Moderated by Eric Alston, University of Colorado
Organized by Eric Alston, Marcela Gomez, Ilia Murtazashvili, and Martin Weiss
This seminar features research on the frontiers of digital governance. How are our digital communities governed? How should they be governed? The seminar considers several specific governance questions implicated by blockchain (and major cryptocurrencies), and further extends to governance of digital communities more generally, including how and where they intersect with our real world communities.
An increasingly digital world is one whose digital institutions will only grow in terms of their real-world economic and social significance. Institutional and technological innovations like blockchain suggest immense promise (and disruption) to the forms of governance with which we are most familiar, and present a possible path forward for governing ourselves digitally. Nonetheless, digital governance presents many challenges to individuals and institutional practitioners in terms of how to obtain the efficiencies long provided by real-world institutions like default rules and relational contracting, both concepts that do not readily translate to the realm of automated governance by protocol. The one-hour seminar includes a 35-minute presentation by the author followed by 25 minutes for questions and discussion.
How Might We Govern Ourselves Digitally - Roundtable Discussion, November 4, 2020
Faculty affiliates of the Center for Governance and Markets conducted a roundtable discussion surrounding key themes and implications emerging from the Networked Governance seminar series.
Governance in Digitalized Electricity Systems: The Economics of Transactive Energy, October 28, 2020
Professor Kiesling (Carnegie Mellon University), with her colleague Dave Chassin, presented on the potential for transactive energy to create more efficient electricity usage and distribution.
The Rule of Code: Challenges in Regulating Decentralized Blockchain-based Systems, October 23, 2020
Professor Wright presented on the emerging regulatory challenges surrounding public blockchains.
The Siren Song: Algorithmic Governance By Blockchain, October 7, 2020
Professor argued that for blockchain-based networks and related services to succeed at scale, they must directly engage with governance issues
Admins, Mods, & Benevolent Dictators for Life: The Implicit Feudalism, October 2, 2020
Professor Schneider presented on how implicit feudalism came to dominate online communities and discussed potentially better models of governance, including the current space for creative innovation.
Capitalism after Satoshi: On the Economic Organization of a Digital Economy, September 30, 2020
Professor Potts illustrated how a blockchain economy destroys a corporate economy in the same way that a market economy destroyed the feudal economy.
Digital Decentralization by Design: Escaping the Paradox of Power, September 23, 2020
Professor Cowen (University of Lincoln, UK) presented on political economic questions associated with networks involving blockchain.
Is Bitcoin a Decentralized Payment Mechanism?, September 16, 2020
William Luther (Florida Atlantic University) explains why bitcoin is best understood as a distributed payment mechanism, processed on a shared ledger maintained by its users.
The Competitive Governance of Units of Account in the 21st Century, August 14, 2020
Professor White discussed the emergence of the modern monetary system with a focus on the historical development of units of account and media of exchange.