Librería Portfolio

Features

Contributors draw on a varied set of theories and methods to analyse how a range of actors, processes and issue areas are reframed, redefined, and reconstituted by blockchain technologies.

Primarily geared towards university professors and senior undergraduate and graduate students, this proposed book will be equally pertinent for policy-makers, industry practitioners and the general public.

Given the interdisciplinary perspectives provided, the book will also appeal to students and scholars in a range of disciplines including but also beyond GPE, from business and media studies to sociology and anthropology.

Blending theory and practical detail in manners that will be engaging and educational for non-experts, the book will provide new insights for those familiar with existing debates in global governance.

The book will have international appeal due to the very global nature of CC and the blockchain ecosystem.

Summary

Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009 several hundred different 'cryptocurrencies' have been developed and become accepted for a wide variety of transactions in leading online commercial marketplaces and the 'sharing economy', as well as by more traditional retailers, manufacturers, and even by charities and political parties.

Bitcoin and its competitors have also garnered attention for their wildly fluctuating values as well as implication in international money laundering, Ponzi schemes and online trade in illicit goods and services across borders. These and other controversies surrounding cryptocurrencies have induced varying governance responses by central banks, government ministries, international organizations, and industry regulators worldwide. Besides formal attempts to ban Bitcoin, there have been multifaceted efforts to incorporate elements of blockchains, the peer-to-peer technology underlying cryptocurrencies, in the wider exchange, recording, and broadcasting of digital transactions. Blockchains are being mobilized to support and extend an array of governance activities. The novelty and breadth of growing blockchain-based activities have fuelled both utopian promises and dystopian fears regarding applications of the emergent technology to Bitcoin and beyond.

This volume brings scholars of anthropology, economics, Science and Technology Studies, and sociology together with GPE scholars in assessing the actual implications posed by Bitcoin and blockchains for contemporary global governance. Its interdisciplinary contributions provide academics, policymakers, industry practitioners and the general public with more nuanced understandings of technological change in the changing character of governance within and across the borders of nation-states.



Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction: What are blockchains and how are they relevant to governance in the contemporary global political economy?

Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn


Chapter 2: Moneys at the Margins - From Political Experiment to Cashless Societies

Moritz Hütten and Matthias Thiemann

Chapter 3: The Internal and External Governance of Blockchain-Based Organisations: Evidence from Cryptocurrencies

Ying-Ying Hsieh, JP Vergne, and Sha Wang

Chapter 4: The Mutual Constitution of Technology and Global Governance: Bitcoin, Blockchains, and the International Anti-Money Laundering Regime

Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn and Marcel Goguen


Chapter 5: Between Liberalization and Prohibition: Prudent Enthusiasm and the Governance of Bitcoin/Blockchain Technology

Kai Jia and Falin Zhang

Chapter 6: Cryptocurrencies and Digital Payment Rails in Networked Global Governance: Perspectives on Inclusion and Innovation

Daivi Rodima-Taylor and William W. Grimes

Chapter 7: Governing What Wasn't Meant To Be Governed: A Controversy-Based Approach to the Study of Bitcoin Governance

Francesca Musiani, Alexandre Mallard and Cécile Méadel


Chapter 8: Experiments in Algorithmic Governance: A History and Ethnography of ´The DAO,´ a Failed Decentralized Autonomous Organization

Quinn DuPont

Chapter 9: Conclusion: Towards A Block Age or Blockages of Global Governance?

Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn