Suchergebnisse

Intro -- TITLE -- COPYRIGHT -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- Part I: THE LIBERTARIAN ETHIC -- 1 How Free Markets Free People -- 2 The Libertarian Alternative -- 3 How We Went Left and Right -- 4 Market Success, Government Failure -- Part II: LIBERTARIANISM APPLIED -- 5 The Spirit of Free Trade -- 6 Unlocking the Borders -- 7 How Incentives Can Save the Environment -- 8 The Intimacy of Free Speech -- 9 Peace and a Tolerable Administration of Justice -- Part III: CHOICE, LIBERTY AND ECONOMIC REFORM -- 10 Personal Choice -- 11 How the Human Rights Project Lost Its Way -- 12 Economic Reform 2.0 -- 13 A Different Way -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- NOTES -- INDEX

A blockchain is an institutional technology—a protocol—that allows for economic coordination between agents separated by boundaries of possible mistrust. Blockchains are not the only technology in history to have these characteristics. The paper looks at the role of the diplomatic protocol at the very beginning of human civilisation in the ancient near east. These two protocols—diplomatic and blockchain—have significant similarities. They were created to address to similar economic problems using similar mechanisms: a permanent record of past dealings, public and ritualistic verification of transactions, and game-theoretic mechanisms of reciprocity. The development of the diplomatic protocol allowed for the creation of the first international community and facilitated patterns of peaceful trade and exchange. Some questions about a generalised 'protocol economics' are drawn.