IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v11y2021i1p21582440211002526.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When Ostrom Meets Blockchain: Exploring the Potentials of Blockchain for Commons Governance

Author

Listed:
  • David Rozas
  • Antonio Tenorio-Fornés
  • Silvia Díaz-Molina
  • Samer Hassan

Abstract

Blockchain technologies have generated enthusiasm, yet their potential to enable new forms of governance remains largely unexplored. Two confronting standpoints dominate the emergent debate around blockchain-based governance: discourses characterized by the presence of techno-determinist and market-driven values, which tend to ignore the complexity of social organization; and critical accounts of such discourses which, while contributing to identifying limitations, consider the role of traditional centralized institutions as inherently necessary to enable democratic forms of governance. In this article, we draw on Ostrom’s principles for self-governance of communities to explore the transformative potential of blockchain beyond such standpoints. We approach blockchain through the identification and conceptualization of six affordances that this technology may provide to communities: tokenization, self-enforcement and formalization of rules, autonomous automatization, decentralization of power over the infrastructure, increasing transparency, and codification of trust. For each affordance, we carry out a detailed analysis situating each in the context of Ostrom’s principles, considering both the potentials of algorithmic governance and the importance of incorporating communities’ social practices into blockchain-based tools to foster forms of self-governance. The relationships found between these affordances and Ostrom’s principles allow us to provide a perspective focused on blockchain-based commons governance.

Suggested Citation

  • David Rozas & Antonio Tenorio-Fornés & Silvia Díaz-Molina & Samer Hassan, 2021. "When Ostrom Meets Blockchain: Exploring the Potentials of Blockchain for Commons Governance," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440211, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:1:p:21582440211002526
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440211002526
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440211002526
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440211002526?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. De Filippi, Primavera & Loveluck, Benjamin, 2016. "The invisible politics of Bitcoin: governance crisis of a decentralised infrastructure," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 5(3), pages 1-28.
    2. Pazaitis, Alex & De Filippi, Primavera & Kostakis, Vasilis, 2017. "Blockchain and value systems in the sharing economy: The illustrative case of Backfeed," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 105-115.
    3. Alex Pazaitis & Primavera De Filippi & Vasilis Kostakis, 2017. "Blockchain and Value Systems in the Sharing Economy: The Illustrative Case of Backfeed," The Other Canon Foundation and Tallinn University of Technology Working Papers in Technology Governance and Economic Dynamics 73, TUT Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance.
    4. Alex Pazaitis & Primavera de Filippi & Vasilis Kostakis, 2017. "Blockchain and value systems in the sharing economy: The illustrative case of Backfeed," Post-Print hal-01676881, HAL.
    5. Harris, Colin, 2018. "Institutional solutions to free-riding in peer-to-peer networks: a case study of online pirate communities," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(5), pages 901-924, October.
    6. Mateos-Garcia, Juan & Steinmueller, W. Edward, 2008. "The institutions of open source software: Examining the Debian community," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 333-344, December.
    7. Lo, Yuen C. & Medda, Francesca, 2020. "Assets on the blockchain: An empirical study of Tokenomics," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    8. Davidson, Sinclair & De Filippi, Primavera & Potts, Jason, 2018. "Blockchains and the economic institutions of capitalism," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 639-658, August.
    9. Elinor Ostrom, 2000. "Collective Action and the Evolution of Social Norms," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 137-158, Summer.
    10. Lin William Cong & Ye Li & Neng Wang, 2021. "Tokenomics: Dynamic Adoption and Valuation [The demand of liquid assets with uncertain lumpy expenditures]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(3), pages 1105-1155.
    11. Marten Risius & Kai Spohrer, 2017. "A Blockchain Research Framework," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 59(6), pages 385-409, December.
    12. David Rozas & Steven Huckle, 2021. "Loosen control without losing control: Formalization and decentralization within commons‐based peer production," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(2), pages 204-223, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Geetika Jain & Archana Shrivastava & Justin Paul & Ronak Batra, 2022. "Blockchain for SME Clusters: An Ideation using the Framework of Ostrom Commons Governance," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1125-1143, August.
    2. Cristina Viano & Sowelu Avanzo & Monica Cerutti & Alex Cordero & Claudio Schifanella & Guido Boella, 2022. "Blockchain tools for socio-economic interactions in local communities [Blockchain-based smart contracts: A systematic mapping study]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(3), pages 373-385.
    3. Amina Rizwan & Faisal Mustafa, 2022. "Fintech Attaining Sustainable Development: An Investor Perspective of Crowdfunding Platforms in a Developing Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-17, June.
    4. Santana, Carlos & Albareda, Laura, 2022. "Blockchain and the emergence of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs): An integrative model and research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    5. Karl Oton Rudolf & Samer Ajour El Zein & Nicola Jackman Lansdowne, 2021. "Bitcoin as an Investment and Hedge Alternative. A DCC MGARCH Model Analysis," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-22, August.
    6. Silvia Semenzin & David Rozas & Samer Hassan, 2022. "Blockchain-based application at a governmental level: disruption or illusion? The case of Estonia [A systematic analysis of applications of blockchain in healthcare]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(3), pages 386-401.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dulani Jayasuriya Daluwathumullagamage & Alexandra Sims, 2021. "Fantastic Beasts: Blockchain Based Banking," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-43, April.
    2. Santana, Carlos & Albareda, Laura, 2022. "Blockchain and the emergence of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs): An integrative model and research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    3. Plinio Limata, 2020. "Blockchain and Institutions (I): trust and (de)centralization," CERBE Working Papers wpC35, CERBE Center for Relationship Banking and Economics.
    4. Tandon, Anushree & Kaur, Puneet & Mäntymäki, Matti & Dhir, Amandeep, 2021. "Blockchain applications in management: A bibliometric analysis and literature review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    5. Maria J. Pouri & Lorenz M. Hilty, 2018. "Conceptualizing the Digital Sharing Economy in the Context of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-19, November.
    6. Pólvora, Alexandre & Nascimento, Susana & Lourenço, Joana S. & Scapolo, Fabiana, 2020. "Blockchain for industrial transformations: A forward-looking approach with multi-stakeholder engagement for policy advice," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    7. Kowalski, Michał & Lee, Zach W.Y. & Chan, Tommy K.H., 2021. "Blockchain technology and trust relationships in trade finance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    8. Plinio Limata, 2019. "Blockchains’ twilight zones. A reasoned literature review for a critical primer," Econometica Working Papers wp76, Econometica.
    9. Emmanuelle Reuter, 2022. "Hybrid business models in the sharing economy: The role of business model design for managing the environmental paradox," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 603-618, February.
    10. Goldberg, Mitchell & Schär, Fabian, 2023. "Metaverse governance: An empirical analysis of voting within Decentralized Autonomous Organizations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    11. Lee, Jei Young, 2019. "A decentralized token economy: How blockchain and cryptocurrency can revolutionize business," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 62(6), pages 773-784.
    12. Islam, A.K.M. Najmul & Mäntymäki, Matti & Turunen, Marja, 2019. "Why do blockchains split? An actor-network perspective on Bitcoin splits," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    13. Kajikawa, Yuya & Mejia, Cristian & Wu, Mengjia & Zhang, Yi, 2022. "Academic landscape of Technological Forecasting and Social Change through citation network and topic analyses," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    14. Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar & Shauhrat S. Chopra, 2022. "Leveraging Blockchain and Smart Contract Technologies to Overcome Circular Economy Implementation Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-18, August.
    15. Jaković Božidar & Ćurlin Tamara & Miloloža Ivan, 2021. "Enterprise Digital Divide: Website e-Commerce Functionalities among European Union Enterprises," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 197-215, May.
    16. Friedman, Nicola & Ormiston, Jarrod, 2022. "Blockchain as a sustainability-oriented innovation?: Opportunities for and resistance to Blockchain technology as a driver of sustainability in global food supply chains," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    17. Fernandes, Bruno & Chimenti, Paula & Nogueira, Roberto, 2020. "A taxonomy of initiatives at work in the sharing economy," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 81-86.
    18. Assen Slim, 2021. "Will the BRICS Be the Leaders in Central Bank Digital Currencies?," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 3, pages 3-16.
    19. Anna Adamik & Michał Nowicki & Andrius Puksas, 2022. "Energy Oriented Concepts and Other SMART WORLD Trends as Game Changers of Co-Production—Reality or Future?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-38, June.
    20. Klarin, Anton, 2020. "The decade-long cryptocurrencies and the blockchain rollercoaster: Mapping the intellectual structure and charting future directions," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:1:p:21582440211002526. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.