Blockchain and Supply Chains: V-form Organisations, Value Redistributions, De-commoditisation and Quality Proxies

We apply institutional cryptoeconomics to the information problems in global trade, model the Incentives under which blockchain-based supply chain infrastructure will be built, and make predictions about the future of supply chains. We argue blockchain will change the patterns and dynamics of how, where and what we trade by: (1) facilitating new forms of economic organisation governing supply chain coordination (such asthe V-form organisation); (2) decreasing information asymmetries and shifting economic power towards the ends of supply chains (e.g. primary producers); (3) changing the dimensions along which we can reliably differentiate goods and therefore de-commoditising goods and disaggregating price signals; and (4) decreasing consumerreliance on quality proxies (e.g. production within national borders)

Corporate Energy Transition: Legal Tools for Shifting Companies Towards Clean Energy Practices

This report presents the findings of an ARC funded Discovery Project, DP160100225, Devising a Legal Blueprint for Corporate Energy Transition (Peel, Osofsky & McDonnell, 2016-2020)

Blockchain and the evolution of institutional technologies: Implications for innovation policy

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 technologiesmost notably blockchain technologylower the cost of institutional entrepreneurship along these margins, propelling a process of institutional evolution. This presents a new type of innovation process, applicable to the formation and development of institutions for economic governance and coordination. This paper develops a replicator dynamic model of institutional innovation and proposes some implications of this innovation for innovation policy. Given the influence of public policies on transaction costs and associated institutional choices, it is indicated that policy settings conductive to the adoption and use of blockchain technology would elicit entrepreneurial experiments in institutional forms harnessing new coordinative possibilities in economic exchange. Conceptualisation of blockchain-related public policy an innovation policy in its own right has significant implications for the operation and understanding of open innovation systems in a globalised context

Blockchains as constitutional orders

Blockchains are the distributed ledger technology underpinning cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Blockchains facilitate exchange, provide public goods (security, property rights), map identities, and provide a platform for contracting and the enforcement of contracts. Some applications of blockchains offer the possibility of new forms of corporate organisationsuch as distributed autonomous organisations. Other applications suggest the possibility of removing public good provision from states to networkssuch as property titling and identity. This chapter offers a constitutional political economy perspective on the development of the blockchain ecosystem. We argue that blockchains are constitutional ordersrule-systems in which individuals (or firms, or algorithms) can make economic and political exchanges, and so offer a unique economic environment for institutional discovery and constitutional experimentation

Decentralized Energy Networks based on Blockchain: Background, Overview and Concept Discussion - BIS 2018 International Workshops, Berlin, Germany, July 18-20, 2018, Revised Papers

This paper provides a snapshot of the globally ongoing decentralization of (business) relations in the energy sector. This tendency can be observed in other domains as well and is accompanied by new digital technological developments. Blockchain technology is assigned disruptive potential when it comes to realize those decentralization ideas. This hype about Blockchain is mainly company-driven without a solid academic basis yet. The authors are currently involved in several research efforts for utilizing distributed energy resources like photovoltaic systems, batteries and electric cars for the setup of energy communities and marketplaces. The paper, therefore, presents detailed investigations of background and motivations for decentralization and the building of (local) energy communities and (peer-to-peer) marketplaces for sustainable utilization of renewable energies. An overview of recent related Blockchain-based works is presented, and the current state and feasibility for the realization of the envisioned decentralized solutions are discussed. In this way, the work aimed at contributing to a research-based decision foundation for upcoming Blockchain-based decentralization efforts