An Economic Analysis of Blockchains

Patrick Waelbroeck

No 6893, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: The blockchain is a technology that goes beyond timestamping, bitcoin and secure financial transactions. The development of an ecosystem around smart connected objects will probably not happen without the blockchain (in one form or another). The blockchain opens the door to the liquification of the physical world, to the economy of real-time micro-transactions and to smart data sharing. However, it is necessary to distinguish between the different types of blockchains, especially between public and private blockchains, because their economic properties are contrasted. Moreover, governance issues in public blockchains seem to indicate that the technology alone cannot guarantee trust.

Keywords: blockchain; bitcoin; ether; security; payment; governance; trust; oracles; forks; hash; smart contracts; tokens; smart locks; technology diffusion; crypto-currency; financial privacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E51 G34 H41 L14 L52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ict and nep-pay
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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