Introduction

One of the lenses through which blockchain can be accurately defined and described is to view it not just as a technological innovation that delivers new kinds of products but as a technological advancement that is changing the way we view society. When new technology arrives, it opens a new way for different kinds of opportunities. Therefore, the scope of what we attribute to the technology is limited to the opportunity that was produced from it. This perspective of looking at technology limits the way we see it and the important purpose of that technology.

To fully grasp the importance, advantages, and disadvantages of technology, we must take a lens and point of view that will broaden the scope of what the technology is, what it can do, and the benefits attached to it. In this article, I am taking the lens of a social and political philosopher to uncover the broader scope of blockchain technology as related to building societies on chain. I will highlight how decentralized blockchains have these social frameworks that define a society, and I will conclude by emphasizing how some problems associated with physical society can also be found in on-chain societies built on the blockchain. For example, the concept of the “Blockchain Trilemma”.

Blockchain as a Form of Society

Technological solutions are sometimes ways of solving problems that are associated with society. Blockchain, as a distributed ledger system, deals with information that is recorded and how it is distributed. While private blockchains still censor information and make it available to the very few, public blockchains remove the censorship and control of information by private entities and make it accessible to everyone. The ability to make everything public without censorship, resistance, and control makes it possible for a new society to emerge on-chain.

This new concept of redefining the control of information and its distribution from the centralized few to something that is open to everybody brings about the revolution of this modern society on the blockchain. However, associating society only with information and its distribution will limit its scope because the concept of society is broader than that. Yet, the concept of making information public, time-based, and unchanged, which is the core foundation of public blockchains, produces the idea of building a new form of society on-chain.

Centralized Society and Decentralized Society

A society is a group of individuals sharing the same spatial or social territory and subjected to the same political authority. Following this definition, it seems that many technological applications can be defined as a society when the people who build the app are the political authority that defines the rules and regulations that bind people in that society together. This can be referred to as a centralized society.

A centralized society in web3 and crypto terms will be one in which a few people serve as the regulators and are in control of key things that happen in the society. The core function of such a society is the presence of a centralized entity or a few people who determine not just the rules and regulations but also the rights and freedoms of the individuals in that society. Thus, power in that society is entrenched in the hands of a few individuals who serve as regulators.

A decentralized society that emerges from blockchain technology is a new form of society envisioned by people where the power of control and regulation is not held by a few individuals but shared across everyone in that society. It is a kind of egalitarian society where everyone has an equal say in what happens in the network. The blockchain network can therefore be defined as a form of modern society where control of what happens in the network is not determined by the powerful few but by all participants, who are called nodes.

The concept of decentralization is broad, but at the center of it, as related to society, will be a kind of society in which control, regulation, and coordination are not just in the hands of a few people but in the hands of everyone in the network. What this means is that, instead of having a governor who has ultimate power to dictate and control what happens in a centralized society, in a decentralized society, the power to decide rests with every participant in the network.

In the next section, we will compare centralized and decentralized societies and give some blockchain terms a societal interpretation.

Reducing Blockchain Terms to Societal Definitions

There are different terms used to describe a blockchain network. I have chosen some blockchain features that can be given a societal relation and moved away from the sole technological framework of hardware layer, data layer, consensus layer, and application layer. To give a societal description of blockchain, I have chosen the following terms:

1. The Network

The blockchain network, like the normal human society formed by a group of individuals who come to live together in a particular geographical area, is a group of individuals called nodes who come together to form the network. While human society is segmented into different roles, especially between those who serve as regulators who create rules and oversee administrative tasks, and the rest of the individuals who do not possess this administrative power are referred to as citizens. The same interpretation can be given to the blockchain network as a digital society that comprises nodes that manage the network and hold administrative tasks, and users of the blockchain network, who can also be referred to as citizens.

However, a difference between physical society and blockchain is that administrative control in blockchains is not restricted to a few people. In some blockchain networks, depending on the consensus model, a large number of people can be part of the administrators of the network.

2. The Nodes

The nodes can be compared to administrators in a physical society. These administrators ensure that society is regulated and that the law that governs society is enforced. The nodes in the blockchain network validate transactions and maintain the network. Anyone can be a node if they meet the requirements of the chain. A major question is how a society that allows many people to serve as administrators without central control can still be regulated without chaos. The answer lies in the nature of the society and the mechanism of decision-making, which is the consensus model.

3. The Ledger

The blockchain is a digital ledger that records and holds information. Each block contains a series of information linked to the previous block and so on until the first block. Nodes try to maintain consistency between blocks to ensure accurate records. For example, if A sends 100 dollars to B and B sends 20 dollars to C and C sends 5 dollars to D, the nodes ensure the transactions stack correctly in the ledger. Agreeing on which block is the last on the chain and forming the next block is the core function of nodes. The method used to achieve this is the consensus model.

4. The Consensus Model

In every society, there is a way decisions are made. In a democratic setting, the majority view dominates. In an autocratic setting, the ruler decides. Similarly, the consensus model in a blockchain network determines how decisions are made. The most critical decisions involve the ledger and how to validate the next block. The rise of DAOs makes it possible to mimic societal decision-making in digital form. Secession, like in real societies, is also possible via blockchain forks when a group departs from the main chain. The challenge remains finding a consensus mechanism that is decentralized and solves the blockchain trilemma.

5. Tokens

Every society has a form of money that serves as a medium of exchange. The same is present in blockchain networks, where each blockchain has its own token. The economy is one of the core parts of society, and in blockchain as well. The economics of a blockchain ecosystem is often referred to as tokenomics. A major argument for decentralized societies on blockchain is that economics should not be governed by a few individuals but by everyone in the network. For example, Bitcoin uses a decentralized system of token creation and distribution through mining based on contribution and work.

The Benefits of a Social and Political Interpretation of Blockchain

Firstly, taking a different perspective toward technological innovation helps to uncover the advantages and disadvantages of that technology. It also helps to uncover hidden opportunities.

Secondly, if the blockchain network can be given a societal interpretation, we
can study how some issues in physical society can be avoided in digital
society. Also, both societies can benefit from comparing and studying each
other.

Lastly, giving technological innovation an interpretation that is familiar can
shed more light on how people understand it better, and make use of it
effectively.