• Deregtech: Using Technology to Deregulate the Economy

    Originally a post at Cryptoeconomics with Chris Berg and Aaron M Lane. The Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants to make deregulation and cutting red tape the centrepiece of the COVID-19 economic recovery. This focus is not just welcome, but essential. Entrepreneurs need room to experiment with new business models without being held back by unnecessary rules…

  • Solving blockchain smart contract disputes

    Originally published at Machine Lawyering with Aaron M Lane and Marta Poblet. Blockchain-enabled smart contracts can change how we exchange value over the internet. We now have the technology to code agreements into blockchain protocols, enabling those agreements to self-execute when particular conditions are met. This execution happens without relying on centralized intermediaries—such as banks…

  • How to Unfreeze the Post-Pandemic Economy

    Originally published at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) with Aaron M. Lane. Right now, economies around the world are frozen in an attempt to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments have pulled every policy lever to keep it that way, for the time being, to limit the spread of the virus. Many people think…

  • Unfreeze: How to Create a High Growth Economy After the Pandemic

    Book published with the American Institute for Economic Research (with Chris Berg, Sinclair Davidson, Aaron M Lane and Jason Potts) We spell out the policy settings necessary for the rapid adaptation and market re-coordination that is required to resuscitate the economy. We explain why a return to business as usual is simply not enough to…

  • The Governance of Blockchain Dispute Resolution

    Published in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review (together with Aaron M Lane and Marta Poblet). Abstract: Blockchain technology acts as infrastructure for self-executing smart contracts. Because contracts are incomplete and some parties are opportunistic, these new contracting possibilities have created challenges of dispute resolution. For instance, will smart contracts be recognised, and any disputes resolved,…

  • Blockchain Governance: What We Can Learn from the Economics of Corporate Governance

    Published in the Journal of the British Blockchain Association (with Chris Berg). Abstract: Understanding the complexities of blockchain governance is urgent. The aim of this paper is to draw on other theories of governance to provide insight into the design of blockchain governance mechanisms. We define blockchain governance as the processes by which stakeholders (those…

  • Blockchain and Investment: An Austrian Approach

    Published in the Review of Austrian Economics (with Chris Berg, Sinclair Davidson and Jason Potts). Abstract: Investment is a function of expected profit, which involves calculation of the cost of trust. Blockchain technology is a new institutional technology (Davidson et al 2018) that industrialises trust (Berg et al 2018). We therefore expect that the adoption…

  • Blockchain and the Evolution of Institutional Technologies: Implications for Innovation Policy

    Published in Research Policy (with Chris Berg, Brendan Markey-Towler, Mikayla Novak and Jason Potts) Abstract: For the past century economists have proposed a suite of theories relating to industrial dynamics, technological change and innovation. There has been an implication in these models that the institutional environment is stable. However, a new class of institutional technologies — most…

  • Governing the Entrepreneurial Discovery of Blockchain Applications

    Published in the Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy Abstract: This paper examines the institutional context of the entrepreneurial discovery of blockchain applications. It draws on institutional and entrepreneurial theory to introduce the economic problem entrepreneurship in the early stages of new technologies, examines the diversity of self-governed hybrid solutions to coordinating entrepreneurial information, and…

  • Backing blockchain with strong policy

    [This article was published at Policy Forum] Blockchain technology offers several benefits for the world’s industries and supply chains, but as investment grows, there must be a simultaneous increase in robust international policy coordination, Darcy Allen writes. Blockchain technology will bring the next wave of globalisation by radically upgrading the world’s trade infrastructure.

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