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2021 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

2. Blockchain Governance: De Facto (x)or Designed?

Authors : Darra Hofman, Quinn DuPont, Angela Walch, Ivan Beschastnikh

Published in: Building Decentralized Trust

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Governance of blockchain technologies has not been historically prioritized beyond technological dimensions, and relatively little literature exists on the prescriptive governance of blockchain platforms. Existing governance frameworks, such as IT governance, may not be suitable or easily applied to the novel context of blockchain; instead, the authors of this chapter argue it may be more appropriate to adopt a grounded approach to the development of governance theory for blockchains. Situating their discussion of blockchain governance within existing, external power structures—legal, political, economic, environmental, and social—the authors outline an internal governance framework for the blockchain system itself. Taking an inclusive, question-led approach, this internal governance framework aims to ensure that areas of risk are identified, and determine how conflict and crisis related to blockchain technology—and blockchain-enabled forms of organization and interactions—can be handled.

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Footnotes
1
Some examples of work that discuss blockchain governance prescriptively include DuPont (2019) and Hofman et al. (2019).
 
2
It’s not.
 
Literature
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go back to reference Walch, A. (2019a). In code(rs) we trust: Software developers as fiduciaries in public blockchains. In I. Lianos, P. Hacker, G. Dimitripolous, & S. Eich (Eds.), Regulating blockchain: Techno-social and legal challenges (pp. 58–81). Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef Walch, A. (2019a). In code(rs) we trust: Software developers as fiduciaries in public blockchains. In I. Lianos, P. Hacker, G. Dimitripolous, & S. Eich (Eds.), Regulating blockchain: Techno-social and legal challenges (pp. 58–81). Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef
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Metadata
Title
Blockchain Governance: De Facto (x)or Designed?
Authors
Darra Hofman
Quinn DuPont
Angela Walch
Ivan Beschastnikh
Copyright Year
2021
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54414-0_2

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