It is generally agreed that permissioned blockchains can improve on the operational cost and performance of permissionless blockchains, but it is usually assumed that this improvement comes at the cost of transaction security, especially in low-trust environments. We develop a model of...

In this commentary, we argue that studies similar to Cennamo, Marchesi, and Meyer (2020) should distinguish four dimensions of control in blockchain governance, all of which could be more or less decentralized. For some of these dimensions, decentralization is likely beneficial, while for others...

The technology behind blockchain has attracted a lot of attention. However, this technology is for the most part not well understood. There is no consensus on what benefits it may bring or on how it may fail. A careful look into the technology finds that most of the proposed benefits of so...

Blockchain technologies are designed to promote decentralization and self-governance in economic and social settings. In the context of platforms, an early claim of some proponents of these technologies was that blockchains would promote disintermediation, replacing intermediaries with...

The development of Blockchains technologies, including smart contracts and cryptographic tokens, have a potential to change the competition between platforms. In this presentation, based on a couple of projects, I discuss how utility tokens can help new platforms enter the market, and how...

Permissionless blockchain systems inspired by Bitcoin and related crypto-ecosystems are frequently promoted as the enablers of an open, distributed, and decentralized ideal. They are hailed as a solution that can “democratize” the world by creating a technological imperative favoring open,...

Since its launch in 2009 much has been written about Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchains. While the discussions initially took place mostly on blogs and other popular media, we now are witnessing the emergence of a growing body of rigorous academic research on these topics. By the nature...

Since its launch in 2009 much has been written about Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchains. While the discussions initially took place mostly on blogs and other popular media, we now are witnessing the emergence of a growing body of rigorous academic research on these topics. By the nature...

In recent years, the designs of many new blockchain applications have been inspired by the Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) problem. While traditional BFT protocols assume that most system nodes are honest (in that they follow the protocol), we recognize that blockchains are deployed in...