Blockchain and democracy
Challenges and opportunities of blockchain and smart contracts for democracy in the distributed, algorithmic state
Jurgen Goossens wrote a chapter in O. Pollicino & G. De Gregorio (eds.), Blockchain and public law : global challenges in the era of decentralisation (Edward Elgar, 2021).
The chapter identifies the main challenges and opportunities of blockchain and smart contracts for the functioning of public administration and the composition of democratic institutions. Moreover, it sets an agenda for the near future which is relevant for involved stakeholders, such as legislative jurists, law and policy-makers, public authorities, electoral management bodies and political finance oversight agencies. It is important to identify the necessary conditions in order to ultimately design distributed technology applications with the aim of maximizing their potential to strengthen trust in the electoral processes, the composition of democratic institutions and the functioning of the administrative state.
