Blockchain as an Alternative Institutional System to the State
* Article: Anarchy, Blockchain and Utopia: A theory of political-socioeconomic systems organised using Blockchain. By Brendan Markey-Towler. Journal of the British Blockchain Association (The JBBA), Vol. 1, Issue 1, 201, March 19, 2018
Description
"In the next section, we will consider blockchain and how, as a distributed ledger technology, it provides a platform which might constitute the foundation of entire institutional systems which might compete with the state, and at the very least make exit from existing political-socioeconomic systems more feasible than ever before. We then investigate the dynamics of such a society as would be organised by blockchain by proposing a theory of society as an evolutionary system in which the unit of selection is an institutional system associated with a particular blockchain or the State ."
Abstract
"Blockchain technology makes it more feasible for individuals to exit political-socioeconomic systems at the level of the system itself and elect to accede freely to institutional systems which formulate, promulgate, keep and verify institutions and public records without a centralised authority. This essay investigates the dynamic of such a society in which political-socioeconomic systems may be organised using blockchain technology. We propose a theory of society as an evolutionary system in which the unit of selection is the institutional system associated with a particular blockchain or the state and selection pressures are applied by individuals deciding to interact within them and have their interactions entered into the public record. We establish the conditions under which institutions will thus be selected by considering the limits to substitutability and discover that any institutional system must meet requirements and provide sufficient complementarities in order to be selected and retained by the evolutionary process"