A trustless society? A political look at the blockchain vision

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the blockchain's promise to create a trustless society, arguing that it shifts rather than eliminates power centers and does not replace traditional political or democratic regulation.

Contribution

It provides a political analysis showing that blockchain technology does not reduce central authority but redistributes it, questioning its societal benefits.

Findings

Blockchain shifts power rather than eliminates it

Current applications do not solve real-world problems

Research on blockchain's societal impact should be reconsidered

Abstract

A lot of business and research effort currently deals with the so called decentralised ledger technology blockchain. Putting it to use carries the tempting promise to make the intermediaries of social interactions superfluous and furthermore keep secure track of all interactions. Currently intermediaries such as banks and notaries are necessary and must be trusted, which creates great dependencies, as the financial crisis of 2008 painfully demonstrated. Especially banks and notaries are said to become dispensable as a result of using the blockchain. But in real-world applications of the blockchain, the power of central actors does not dissolve, it only shifts to new, democratically illegitimate, uncontrolled or even uncontrollable power centers. As interesting as the blockchain technically is, it doesn't efficiently solve any real-world problem and is no substitute for traditional political processes or democratic regulation of power. Research efforts investigating the blockchain should be halted.