Liquid delegation is a collective decision-making mechanism that combines direct participation with representation. The core idea is simple: every voter can either vote directly on a given question or delegate their voting power to others, while maintaining the right to revoke their delegation at any time. Although invented already in…

To understand Web3, one needs to recognize not only how it aims to differ from the previous generation of web-based services, but also the functional equivalence between traditional and digital bureaucratization, or manual vs. automated bureaucracies. Both are based on formal rules of procedure (protocol) but whereas the former relies…

I have previously categorized ’crypto’ — a catch-all for blockchain- and Web3-related innovation — as part of the Digital Revolution that started around the late 1960s to early 1970s with the invention of packet switched networks, microprocessors, and other digital technologies that enabled the proliferation of personal computers and the…

The term ’institutional isomorphism’ refers to similarities in the structure and processes of independent organizations in a particular field. In the past, the spread of information and the adoption of similar practices was slower and often limited to organizations within a single country or region. But in the newly emerging…

Computer software is arguably one of the most impactful technologies of our time. Over the past few decades, major changes in daily habits, social organization, and wealth distribution have been triggered by software innovations, and everything suggests there’s more to come. One way to categorize software-based services is how decentralized…

Introduction Financial speculation and risk-taking are essential features of all monetary economies in which the distribution of profits is determined by the ‘independent’ decision-making of individual buyers and sellers. History has shown that without appropriate rules, safeguards, and behavioral norms, financial markets become more prone to fraud, pro-cyclical excess, and crises…

Digital technology systems have emerged as one of the most important organizing structures of contemporary society. As a result, the challenge of governing society is increasingly overlapping with the challenge of governing digital technology, the scope of which is rapidly expanding through blockchain-related innovation and a general trend towards automation. …

Automation and Progress The history of technology can be viewed as the history of automation. A quote from more than a century ago by the philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead sums up nicely the connection between automation and progress: “Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform…

Based on my observations of ‘crypto’ over the past couple of years, I’ve put together a list of ten theses on decentralized network governance, including base layer public blockchain networks and applications (smart contracts) running on top of them. The ten ideas are listed from the more general and theoretical…