04.07.2019
Institutional Cryptoeconomics: Understanding the Blockchain Economy
Main event: Lectures "WIFO-Extern"
Persons:
Jason Potts
Language: Englisch
Österreichisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
Blockchains are a new digital technology that combines peer-to-peer network computing and cryptography to create an immutable decentralised public ledger. When the ledger records money, a blockchain is a cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin. But ledger entries can record any data structure, including property titles, identity and certification, contracts, and so on. I argue that the economics of blockchains extend beyond analysis of a new general-purpose technology and its disruptive Schumpeterian consequences to the broader idea that blockchains are an institutional technology, and an instance of institutional evolution. I propose a transaction cost based model of blockchains as a three-sided market. I will explain why blockchain technology is the foundation of next generation digital economic infrastructure for global trade and commerce.