Public governance of the blockchain revolution and its implications for social finance: a comparative analysis

Abstract

There is hardly anyone who has not heard of blockchain nowadays, even though an exact idea about what blockchain is and how it works is far from common. The knowledge most of the people seem to have of Nakamoto’s original concept is related to cryptocurrencies; to the point that blockchain itself is often referred to as the “Bitcoin protocol”. The most important and promising uses of this technology, however, lie far beyond sectors as distinct as health care, aerospace, energy, and education. The aim of this work is to investigate the potential for blockchain application beyond the monetary system and to compare some of the existing laws that have a direct impact on blockchain as a whole in the context of social finance and social innovation. We consider examples of “blockchain in action” in different areas and geographic locations—the EU, Israel, and East Asia are the selected case studies—and discuss their unique characteristics. Their comparative review helps extract what blockchain-friendly regulatory framework would look like and what the existing challenges are for its implementation on a wide scale, starting from the regulatory framework of reference.