The Logics of Technology Decentralization - The Case of Distributed Ledger Technologies
Bodó, B., & Giannopoulou, A. The Logics of Technology Decentralization: the Case of Distributed Ledger Technologies. In M. Ragnedda, & G. Destefanis (Eds.), Blockchain and Web 3.0: Social, Economic, and Technological Challenges Routledge, Forthcoming
Amsterdam Law School Research Paper No. 2019-05
Institute for Information Law Research Paper No. 2019-02
17 Pages Posted: 8 Feb 2019 Last revised: 2 Dec 2019
Date Written: February 7, 2019
Abstract
Decentralization is heralded as the most important technological design aspect of distributed ledger technologies (DLTs). In this chapter we’ll analyze the concept of decentralization, with the goal to understand the social, legal, economic forces that produce more or less decentralized techno-social systems. We first give an overview of decentralization as a political ideology, and as an ideal and natural end-point in the development of digital technologies. We then move beyond this discourse and treat decentralization, its extent, its mode, the systems which it can refer to as the products of particular economic, political, social dynamics around and within these techno-social systems. We then point at the concrete forces that shape the actual degree of (de)centralization. Through this, we show that the extent to which a techno-social system is (de)centralized at any given moment should not be measured by its distance from an ideological ideal of total decentralization, but should be seen as the sum of all the social, economic, political, legal forces that impact a techno-social system.
Keywords: decentralization, law, technology regulation, distributed ledger technology, information law
JEL Classification: K42
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation