The Governance Gauge: Regulating Blockchain

We hope you’re enjoying your Sunday, and hope that this weekend’s Governance Gauge will get you ready for the coming week! For more reading materials, our reading list is constantly updated.

“Regulating Blockchain” is a work by Robert Herian of The Open University in the UK. The work primarily addresses the subjects of legal regulation following blockchain in the coming years, as this technology is posed to be ever-present much like the internet is today. The book’s tone sometimes sounds overly accepting of critical theory and similar schools of thought, but the arguments brought forward in the book are thought-provoking and relevant to discuss in the professional and academic spheres alike.

The book is split into 8 segments: blockchain, regulatory science, regulatory history, and blockchain as regulation. The latter 4 chapters offer a more critical theory analysis that isn’t as relevant to governance innovation.

Creators of zones and societies will find chapter 4 most relevant — as this chapter goes into the legal and economic consequences of “code-as-law” and how the interchangeability of code and law affect economic transactions.

Policymakers and analysts can take a look at chapters 2 and 3 for an examination of the recent developments in blockchain regulation, primarily in the jurisdictions of the UK and USA.

Scholars and experts might appreciate chapters 4 through 8, as they offer a theoretical and sociological examination of the previous 4 chapters which can give useful insight in the nature of blockchain in society.

The book can be found here.