86. Next-generation blockchain and visions of Web3
Domen Bajde, University of Southern Denmark; Alev Pinar Kuruoglu, University of Southern Denmark; Dorthe Kristensen, University of Southern Denmark; Konstantinos Lianidis, University of Southern Denmark
Posted: February 28, 2022 Accepted Languages: English/Inglés/Inglês, Spanish/Español/Espanhol
2021 has been an eventful year for blockchain technology. Bitcoin has eclipsed $1 trillion in market capitalization, for the first became a legal tender (in El Salvador), while at the same time triggering serious environmental and regulatory concerns. If at the beginning of 2021, only blockchain enthusiasts knew what non-fungible tokens (NFT) were, by the end of the year the NFT economy grew to $40bn, causing a stir in digital art, sport, music and film, and gaming, among others. These notable developments have spurred (by now familiar) proclamations of the ’next phase’ of the internet: Web3. According to its visioneers, the blockchain-fueled ecosystem of Web3, will break the world free from corporate control, enabling the masses to recuperate their ownership stake in the brave new world of decentralized future.
This panel invites critical reflection on the ways in which the quickly multiplying blockchain technologies are imagined, negotiated, and put into, or out of, practice. This includes (but is not limited to) topics like:
The transformative potentials/perils of blockchain
Competing narratives and imaginaries of Web3, and/or various blockchain technology ‘solutions’
The emergence of NFT markets, and new forms of digital ownership
The politics and governance of blockchain (e.g., criminality, cryptocurrency as a national project, remittances and transnational flows, regulation of blockchain)
Environmental concerns and the ‘greening’ of blockchain
The social structuring of blockchain (e.g., gender, class)
The intersection of blockchain technology and other technological trends (e.g., the Internet of Things, AI)
