The promise & peril of blockchain governance—w/ Dr. Nick Cowen, University of Lincoln

The American Constitution provides the ‘nuts and bolts of liberty,’ putting constraints on the government and promising equality before the law. But the challenge is that it relies on state officials to enforce the law impartially. What if the blockchain could help us avoid these human-level implementation problems and effectively automate some features of our bureaucracy? Dr. Nick Cowen is a lecturer in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Lincoln and the author of the paper, ‘Markets for Rules: The Promise and Peril of Blockchain Distributed Governance.’ Today, Nick is back to discuss the potential benefits of blockchain governance structures, including the ability to apply law impartially and reduce censorship. He explores the idea of consent as it applies to the blockchain and explains how the technology prevents the off-diagonals that manifest out of subsidiarity. Nick weighs in on whether the blockchain will become a competition to be the best or the most permissive and describes how the technology might influence our political systems—and vice versa. Listen in for Nick’s insight around the application of civil versus common law traditions via the blockchain and learn how we can leverage blockchain technology for environmental governance. Resources Purchase Nori Carbon Removals Nori Nori on Twitter Carbon Removal Newsroom Nori on Patreon Nick’s Website Nick on Academia Nick on SSRN Nick on Twitter ‘Markets for Rules: The Promise and Peril of Blockchain Distributed Governance’ by Nick Cowen Ethereum John Rawls John Locke Quill Robinson on RCC S2EP18 Tax Justice Network Ozark James M. Buchanan Adam Smith Being Me Being You: Adam Smith and Empathy by Samuel Fleischacker Alan Partridge Dr. Anton Howes on Twitter Ilia Murtazashvili