The BlockchainGov Newsletter #15 | September Monthly Report

Welcome back to BlockchainGov’s monthly report! After a month's break, we are back covering the release of Blockchain Governance, the new book by Primavera de Filippi, Morshed Mannan, and Wessel Reijers. Plus, our researchers’ participation in various events, and some reading suggestions!

???I. Research

We are happy to celebrate the release of Blockchain Governance - the new volume by Primavera de Filippi, Wessel Reijers, and Morshed Mannan, edited on the MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series. The book results from years of extensive research in blockchain technologies and communities and reads like an excellent introduction to Blockchain Gov’s research work on decentralized governance.

“How can digital cash truly be “trustless”? What does it mean that blockchain offers a new paradigm of the “rule of code”? How are decisions made when a blockchain system faces an emergency, and who gets to make those decisions? In Blockchain Governance, Primavera De Filippi, Wessel Reijers, and Morshed Mannan offer answers to these questions and more, in an accessible, critical overview of legal and political issues related to blockchain technology, now the foundation of a multi-billion-dollar industry. Moving beyond the hype, they show how blockchain offers fertile ground for experimentation with radically new ways to govern people and institutions.”

The book was recently presented at EUI in Florence and discussed in an online Metagov Seminar, that you can rewatch here. Expect more presentations and book discussions coming in the next months! Buy the book at this link and find the audiobook version on Audible.

Two new papers came out this month!

• "The unusual DAO: An ethnography of building trust in “trustless” spaces" by Tara Merk - The article investigates #DAOs as a potential policy response to the issue of declining trust online – arguing that the affordances of DAOs can be expanded to encompass both “trustless” organization and trusted online communities. Tara analyzes the case of the blockchain art collective DADA as an ethnographic case study to exemplify how DAOs may be designed differently to allow for trust to emerge.

• "From Digital Humanitarianism to Crypto-Humanitarianism" by Morshed Mannan - Drawing from Fleur Johns's work, Morshed's article explores how crypto has supported humanitarian efforts, from conflict zones to the COVID-19 pandemic.

???II. Events

In September, our researchers contributed to talks and presentations around the world.

Jamilya Kamalova presented her PhD research on Decentralized Justice at the Critical Legal Conference in Lund, Sweden and she loved the “nordic” way of conferencing.

In Berlin, Tara Merk participated in the panel discussion on “Blockchain: Hype or Revolution?” by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Sofia Cossar and Morshed Mannan participated in the New Network Sovereignties & Digital Commons as part of the Science Summit from the UN. The Science Summit is “a comprehensive exploration of how digital tools, citizen science, participatory governance, and artificial intelligence can shape the future of science and public policy”.

???III. What are we reading

• The Digital Republic: On Freedom and Democracy in the 21st Century (Jamie Susskind): In The Digital Republic, acclaimed author Jamie Susskind examines the failures of our societies to govern technology properly. The book offers a plan for the digital age: new legal standards, new public bodies and institutions, new duties on platforms, new rights and regulators, new codes of conduct for people in the tech industry. Inspired by the great political essays of the past, and steeped in the traditions of republican thought, it offers a vision of a different type of society: a digital republic in which human and technological flourishing go hand in hand.
• Taming the Octopus: The Long Battle for the Soul of the Corporation (Kyle Edward Williams): This book explores the rise and fall of corporate social responsibility in America, from the Progressive Era to modern-day "stakeholder capitalism." The book explores how New Deal regulations, like the SEC, inadvertently shifted corporate focus toward shareholder profits, while contrasting the approaches of socially conscious "business statesmen" with libertarian thinkers like Milton Friedman. An intriguing perspective to understand the relationship between crypto-companies and social responsiblity.
• ‘We’re Living in a Nightmare:’ Inside the Health Crisis of a Texas Bitcoin Town (Andrew R. Chow): This Time’s piece sparked discussion within our group as it portrays the horrible impact of Bitcoin mining in Granbury, Texas. A must read.