Governance landscapes for emerging technologies: The case of cryptocurrencies

Abstract

Scholars call for "adaptive governance" to balance concern about technology uncertainty with the need for innovation in the governance of emerging technologies. Yet, empirical assessment of such governance systems remains sparse. Do the actors interested in the potential regulation of an emerging technology focus on their own interests and opportunities, or do they think in terms of the collective interest? We focus on the actors who embed such systems from a novel landscape perspective that combines two dimensions of governance: the nature of the regulatory target, and the nature of the process they advocate for governing the target. We present data from over 70 actors in the area of cryptocurrencies for evaluating this new logic.

Government by Code? Blockchain Applications to Public Sector Governance

“…Any given blockchain network tends to be nested in higher levels of rules and regulations (Frolov, 2021). Evidence of the ways that blockchains can benefit from the law is informed by research on ways cryptocurrency regulations improve opportunities for users (Whitford and Anderson, 2021) and analysis of the evolving body of negotiation and enforcement law for blockchains that parallels conventional negotiation law (Allen et al, 2019b). This polycentric view thus sees the performance of any given blockchain as depending on rules internal to a network, those external to it, and competitive pressures and exit options that arise from the overall environment within which blockchains are operating (Alston et al, 2022).…”

Global digital governance: paradigm shift and an analytical framework

“…On one hand, global digital governance aims to achieve scale effects in the international market by realizing unification or interoperability on the technical or institutional level (Claessen 2020;Whitford & Anderson 2020). For example, since the value of the Internet increases exponentially with the scale, the goal of global Internet governance would be to standardize the technical protocols among countries.…”

Assessing the regulatory challenges of emerging disruptive technologies

“…“Emerging Governance for Emerging Technologies: The Case of Cryptocurrencies” by Whitford and Anderson (2021) examines integrative regulation and governance logics in the case of cryptocurrencies and explores the landscape of actors present in the cryptocurrency regulatory space. The article examines the current state of the regulation for cryptocurrencies and examines the regulatory environment around it, highlighting how self‐governance is a common operating modality in the early stages of regulation of an emerging technology and why this is the case.…”