We discuss several uses of blockchain (and, more generally, distributed ledger) technologies outside of cryptocurrencies with a pragmatic view. We mostly focus on three areas: the role of coin economies for what we refer to as data malls (specialized data marketplaces); data provenance (a...

Recently blockchain has emerged as a distributed ledger based platform, which has gained repute in the domain of cryptocurrency technology. The non-modifiable aspect of blockchain makes it a candidate to store the absolute truth that cannot be disputed. Additionally the distributed nature of...

This article introduces the symposium “Toward a Philosophy of Blockchain,” which provides a philosophical contemplation of blockchain technology, the digital ledger software underlying cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, for the secure transfer of money, assets, and information via the...

At the beginning of 2018, there is a growing belief that blockchain technologies constitute a revolutionary innovation in how we transfer value electronically. In that vein, blockchain may be a suitable complement to ontologies to achieve a big part of Tim Berners-Lee's vision of the semantic...

The tech is already complicated enough, and if the terminologies aren't understood or clarified, it will further compound the complexities in this nascent industry. Everyone needs to know about this revolutionary tech, and as participants of this beautiful ecosystem it is our responsibility to...

A basic problem in contracting is holdup: after one party has made relationship-specific investments, the other party refuses to perform unless the first one offers better terms than the original contract. Such renegotiation deters relationship-specific investments and reduces the value of trade...

Blockchain technology has come to most people's attention through Bitcoin as the leading cryptocurrency today. But the technology can be used for a lot of other applications as a way to store decentralized data and information. Blockchains are filing their records through a continuously growing...

In this note, I return to Coase (1937), on its 80th anniversary, to assess whether its logic and insight can be reconciled with the blockchain revolution. I argue that, indeed, it can, and propose the existence of a third method of organizing economic activity in a specialized exchange economy,...

This paper expounds the latest main regulatory projects and industry-wide consultations in the United States (US), in the European Union (EU) and in the main economic countries where distributed ledgers (thereafter, “Blockchain”) regulations have been discussed, proposed and/or adopted. In...