Shaping a DCent.Society: Assessing Societal Implications of Bitcoin, Blockchains & Smart Contracts

Abstract

The course investigates the long-term implications of decentralizing our societies through blockchain technology. Students critically reflect economic, political, ecological, and social implications of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency and the Ethereum smart contract platform including decentralized finance seen from economics, political science, psychology, sociology, and philosophy.

Objective

Explain the paradigm shift from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 Describe the design and emergent properties of decentralized systems Hypothesize about the economic, political, ecological, and social implications of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and decentralized finance Integrate ethical and governance considerations into the design of cryptoeconomic systems Justify own position about societal implications of the decentralization of society

Content

* What if Bitcoin, Ethereum, & Co. will be wildly successful and flourish long-term? * Which parts of our economies and societies would they affect? Could we indeed redesign our societies towards more sustainable action, more democratic governance, and more equitable finance by envisioning new ways of organizing, coordinating, and acting collectively? Or is this all make-belief because, after all, the Internet also under-delivered in important aspects of its huge promises? How can we critically reflect on the long-term implications of decentralizing technologies on our societies? * Bitcoin is dividing the world. Due to its erratic price movements, some view it as a useless Ponzi scheme at best and a state-interfering, finance-destabilizing "thing" at worst. Others, however herald it as the most important invention since the Internet or the printing press. In any case, the questions raised by Bitcoin are not only of academic interest: What is money? Is our money system the best possible? We organize everything democratically, why not money? Will Bitcoin supercharge renewable energy or do we need to switch it off to save the planet? Could it even bring peace by making wars unaffordable or is this a preposterous claim? * Ethereum and smart contracts, and decentralized applications seem to be less contentious and have caught the interest of companies and governments for their specific technical characteristics. However, where is the evidence that Decentralized Finance is beneficial outside a digital bubble of insiders? Will unstoppable algorithms empower us or create rigid machines steering our behavior? * What to make of this extremely polarized debate and how to come to reasonable own conclusions when imagining the decentralization of society? The course aims to connect the cultural and historical preconditions to the long-term societal implications of Bitcoin, Ethereum, smart contracts, and DeFi. We will research and critically reflect economic, political, ecological and ethical consequences with the aim to formulate our own informed opinions about what is currently happening and what might happen in the future. * To achieve this multi-disciplinary goal, we establish a common understanding of the technologies and inner workings of Bitcoin and Ethereum in the first part. We discuss selected aspects such as open source software, cryptography, cryptoeconomics, incentives, and complex systems. Why and how is Bitcoin a “trustless” system – or is it not? Why is an absolute scarce digital asset desirable – or is it not? Why and how is Ethereum a “world computer” – or is it not? Why is an unstoppable system of dApps and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) a big deal – or is it not? For a full picture, we will also examine other developments such as Decentralized Finance (DeFi), stablecoins, and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). * With this overview and background we will move to the main part of the course, in which we go into depth on the potential societal implications of Bitcoin, Ethereum & Co. We will be covering various domains such as our current and future money systems, freedom and control of transactions, incentive design & social behavior, sustainability & energy production, individual sovereignty & state control, democracy & geopolitics. We will thus be exploring connections between blockchain protocols and economics, political science, psychology, sociology, and philosophy. * Students are regularly invited to voice their views and debate in ad-hoc interventions. In teams, they build their own critical analysis and arguments about a specific issue chosen from a list of current topics. In the final part of the course, teams will present their conclusions in a thought-provoking report and defend it in a presentation, ideally causing reflection and debate among their peers on how the decentralization of our societies should unfold.

Resources