Bitcoin And Beyond (Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, and Global Governance)

Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009, several hundred different 'cryptocurrencies' have been developed and become accepted for a wide variety of transactions in leading online commercial marketplaces and the 'sharing economy', as well as by more traditional retailers, manufacturers, and even by charities and political parties.

Bitcoin and its competitors have also garnered attention for their wildly fluctuating values as well as implication in international money laundering, Ponzi schemes, and online trade in illicit goods and services across borders. These and other controversies surrounding cryptocurrencies have induced varying governance responses by central banks, government ministries, international organizations, and industry regulators worldwide. Besides formal attempts to ban Bitcoin, there have been multifaceted efforts to incorporate elements of blockchains, the peer-to-peer technology underlying cryptocurrencies, in the wider exchange, recording, and broadcasting of digital transactions. Blockchains are being mobilized to support and extend an array of governance activities. The novelty and breadth of growing blockchain-based activities have fuelled both utopian promises and dystopian fears regarding applications of the emergent technology to Bitcoin and beyond.

-Variation of the five cryptocurrencies in our sample along the decentralization spectrum

-The mutually constitutive relationship between technologies and international regimes

-Spectrum of Bitcoin/blockchain governance

-Bitcoin price fluctuations,2009-17 (US dollars)

-Interrelationships between governance by,with,and of blockchains