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Blockchain’s future: can the decentralized blockchain community succeed in creating standards?

Part of: Distributed Ledger Technologies: Papers Arising from Three Australian Symposia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2020

John Flood Open the ORCID record for John Flood [Opens in a new window]  and
Adrian McCullagh
John Flood
Affiliation:
Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Nathan, QLD4111, Australia UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies, University College London, Gower Street, Bloomsbury, LondonWC1E 6BT, United Kingdom; e-mail: j.flood@griffith.edu.au
Adrian McCullagh
Affiliation:
Odmob Lawyers, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Law Futures Centre, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD4111, Australia; e-mail: amccullagh@odmoblawyers.com
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Abstract

Nakamoto proposed a new solution to transact value via the internet. And since 2009, blockchain technology has expanded and diversified. It has, however, proven to be inefficient in the way it achieves its outcomes, especially through the proof of work protocol. Other developers are promoting alternative methods but, as yet, none has superseded proof of work. The competing protocols illuminate a key feature of the blockchain community, namely, its inability to create consensus in a decentralized community. Because of this lack of consensus, the formation of standards is particularly difficult to achieve. At best standards are contested sites, and we examine three such sites where some form of agreement over standards will be essential if blockchain is to evolve successfully. These three sites are blockchain governance, smart contracts, and interoperability of blockchains. We argue that because standards’ formation is a contested and contingent process, the blockchain community will persist in creating difficulties and barriers for itself until it is able to resolve internal conflicts.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Knowledge Engineering Review , Volume 35 , 2020 , e2
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2020

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