Objectives and research questions

The objectives of the Distributing Chains research project are:

  • Map areas of agreement, contestation and uncertainty within the blockchain communities in terms of political purpose and potential
  • Trace claims of politically determining factors of the technology from decision-making through to their uses and effects
  • Produce an overview and analysis of political formations that are being articulated with and through the blockchain technology

Research questions:

  1. How do the developers and users of new applications of blockchain understand, represent and seek to shape the political implications of the technology in terms of authority, trust and consensus?
  2. Which are the agencies, assigned and actual, in the blockchain assemblage? what difference do they produce and what political effects do they have?
  3. What are the political differences between blockchain applications, and where and how are do these come to matter?