This volume brings together a multidisciplinary group of scholars from diverse fields including computer science, engineering, archival science, law, business, psychology, economics, medicine and more to discuss the trade-offs between different “layers” in designing the use of blockchain/Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for social trust, trust in data and records, and trust in systems.
Blockchain technology has emerged as a solution to the problem of trust in data and records, as well as trust in social, political and economic institutions, due to its profound potential as a digital trust infrastructure. Blockchain is a DLT in which confirmed and validated sets of transactions are stored in blocks that are chained together to make tampering more difficult and render records immutable.
This book is dedicated to exploring and disseminating the latest findings on the relationships between socio-political and economic data, record-keeping, and technical aspects of blockchain.
Part I: Introduction: Theorizing from Multidisciplinary Perspectives on
the Design of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Systems.- Blockchain
Governance: De Facto (x)or Designed?.- Incentives to Engage Blockchain and
Ecosystem Actors.- Balancing Security - A Moving Target.- Distributing and
Democratizing Institutional Power Through Decentralization.- Blockchains and
Provenance: How a Technical System for Tracing Origins, Ownership and
Authenticity Can Transform Social Trust.- Part II: Conclusion: Theorizing
from Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Design of Blockchain and
Distributed Ledger Systems.
Victoria Lemieux is an Associate Professor of Archival Science at the School of Information and lead of the blockchain research cluster Blockchain@UBC at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Her current research focuses on risks concerning the availability of trustworthy records, in particular in blockchain record-keeping systems, and how these risks affect transparency, financial stability, public accountability and human rights. She holds a PhD in Archival Studies from the University College London, UK.
Chen Feng received his PhD in Engineering from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 2014. He was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow with Boston University, USA, and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland. He joined the School of Engineering, University of British Columbia, Canada, in 2015, where he is currently an Assistant Professor. His primary research interest is in coding theory and its applicationsin various fields, ranging from wireless communications to quantum communications, and from communication networks to blockchain technologies.
