Figuring the future of the Web: How 'decentralized' are blockchain platforms exactly?

CoDE seminar series 2023/2024

Seminar 1: a seminar organized by Dr Richard Tee (University of Surrey), guest speaker Dr. Jean-Philippe Vergne (UCL).

Short description of the session: Figuring the future of the Web: How "decentralized" are blockchain platforms exactly?
Web3 is heralded as a new era, premised on disintermediated and democratic control of digital platforms. Blockchain platforms (e.g., in decentralized finance or "DeFi", with nonfungible tokens or "NFTs"), are distinguished from predecessors by their so-called "decentralized" nature. Developers and users of blockchain platforms tend to view decentralization as an intrinsic differentiator and as an inherent good due to its (purported) efficiency and inclusivity. Yet, we lack an accepted understanding and measurement of "decentralization". Without a shared definition, "decentralization" cannot be ascertained nor measured in practice. Here, I distinguish between distribution as decision-rights dispersion and decentralization as information dispersion to relax the implicit assumption that decision-making and information always go hand in hand. I then differentiate between distributed and decentralized digital platforms, and propose new measures to capture decentralization and distribution, which, I argue, form the basis of authority dispersion on digital platforms. The ability to precisely measure authority dispersion has practical implications for designing, investing in, and regulating digital blockchain platforms, as well as conceptual implications for revisiting the elusive notion of power in cyberspace.