Department of Humanitarian Economics and NGO Management ETU Institute, Birkirkara, Malta Abstract Persistent trust deficits between donor agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) continue to undermine the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian and development assistance, particularly in low-income and institutionally fragile environments. Concerns regarding fund diversion, beneficiary duplication, limited transparency, and weak accountability mechanisms have intensified demand for innovative governance solutions. This paper explores the potential of blockchain technology to strengthen trust in NGO funding through two complementary models: (1) a permissioned blockchain framework for beneficiary verification and aid tracking, and (2) RedChain, a privacy-preserving blockchain infrastructure for humanitarian assistance developed by the Spanish Red Cross. The proposed NGO Trust framework utilizes a distributed ledger to maintain immutable and auditable records of beneficiary registration and fund allocation. By recording encrypted identity credentials and digitally signed transactions, the system reduces the risk of duplicate beneficiary claims, fraud, and reporting inconsistencies across participating organizations. A participation and penalty mechanism further enhances network integrity by incentivizing honest behavior among stakeholders. RedChain extends this approach by integrating blockchain-based transaction recording with zero-knowledge proof technologies, enabling transparent aid distribution while preserving beneficiary privacy. With nearly one million registered transactions, the platform demonstrates the operational viability of blockchain-enabled humanitarian governance at scale. By synthesizing these approaches, this paper proposes an integrated framework for transparent NGO funding, combining beneficiary integrity verification, transaction traceability, privacy protection, and donor accountability. The findings suggest that distributed ledger technologies can significantly improve trust relationships between donors, NGOs, and beneficiaries, while supporting more efficient, transparent, and equitable aid distribution systems. The study contributes to the emerging literature on digital governance, nonprofit economics, and technology-enabled development finance by identifying blockchain as a foundational infrastructure for next-generation humanitarian and social-impact ecosystems. Keywords Blockchain; NGO governance; Humanitarian aid; Trust; Transparency; Beneficiary duplication; Zero-knowledge proofs; RedChain; Donor accountability; Privacy-preserving technology; Smart contracts; Aid distribution JEL Classification G30 – Corporate Finance and Governance: General L31 – Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship O33 – Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes F35 – Foreign Aid H84 – Disaster Aid and Relief 1. Introduction Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) play a central role in delivering humanitarian assistance, poverty alleviation programs, disaster relief, education, health services, and sustainable development initiatives worldwide. According to the United Nations and international development agencies, NGOs have become increasingly important intermediaries between donors, governments, and beneficiaries, particularly in regions where state capacity is limited or institutional trust is weak. Despite their growing influence, concerns regarding transparency, accountability, and the efficient allocation of resources continue to challenge the nonprofit sector (Edwards & Hulme, 1996; Ebrahim, 2003; Najam, 1996). The economics of nonprofit organizations has long emphasized the importance of trust as a mechanism for overcoming information asymmetries between donors and service providers (Hansmann, 1980). Donors frequently lack direct information regarding how funds are allocated, whether intended beneficiaries actually receive assistance, and whether reported outcomes accurately reflect project performance. This information gap creates principal-agent problems in which monitoring costs are high and opportunities for misreporting, inefficiency, or fraud may arise (Pratt & Zeckhauser, 1985; Tirole, 2006). As charitable donations and development aid increasingly flow through complex international networks, maintaining donor confidence has become a critical governance challenge. A substantial body of research has documented accountability deficiencies within humanitarian and development organizations. Ebrahim (2005) argues that traditional accountability systems often emphasize upward reporting to donors while providing limited mechanisms for beneficiary participation and verification. Similarly, Gugerty and Prakash (2010) note that transparency initiatives frequently rely on self-reported information that is difficult to independently audit. In international aid programs, concerns have emerged regarding duplicate beneficiary registrations, diversion of funds, weak recordkeeping systems, and fragmented information sharing among organizations operating in the same geographic areas (World Bank, 2016; OECD, 2021). Digital technologies have increasingly been proposed as tools to address these governance challenges. The broader literature on e-governance and digital accountability suggests that information systems can reduce transaction costs, improve record accuracy, and strengthen institutional transparency (Heeks, 2002; Cordella & Tempini, 2015). Among emerging technologies, blockchain has attracted considerable attention due to its capacity to create immutable, distributed, and verifiable records without requiring centralized trust authorities (Nakamoto, 2008). Since the introduction of Bitcoin, blockchain applications have expanded far beyond digital currencies into supply chain management, public administration, healthcare, identity systems, and humanitarian operations (Tapscott & Tapscott, 2016; Casino, Dasaklis & Patsakis, 2019). Scholars have argued that distributed ledger technologies may improve transparency and accountability by creating tamper-resistant transaction histories accessible to multiple stakeholders (Swan, 2015; Treiblmaier, 2018). Within development economics, blockchain-based systems have been proposed to improve aid distribution, reduce corruption, facilitate identity verification, and enhance financial inclusion in underserved regions (Kshetri, 2017; Saberi et al., 2019). Recent humanitarian applications provide evidence of growing institutional interest in blockchain-enabled governance. The United Nations World Food Programme's Building Blocks initiative demonstrated the feasibility of blockchain-based refugee assistance by facilitating aid transfers while reducing administrative costs and improving transaction traceability. Similarly, studies by Juskalian (2018), Mikhaylov et al. (2020), and Wang et al. (2022) suggest that distributed ledger technologies may strengthen accountability mechanisms in humanitarian environments characterized by weak institutional infrastructure. Nevertheless, important challenges remain. Public transparency requirements often conflict with the need to protect sensitive beneficiary information. Humanitarian organizations must balance donor demands for accountability with ethical obligations regarding privacy, dignity, and data protection. The emergence of privacy-enhancing cryptographic techniques, particularly zero-knowledge proofs, offers a potential solution to this dilemma by enabling verification without revealing underlying personal information (Goldwasser, Micali & Rackoff, 1989; Ben-Sasson et al., 2014). These technologies have increasingly been incorporated into blockchain architectures seeking to combine transparency with confidentiality. This paper contributes to the growing literature on nonprofit governance and development finance by examining two complementary blockchain-based approaches to strengthening trust in NGO funding systems. The first is a permissioned blockchain framework designed to prevent beneficiary duplication and improve donor oversight through cryptographically verifiable registration and transaction records. The second is RedChain, a privacy-preserving humanitarian aid platform developed by the Spanish Red Cross that combines blockchain technology with zero-knowledge proofs to support transparent aid distribution while safeguarding beneficiary privacy. By integrating insights from these models, the study proposes a comprehensive framework for Transparent NGO Funding that addresses four persistent governance challenges: beneficiary verification, transaction traceability, privacy preservation, and donor accountability. The analysis contributes to the fields of nonprofit economics, digital governance, and development finance by demonstrating how blockchain technologies may reduce information asymmetries, lower monitoring costs, and strengthen trust among donors, NGOs, and beneficiaries. Ultimately, the paper argues that distributed ledger systems can serve as foundational infrastructure for a new generation of accountable, transparent, and privacy-respecting humanitarian ecosystems.
This article examines the potential of blockchain-based state registries toenhance transparency and reduce corruption in public administration. The purpose of the researchis to evaluate how distributed ledger technology can address structural weaknesses inherent incentralized registry systems including data manipulation, lack of accountability and limitedauditability. The article employs a qualitative research design based on comparative analysis andcase study methodology drawing on international experiences and existing scholarly literature ondigital governance and blockchain implementation in the public sector. The findings indicate thatblockchain technology strengthens data integrity through immutability, decentralization andcryptographic verification mechanisms, thereby reducing opportunities for unauthorizedalterations and corrupt practices. Evidence from implemented registry reforms demonstratesimprovements in transparency, traceability and institutional trust. The article concludes thatblockchain-based state registries can serve as a foundational infrastructure for strengtheningpublic sector integrity, provided that legal frameworks, institutional readiness and technologicalcapacity are adequately developed to support sustainable implementation.
Advances in data-sharing technologies offer governments opportunities to improve efficiency and public service delivery. However, ethical risks, legal constraints, and concerns about public trust often limit the adoption of data-sharing practices within governmental organisations. This study examines how Value-Sensitive Design (VSD) and collaboration technologies, including Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), can support responsible and trustworthy data sharing in public governance. The research addresses ethical, legal, and organisational tensions while safeguarding public values and fundamental rights. A mixed-method research design combines literature reviews, qualitative case studies, and empirical validation, structured according to design science research principles. Building on analyses of governance frameworks and case studies in Dutch governmental organisations, the study develops and operationalises a methodological and normative framework for responsible data sharing. The research adapts VSD to governmental data ecosystems and provides a structured design approach supporting ethical and privacy-preserving data-sharing practices in public administration.
Open access
E-Government and Public Services
Information Systems Theories and Implementation
Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development
Abstract Web3 governance systems have expanded the visibility of institutional processes through on-chain records of votes, proposals, and token balances. Yet the availability of governance data does not necessarily ensure that governance structure or decision dynamics remain interpretable. This paper introduces governance observability as a distinct analytical layer within Web3 systems — concerned not with data availability, but with the capacity to relate observable governance activity to the institutional structures and processes that give it meaning. Building upon previous work on VCS governance geometry, the paper defines governance observability through two complementary dimensions: structural observability, which concerns the visibility of governance configuration and role relationships; and flow observability, which concerns the traceability of decision processes as they move through governance structures over time. Together, these dimensions provide a framework through which governance systems may be examined as both structural and dynamic phenomena. The paper further introduces structural invariants as continuity conditions supporting coherent interpretation of governance structure across institutional change, and flow concentration detection as a means of examining how operational patterns may gradually shape the exercise of authority differently from formal governance design. Web3 infrastructure is examined as an enabling environment for such observability, while remaining distinct from the interpretive frameworks through which governance conditions become institutionally meaningful. Governance observability is throughout distinguished from governance automation. The framework does not prescribe intervention or establish universal governance standards. Rather, it proposes that governance systems may benefit from maintaining the capacity to sense and interpret their own structural and operational conditions as governance evolves — contributing an interpretive layer that supports institutional discernment without replacing institutional judgment. Keywords: Web3 governance, governance observability, structural audit, flow observability, VCS governance geometry, institutional design, decentralized governance
Certificate management systems encompass aca-demic records; government-issued documents; professional li-censes; notary services.They play a vital role in creating a modern e-government system.Current certificate management methods are plagued by forgery, slow veri-fication, fragmented records between several institutions and vulnerability to compro-mise because of increasing numbers of data breaches.Blockchain innovations create the potential to address these different chal-lenges given their unique features such as: immutability, de-centralization, cryptographic security and full traceability via transparent auditability.The objective of this paper is to combine the current research on certificate management with blockchain technology via a systematic review of 12 peer-reviewed journals which focus on: Research methods used by each author.Data sets used by each author.The evaluation environment used by each author.The performance and security metrics that are being utilized in each author's research.The comparative findings of each author's research with respect to certificate management using public and permissioned blockchains.Results of this study demonstrate that the current core tech-nical functionality of certificate management using blockchain has been established; however, there are still major gaps in the current body of knowledge that need to be addressed, including:1. Privacy solutions, specifically zero-knowledge proofs.2. Ability to scale to the national level.3. Cross-platform interoperability.4. Validation of real-world prototypes.Additionally, we have described each of these gaps explic-itly and created a prioritized future agenda for research that addresses issues related to privacy, scalability, interoperability, security auditing and user-centered evaluation.
LokNirikshan: A Blockchain-Inspired Election Transparency and Management System LokNirikshan is a comprehensive, blockchain-inspired digital platform designed to enhance transparency, integrity, and efficiency in modern election systems. Traditional voting mechanisms—both paper-based and electronic—often suffer from limitations such as lack of transparency, centralized control, slow processing, and susceptibility to data manipulation. These challenges reduce public trust in electoral outcomes and highlight the need for more secure and verifiable solutions. This work proposes a hybrid approach that integrates key blockchain principles—such as cryptographic hashing, Merkle tree-based verification, and audit trails—into a practical, scalable, and user-friendly web-based system. Instead of implementing a fully decentralized blockchain, which introduces complexity and performance constraints, LokNirikshan selectively adopts core concepts to achieve transparency and data integrity without compromising usability. The system supports the complete election lifecycle, including voter registration, constituency and booth assignment, political party onboarding, candidate nomination, election configuration, voting, result computation, and post-election verification. It incorporates role-based access control (RBAC) to manage different stakeholders such as voters, party representatives, party heads, and administrators, ensuring secure and structured interactions across the platform. A key innovation of the system lies in its verification layer, which utilizes Merkle trees to ensure data integrity. Election results are converted into cryptographic hashes and organized into a hierarchical structure, generating a root hash that acts as a tamper-evident reference. This allows independent verification of results without requiring access to the complete dataset, thereby promoting trust through transparency. Additionally, an open public verification portal enables users and observers to validate election outcomes in a decentralized manner. The platform is implemented using modern web technologies, with React and Vite for the frontend, Node.js and Express for backend services, and MongoDB for flexible data storage. Authentication and session management are handled using JSON Web Tokens (JWT), ensuring secure access control. The system also includes anomaly detection mechanisms to identify irregularities such as duplicate entries, missing records, and inconsistent data. Experimental evaluation was conducted using a simulated dataset of 500 voters across multiple constituencies. The system demonstrated high functional reliability, successfully executing all stages of the election process. Verification tests using Merkle proofs achieved 100% accuracy for valid records, while anomaly detection reached approximately 98% effectiveness. Performance analysis indicated efficient response times, with most operations completing within milliseconds. Despite its strengths, the system has certain limitations, including scalability constraints for large-scale elections, partial centralization, and basic identity verification mechanisms. Future enhancements may include full blockchain integration (e.g., Ethereum or Hyperledger), advanced cryptographic techniques such as zero-knowledge proofs, improved voter authentication, machine learning-based anomaly detection, and mobile accessibility. In conclusion, LokNirikshan demonstrates that a balanced integration of blockchain-inspired concepts with conventional web technologies can significantly improve the transparency and reliability of election systems. It provides a practical foundation for developing secure, verifiable, and scalable digital governance platforms, contributing to increased public trust in democratic processes.
ONU 2.0 is a next-generation global governance platform designed to coordinate publicpolicy, development projects, and multilateral philanthropy across BRICS+ member statesand international observer partners. Built on a hybrid architecture that combines traditionale-government systems with Web3 infrastructure and distributed artificial intelligence, itimplements a complete workflow of submission → GPS jurisdictional validation → multi-levelapproval pipeline → audited execution → on-chain anchoring.At the technical level, the platform is structured around seven architectural layers: GPSjurisdictional control, multi-level approval state machines, asynchronous message routing (AOprotocol), cryptographically chained audit ledgers, BRICS+ policy exchange, BitcoinOP_RETURN anchoring via Arkhe-Chain (Chain ID 2140), and Kuramoto oscillator-basednetwork coherence consensus. The AI module is implemented as a Bittensor fork — the ONU2.0 Subnet — with six specialized sub-networks for data validation, policy enforcement, auditsurveillance, subnet mining, sovereign identity, and ethical oversight.Philosophically, ONU 2.0 is grounded in the C/Z duality of the Arkhe(n) framework:governance as the projection of the field of possibility (C-domain: policy intent, legal norms,stakeholder consensus) into the field of actuality (Z-domain: executed transactions,immutable audit records, on-chain commitments). The Kuramoto coherence layeroperationalizes this philosophical premise — network governance achieves legitimacy whenthe synchronization of operator nodes crosses the critical threshold phi_c = 0.618.
Patrick Spiesberger, Nils Henrik Beyer, Hannes Hartenstein
Ethereum's ideal of censorship resistance, together with related fairness properties, is undermined in practice, motivating fairness mechanisms that aim to restore these properties. Several of these mechanisms hand control over block contents to a committee of proposers under a 1-of-n honest assumption: at least one committee member complies with the mechanism even when deviating would increase personal revenue. We refer to such proposers as altruistic. Yet prior work shows that roughly 91 percent of blocks are constructed by centralized block-building services that demonstrably take user-adverse actions for financial gain; the responsible proposers sign these blocks blindly, without any means of intervention. A common reading of this figure is that 9 percent of proposers forgo these gains and act altruistically. Our empirical analysis of the full year 2025 shows that this share is far smaller: at most 1.55 percent of proposers can plausibly be regarded as altruistic, whereas the remaining 98.45 percent of proposers exhibit observable non-altruistic behavior. We interpret 1.55 percent as an upper bound on the prevalence of altruistic proposers. These results imply that committee-based fairness mechanisms that rely on altruistic members would require substantially larger committees than currently proposed. This raises concerns about their practical viability and motivates mechanisms in which fair behavior is the rational choice.
The increasing deployment of agentic artificial intelligence (AI) systems and decentralized digital infrastructures has challenged traditional assumptions about organizational administration, control, and governance. While AI has advanced task-level optimization and decision support, administrative functions such as coordination, compliance, and accountability remain largely centralized and dependent on humans. This paper introduces Autonomous Administrative Intelligence (AAI), a governance-aware AI capability that enables autonomous agents to execute and adapt administrative decisions within strategically defined constraints and decentralized governance mechanisms. Building on the Strategic Decentralized Resilience–AI (SDRT-AI) framework, the study develops a layered architecture and operational flow integrating agentic decision-making, governance-aware learning, and protocol-based validation. The proposed framework explains how strategic intent, organizational capabilities, and decentralized trust jointly enable scalable administrative autonomy while preserving accountability and control. By reframing administration as an AI-mediated governance process, this paper extends research on agentic AI and contributes to administrative science by providing a conceptual foundation for the design and governance of autonomous administrative systems in decentralized organizations.
This study examines how Decentralized Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) could be incorporated into municipal administration to improve citizen participation and transparency. As DAOs in governance are attracting growing academic and practical attention, this research uses scenarios to analyze the conditions for their application at municipal and regional levels. It takes a conceptual, scenario-based approach to develop a model for DAO-based e-participation, identifying key concepts and their relationships to explain how DAOs operate as self-regulated systems for digital participation. The research is structured into three phases: First, in the foundational phase, this study synthesizes existing research on DAOs and participatory governance models, contrasting blockchain-based and traditional processes to establish a framework for DAO integration. Second, the application phase uses illustrative scenarios to explore how DAO mechanisms might influence participation and decision-making in municipalities. Third, the evaluation and recommendation phase consolidates insights into a structured model for implementation, highlighting task characteristics, contextual conditions, and organizational capacities that shape DAO feasibility. The analysis suggest that DAOs may enable new forms of participation and more transparent procedures, but only when antecedent conditions such as digital literacy, administrative capacity, and infrastructure stability are sufficiently met. Future work should look at long-term effects, compare cases across municipalities, and examine the role of legal and regulatory frameworks.