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Toward a Philosophy of Blockchain: A Symposium: Introduction:

INTRODUCTION

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C 2017 Metaphilosophy LLC and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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METAPHILOSOPHY
Vol. 48, No. 5, October 2017
0026-1068

TOWARD A PHILOSOPHY OF BLOCKCHAIN:

A SYMPOSIUM

INTRODUCTION

MELANIE SWAN AND PRIMAVERA DE FILIPPI

GUEST EDITORS

Abstract: This article introduces the symposium “Toward a Philosophy of

Blockchain,” which provides a philosophical contemplation of blockchain
technology, the digital ledger software underlying cryptocurrencies such as
bitcoin, for the secure transfer of money, assets, and information via the Internet
without needing a third-party intermediary. The symposium offers philosophical
scholarship on a new topic, blockchain technology, from a variety of perspectives.
The philosophical themes discussed include mathematical models of reality,
signification, and the sociopolitical institutions that structure human life and
interaction. The symposium also investigates the metaphilosophical theme of
how to create a philosophy of anything, specifically a new topic such as blockchain
technology. Repeated themes are identified, in all areas of philosophical inquiry
(ontology, epistemology, and axiology), and conceptual resources are elaborated
to contribute to a philosophical understanding of blockchain technology. Thus,
philosophy as a metaphilosophical approach is shown to be able to provide an
understanding of the conceptual, theoretical, and foundational dimensions of
novelty and emergence in the world, with a particular focus on blockchain
technology.

Keywords: blockchain, cryptocurrency, smart asset, smart contract, smart net-

works, ontology, epistemology, axiology, economic theory, algorithmic trust.

1. Introduction and Background

What Is a Blockchain?
Blockchain technology (a.k.a. distributed ledger technology) enables
the secure transfer of money, assets, and information via the Internet
without the need for a third-party intermediary, such as banks or other
financial institutions (Swan 2015, ix). Transactions are validated, exe-
cuted, and recorded chronologically in an append-only and tamper-
resistant database, where they remain always available on the Internet
around the clock for on-demand lookup and verification. Blockchain

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604 MELANIE SWAN AND PRIMAVERA DE FILIPPI

technology is what underpins such applications as the bitcoin crypto-

currency. Bitcoin was the first and perhaps most obvious application of
blockchain technology—a decentralized payment system allowing for
the real-time transfer of digital currency, at any time and to anyone in
the world. Just as SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) constitutes the
underlying software protocol by which Internet users can send an e-
mail to each other in a seamless and interoperable way, regardless of
their e-mail provider, so the bitcoin protocol allows people to seam-
lessly transfer money between one another, regardless of their bank.
With bitcoin, money can be transferred from one continent to another,
at very low cost and in a matter of seconds, instead of waiting days or
weeks and paying high commissions, as is the case with current interna-
tional money transfers and remittance solutions.
But money transfer is just one application enabled by blockchain
technology. The same technology also provides the means to record
and transmit digital goods over the Internet, while ensuring that these
goods cannot be copied or multiplied (thereby addressing the double-
spending problem that has been an issue with digital currencies).
Indeed, once they have been digitized as “smart assets,” the recording,
search, purchase, sale, tracking, and logging of resources can be coordi-
nated with a much higher degree of automation, speed, trackability,
and assurance. A blockchain can be used, for instance, as a digital
registry to record, transfer, and verify asset ownership (home, auto,
stocks, bonds, mortgages, and insurance) as well as to preserve the
integrity and authenticity of sensitive documents or records (such as
passports, visas, drivers licenses, birth and death certificates, voter
registration, contracts, wills, patents, and medical records).
Eventually, as governments, corporations, and startups work toward
the implementation of real-time payments, and also digital registration
systems for the transfer and verification of digital assets and legal
documents, a variety of legal, financial, and governmental services
could be reengineered and readjusted for the Internet era.

Why the Philosophy of Blockchain?

The Internet is an important and transformative element that has
arisen in the contemporary era. Already in 2014, in Philosophical Engi-
neering: Toward a Philosophy of the Web, Halpin and Monnin invited
the discussion of the philosophical aspects of an emerging technology,
the Internet (Halpin and Monnin 2014). This is what inspired the fram-
ing of the present symposium, which considers philosophical themes in
regard to another emerging technology, the blockchain. The advent of
blockchain technology brings about a new perspective or era in net-
work computing, as indicated in figure 1. What we have witnessed thus

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 INTRODUCTION 605

FIGURE 1. Two fundamental eras of network computing (expanded from Sigal 2011)
[color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

far might be the first phase of the Internet, characterized by the trans-
fer of information via simple networks. Today, a second phase of net-
work computing is emerging—one that enables the secure, end-to-end,
and computationally validated transfer of value (whether it is repre-
sented by money, assets, or contractual arrangements) via smart
networks.
The idea behind smart networks is that value transfer is performed
by the network itself. Intelligence is built directly into the networks
operations through a sophisticated protocol that automatically identi-
fies, validates, confirms, and routes transactions within the network. In
the case of most existing blockchain-based networks, what makes the
peer-to-peer transfer of value possible is the proof-of-work protocol
(sometimes referred to as mining): that is, the economic competition
between agents who contribute their computing resources to securing
and maintaining the network. As a result of this process, a new form
of “algorithmic trust” is created, one that significantly distinguishes
itself from the more traditional typology of trust that was initially only
between human agents.
One implication of transferring value with blockchain-based smart
networks instead of relying on human-based institutions is that the tra-
ditional intermediaries responsible for verifying and validating transac-
tions may become obsolete. As a result, the institutional structure of
society could shift to one that is computationally based and thus has a
diminished need for human-operated brick-and-mortar institutions.
Blockchain technology applies to advanced and emerging economies
alike. In the context of advanced economies, institutions could be reen-
gineered, leading to a future where a substantial portion of human
interactions, in particular value transfer and contractual engagements,

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606 MELANIE SWAN AND PRIMAVERA DE FILIPPI

are automated for quicker, easier, cheaper, and lower-risk execution. In

the context of emerging economies, blockchain technology offers new
opportunities for the two billion “unbanked” people in the world (Price-
waterhouseCoopers 2016), and could serve as an important leapfrog tech-
nology in both monetary applications and digital asset registries. Land
titling and property transfer systems have been stressed as having a
crucial role in economic development (de Soto 2003). If widely adopted,
blockchain-based networks could become a tracking register for the
worlds activity, a kind of societal memory (a concept explored in Greg
Bears Eon [1985]). Given the potential impact of blockchain technology
in restructuring the traditional operation of economic, financial, legal,
and governance systems, we can see great benefit in articulating a philoso-
phy of blockchain as a conceptual resource for understanding these
progressions in our modern world.

What Would Constitute a Philosophy of Blockchain?

The Internet prompted us to rethink such topics as the self, the rela-
tionship between the physical world and the virtual world, the individ-
ual and society, and the concepts of materiality, embodiment,
temporality, spatiality, and possibility. Blockchains too warrant this
degree of philosophical inquiry. They invite a full range of considera-
tion in the classical areas of philosophy: ontology, epistemology, and
axiology. Broadly speaking, ontology treats questions of existence.
What is blockchain technology? How is it being characterized, created,
and implemented? How does it operate in the world? What are its defi-
nitions, classifications, teleology, possibilities, constraints, and limita-
tions? Accordingly, from a practical point of view, an ontological
philosophy of blockchain would provide a concise definition of what
the technology is, including its purpose, function, and dimensions. The
second area, epistemology, deals with knowledge. We can ask what new
kinds of things blockchain technology is helping us to know or under-
stand. This can be with regard to both new knowledge and new ways
of knowing. We can ask about the corresponding standards of proof,
or truth, that supports this new knowledge. Is there new knowledge
that is required to create and engage with blockchain technology? The
third area, axiology, especially ethics and aesthetics, concerns how
blockchain technology is valorized, taken up, and regarded by individu-
als and society. What aspects are being valued, overvalued, underval-
ued, and overlooked, and by whom? What is being omitted and why?
What behavioral norms are being established? Who is adopting block-
chain technology and why? What constitutes an aesthetics of block-
chain in the sense of what aspects are seen and valued as being
beautiful, elegant, or aesthetically pleasing?

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 INTRODUCTION 607

What Is the purpose of a Philosophy of Blockchain?

The task of philosophy is to help in naming, articulating, and describ-
ing different concepts and conceptual levels in their generative progres-
sion and meaning. Hence, the purpose of a philosophy of blockchain is
to articulate conceptual resources for understanding what blockchain is
and what it could be, its potential impact, advantages, and drawbacks,
and the new opportunities it provides, both individually and societally.
“Philosophy” here is used to refer to the theoretical underpinnings, the
foundational definitions, as well as the general abstractions of block-
chain technology, basically everything that might constitute the concep-
tual grounding of the notion of blockchain.
Such conceptual resources are necessary because blockchain technol-
ogy brings together and integrates many fields, such as mathematical
cryptography, distributed network technologies and versioning (for
example, Git, Tor), financial accounting (ledgers, account balance
instantiation and transfer), identity specification, economics and gover-
nance concepts, and user-based information security. Another reason
these conceptual resources are needed is that blockchain is a compli-
cated idea that is difficult to grasp immediately. Conceptual metaphors
(“this is like that”) can help us approach and comprehend new ideas
(Lakoff and Johnson 2003). As people first heard of blockchain tech-
nology as the software that underpins cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, the
first conceptual metaphor was that “blockchain is like PayPal,” an
Internet-based way of transferring money from one person to another.
Because of bitcoin, blockchain seems to fit particularly well within the
conceptual category of digital money and online payment systems. The
next conceptual metaphor draws upon network computing with state-
ments like “blockchain is like Napster for money”: a decentralized
peer-to-peer network for transferring money on the Internet in a decen-
tralized manner. In fact, in the extent that the bitcoin blockchain oper-
ates without human intermediaries, it challenges the monolithic and
traditional understanding of the fundamental concept of money. How
can we have money without a bank? Who confirms these transactions?
Who maintains the centralized ledger recording all these transactions?
Thus, the conceptual metaphor that “blockchain is like Napster for
money” helps us see the blockchain as a peer-to-peer network without
a central intermediary. Blockchain is like PayPal, but it also incorpo-
rates a few features that make it significantly different from the tradi-
tional PayPal model, in that it is an inherently decentralized system,
operating on top of a peer-to-peer network, and without any central
party in charge of coordinating the network.
These initial conceptualizations are based on a concrete and widely
deployed use case (for example, the cryptocurrency bitcoin), but there
is much more to that. Another conceptual metaphor currently in

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operation is that blockchain is a financial technology (fintech) capable

of reengineering the financial services sector and enabling better and
faster reconciliation between the accounts of different banks, securities
brokers, traders, and clearing firms. This helps to provide the founda-
tion for more generalized conceptualizations of blockchain technology
that connote the greater capacities afforded by the technology, even if
those have not yet been fully realized. Yet another conceptual meta-
phor is that, at its core, blockchain technology is a next-generation net-
work protocol that allows for the recording, transfer, and verification
of physical or digital assets, both in the immediate term (spot market)
and in future time frames (futures market).
More generally, everything discussed so far falls under the conceptual
metaphor of blockchain technology as a “better horse” (a better version
of something we already know), as opposed to a “new car” (a disruptive
innovation that gives rise to something completely new). The latter
applies to a whole category of applications that are as yet unplumbed—
such as million-person genome databanks, global energy delivery and
storage markets, and real-time voting systems (Swan 2015). For example,
regarding the concept of money, the better horse notion of a blockchain
is “digital cash” (something we already know), whereas the new car
notion of a blockchain is “programmable money”—something that pro-
vides the ability to configure all of the parameters of a currency: who
can use it, how, where, and for what, and what will happen in future
time frames, such as expiration, redistribution, price indexing, and
demurrage (the carrying costs associated with holding money). As
opposed to digital cash, which simply represents money in a digital for-
mat, the ability to program the design and operations of money is a new
capability that was not previously available. The digital realm also allows
us to specify and compose our world (present or future) in new and
exciting ways. Temporality is a particularly interesting property that
becomes more configurable in the context of blockchain-based systems.
The “blocktime” (the time over which a certain number of blocks will
have confirmed) is a notion of time that is specific to a blockchain.
Accordingly, there could be arbitrage opportunities between human
clocktime cycles (for example, monthly rent is due) and blocktime cycles
(for example, earning money in bitcoin or having a peer-to-peer bitcoin-
based loan). Understanding blocktime as an alternative time paradigm
could allow the contingency risk of future events to be reduced, for
example, setting the temporality regime as a standard feature in smart
contracts via a drop-down menu option (Swan 2016).

Symposium Thesis
The present symposium explores the metaphilosophical issue of
whether an open call to thinkers to consider the philosophical

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 INTRODUCTION 609

implications of a new occurrence in the world—blockchain technology,

in our case—can lead to the emergence of a new field of philosophy
for that particular thing. The selected papers included here have proven
our initial hypothesis to be true. The call has given rise to a wide range
of approaches in the contemplation of blockchain technology, and to
the generation of conceptual resources that contribute to a wider
understanding of blockchain technology as a new element of phenome-
nological reality and philosophical concern.

2. Summary of Contributions
This section provides a summary and analysis of the papers making up
the symposium and of the broader philosophical themes they raise.

Summaries
The following are detailed summaries of the argument, method, conclu-
sion, and implications of the findings in the seven ensuing papers.
(1) In “On the Philosophy of Bitcoin/Blockchain Technology: Is It a
Chaotic, Complex System?” Renato P. dos Santos maintains that, while
the bitcoin blockchains proof-of-work consensus method is compli-
cated, it is not complex. Building upon Crutchfields Statistical Com-
plexity,1 dos Santos points to two principal methods for measuring the
complexity of a system: algorithmic complexity and statistical complex-
ity. The first method analyses the complexity of a particular data set by
the length of the program necessary to reproduce such data. This
method, however, is not generalizable to other data sets produced by
the system or to the system as a whole. Accordingly, algorithmic com-
plexity lacks the ability to distinguish between signal and noise. The
second method, statistical complexity, relies on statistics as a means for
measuring noise, and constitutes therefore a more general method of
measuring complexity (Badii and Politi 1999, 9).2 And so statistical
complexity can be defined as measuring the amount of information in
a system that describes the systems dynamics and that can be used to
predict the future states of that system (Shalizi 2006, 59). Statistical
complexity is measured along the parameters of randomness (entropy)
and order (complexity).
Applying Crutchfields Statistical Complexity to measure the predic-
tive information in the bitcoin blockchain consensus system (the pro-
cess of cryptographically winning the opportunity to validate a new
1
Also known as Crutchfield-Young Statistical Complexity (from 1989) and
Grassberger-Crutchfield-Young Statistical Complexity (from 1986) (Shalizi 2006, 59).
2
Other proposed methods for measuring complexity have not been sufficiently
demonstrated—for example, power laws and thermodynamic depth (Shalizi 2006, 61, 65).

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block of transactions), dos Santos finds a low degree of predictive

information in the system, and he concludes that the system has
entropy (randomness) but does not qualify as being complex. While the
bitcoin blockchain consensus method has high entropy (per the ran-
domness of the successful nonce guessing by any particular mining
machine), on this formal measure it is not complex. The complexity-
related characteristics of the bitcoin blockchain consensus method are
more in line with those of a fair coin flip (Crutchfields Statistical
Complexity 5 0), which has high randomness but also high order (low
complexity); one will win the coin toss, just as one mining machine will
win the nonce guess. On the other hand, the bitcoin blockchain consen-
sus methods complexity-related characteristics are not in line with
those of a double pendulum—with Crutchfields Statistical Complexity
 0 (much greater than 0)—which has a simple construction and less
randomness but high disorder (high complexity), as it is unknown
where the two pendula will be in any moment. The potential implica-
tion of this analysis is that blockchain systems—as noncomplex sys-
tems—would be unlikely to enter chaotic regimes, such as market flash
crash situations.
(2) In “Blockchain Identities: Notational Technologies for Control
and Management of Abstracted Entities,” Quinn DuPont supports an
understanding of digital technologies—such as blockchains—as
“notional technologies” in the model of Nelson Goodmans
“notational system,” citing the blockchain-based digital artwork (pho-
tos and digital designs) asset management platform Monegraph as an
example. Notational technologies are technologies that name and oper-
ationalize identities within a context. For Goodman, many situations
count as notational schema (for example, the alphabet and natural lan-
guage, where terms are indistinct, replicative, and confusing) but not
more precisely as notational systems (in which terms are unambiguous
and semantically disjoint and differentiated). Goodmans fine-grained
model is helpful for specifying the distinct identities that arise in the
context of a blockchain-based system. The notations in a blockchain
are digital symbols that represent specific identities (such as a token,
hash, or address). Identity management is a crucial element of digital
systems, and the benefit of considering blockchains as Goodman-type
notational systems gives access to the kind of granularity that might be
necessary in specifying the detailed layers of identities in blockchain
systems.
(3) In “Blockchain, the Greater Good, and Human and Civil
Rights,” Kobina Hughes argues that blockchain developers are in a
unique position to address human rights concerns and reduce the digi-
tal divide. He suggests that, in addition to “blockchain lite” applica-
tions that generally address and improve commerce and governance,
developers may also elect to focus on “blockchain heavy” applications

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 INTRODUCTION 611

that overtly target human rights protection in such areas as corruption

and electoral fraud. For example, blockchain-based economic aid
tracking applications could help to staunch capital flight, a serious
global problem that at minimum impairs the ability of governance
bodies to comply with the core U.N. human rights doctrine of the
“responsibility to protect.” Likewise, blockchain-based birth and death
registries could be an immediate means of improving the documenta-
tion and tracking of individuals, particularly as related to human traf-
ficking, refugee situations, and electoral fraud. The example of space
exploration as a supranational “benefit of all” technology is drawn
upon to create an inspirational vision for blockchains capacity to cre-
ate public goods. The implication is that blockchain technology pro-
vides a more deliberate lever for addressing human rights issues than
may have been available previously.
(4) In “Blockchain Technology as an Institution of Property,”
Georgy Ishmaev underlines the novelty of blockchain technology in the
social context by considering a blockchain as a self-sufficient institution
of “property.” He suggests that blockchains have the necessary and suf-
ficient conditions to compose the institution of property without reli-
ance on traditional legal means. Invoking Penners essentialist theory
of property (which emphasizes exclusion and separability) and Hegels
recognitive system of property rights (which highlights universal
access), Ishmaev shows how blockchains both eliminate the need for a
third-party authority to enforce exclusion rights (a criterion raised by
Penner) and provide a transparent system that facilitates the identifica-
tion of existing property rights and increases peoples ability to know
and understand how the system works (a criterion imposed by Hegel).
For Hegel, the existence of a complete model of property signals a far
greater ontological existence than the one provided by the current regu-
latory framework of property rights. Today, a society-wide system that
recognizes property would have to exist in order for any particular
object to be recognized as property. In the context of a blockchain-
based system, a set of cryptographically secured tokens can be used to
indicate that there is a global system of cryptographically controlled
assets. According to Hegels model, the very existence of a crypto-
graphically activated asset also suggests the existence of a system for its
registration, ownership, and transfer. And, indeed, these criteria are
satisfied by the specific blockchains protocol that provides universally
accepted mechanisms for the registration and transfer of these tokens
within the blockchain property system. The implications of these find-
ings are that traditional property relations in society (that is, the means
by which public property is currently administered) could eventually be
replaced or supplemented by blockchain models and perhaps even be
implemented in new domains, such as the ownership of private data (in
virtual contexts).

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(5) In “On the Continuity and Origin of Identity in Distributed Ledg-

ers: Learning from Russells Paradox,” Jose Parra Moyano suggests that
in some cases the setup and administration of smart assets (physical world
assets controlled by blockchains) might give rise to a logical dilemma
such as a Russells Barbers Paradox—illustrated by the query, “If the
barber is the one who shaves all those, and only those, who do not shave
themselves, then does the barber shave himself?” Parra Moyano introdu-
ces the notion of a “validating instance” as an entity that is required to
bind an on-chain entity (such as a digital token or address) to an off-
chain asset (such as a physical world asset). In some situations, he argues,
the mechanism might stall, because a validating instance cannot inscribe
itself on a blockchain without another off-chain entity entering into play
in order to vouch for it—thus replicating the structure of a Russells Bar-
bers Paradox. After second thoughts, however, the problem does not
seem to be a logical inconsistency as much as a loosely coupled control
mechanism. If a validating instance is required to create a bridge between
a blockchain-based asset and its representation in the physical world, then
the key aspect is not whether or not an entity can inscribe itself in a
blockchain but rather how the control coupling works between the on-
chain and off-chain entities. One implication is that tighter coupling may
be required between on-chain and off-chain assets if the smart assets con-
cept is to be widely adopted as a virtual marshaling and control mecha-
nism for assets in the physical world. Another implication is that logical
analysis methods, such as known paradoxes, might be helpful as a critical
tool with which to evaluate the security and other features of blockchain
operations. A third implication is that computational systems might serve
as a venue for novel mathematical discovery.
(6) In “Can Cyber-Physical Systems Reliably Collaborate Within a
Blockchain?” Ben van Lier argues that, in an increasingly networked
world comprising both virtual and physical systems, in which humans
collaborate with machines, trust-producing mechanisms like block-
chains will become crucial. Indeed, for van Lier blockchains are exem-
plary of the current state of the world as one composed of emergent
cyber-physical systems (systems interconnecting virtual and physical
components), with newly arising elements and properties merging and
agglomerating into the existing world system to generate new wholes.
The relevant and distinguishing properties of blockchains are fault-
tolerant communication, voting, consensus, distributed ledgers, and
transaction execution. This supports the idea that blockchains are an
example of a technological phenomenon that is made up of different
interconnected and autonomous systems that, when combined, create a
new whole or entity in the world, both conceptually and operationally.
According to van Lier, the future could be one world composed of
many different networked “systems of systems,” with multiple intercon-
nected systems (virtual and physical) undertaking autonomous

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 INTRODUCTION 613

activities and making independent decisions. In a world made up of

increasingly complex cyber-physical systems, complexity science could
be an appropriate method for understanding and analysis of this new
world. The implication of this analysis is a greater understanding of
the nuances of how humans and machines may coexist cooperatively in
a trust-based manner in the future.
(7) In “Computing Ledgers and the Political Ontology of the Block-
chain,” Pablo R. Velasco considers the political structure of monetary
systems in the traditional sense and in the blockchain model, and he
finds that blockchains trigger a shift in authority from institutions to
computational systems. With blockchains, authority is displaced from
the institutional actors in the system to the instrumental control of
trust by the software. In order to understand the difference between
fiat banking-system politics and distributed ledger politics, Velasco
engages in a comparative analysis of the political ontology of money as
it is traditionally produced by central banks and of money as it is pro-
duced in the context of a blockchain-based system. Both the traditional
monetary system and a blockchain-based system are inherently politi-
cal, in the sense that such qualities as control, trust, and authority are
intrinsic to these two systems. Yet, while in fiat monetary systems, con-
trol, trust, and authority are vested in the institutional actors involved
in the system, in blockchain-based systems, these qualities are proper-
ties of the software protocol. With a blockchain, the state disappears
from the monetary realm: governmental authority is displaced not only
from the money transmission process but also from the production pro-
cess itself. This has at least two implications. One is that qualitative ele-
ments become established as part of the production process. The other
is that as reality becomes increasingly composed of computer-made ele-
ments (such as blockchains, video games, and virtual reality), the pro-
duction of qualitative goods (intangible social goods such as authority
and trust) traditionally generated by human-operated institutions is
being transferred to computational systems.

Philosophical Themes of Contributions

This section highlights, groups, discusses, and thematizes the philosoph-
ical aspects of the contributed papers. In Table 1, there is a list of the
papers and their philosophical themes.

Thematic Discussion
The papers in this symposium consider themes within three main catego-
ries of philosophical concern: ontology, epistemology, and axiology. The
specific problematics addressed can be summarized as fitting models to

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TABLE 1. List of papers and philosophical themes

Paper title Philosophical themes

1 dos Santos: “On the Philosophy of Complexity, statistics, correspondence,
Bitcoin/Blockchain Technology: Is meaning
It a Chaotic, Complex System?”
2 DuPont: “Blockchain Identities: Signification, correspondence,
Notational Technologies for syntactic and semantic meaning,
Control and Management of performance
Abstracted Entities”
3 Hughes: “Blockchain, the Greater Valorization, inclusion, ethics, moral
Good, and Human and Civil responsibility, human rights policy,
Rights” responsible technology development
4 Ishmaev: “Blockchain Technology as Politics, institutions, property, social
an Institution of Property” agreement
5 Parra Moyano: “On the Continuity Logic, paradox, identity, individua-
and Origin of Identity in Distrib- tion, sortal, reference
uted Ledgers: Learning from
Russells Paradox”
6 van Lier: “Can Cyber-Physical Sys- Complexity, human-technology
tems Reliably Collaborate Within a collaboration
Blockchain?”
7 Velasco: “Computing Ledgers and the Political philosophy, authority, trust,
Political Ontology of the control
Blockchain”

the description of reality (ontology, what is reality [papers 1, 5]), significa-

tion (epistemology, what can we know [2, 6]), and sociopolitical institu-
tions (axiology, ethics, and right conduct in the world (3, 4, 7]).
The first theme, ontology, is fitting quantitative models to reality.
Modernity is characterized by the application of scientific and mathe-
matical models in an attempt to understand the world and new occur-
rences in reality. Two papers appeal to complexity science (1, 6), and
one invokes Russells Barbers Paradox (5) in an attempt to compre-
hend blockchain as a new occurrence in the world, and they charac-
terize its parameters. While the consensus algorithm of a blockchain
may be complicated but not statistically complex on a formal defini-
tion (1), understanding a blockchain as an example of a heightened
networked web of complex interactions between humans and
machines may be a valid heuristic (6). Mathematical and logical for-
mulations such as conjectures and paradoxes may also be helpful in
identifying the structure of a new computational technology such as a
blockchain (5).
The second theme, epistemology, is fitting models of knowing to
reality. One paper explores signification and investigates the signifier-
signified problematic (2). Another explores what we can know of net-
work societies and human-machine collaboration (6). Other papers
examine the correspondence between the physical and the virtual world

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 INTRODUCTION 615

(2, 5, 6, 7). Some of the key elements in the process of knowing include
naming, the performing of actions, and the ability to confirm and refer
to what is known. Epistemological issues are heightened in the block-
chain context due to the coupling between the physical and virtual
domain, where the tightness of linkage in these relationships is uncon-
firmed, both when they are initially established and persistently over
time. One challenge in establishing correspondence between these two
domains is due to the different natures of these two worlds: the virtual
world is quantitative (digital ones and zeros), and the physical world is
qualitative (messy, variable, irrational). Ultimately, we are still in the
early days of the experimental process to identify the computational
equivalents of human-based qualities, such as trust and truth.
In the context of signification, the idea of using Goodmans nota-
tional system as a fine-grained method for specifying blockchain identi-
ties suggests a broader analysis of signification. For example,
Saussures dyadic semiotic sign (the signifier and the signified) and
Peirces sign (with explicit extension to the physical world) might be
helpful in further delineating the correspondence of blockchain entities
as they move between the physical domain and the virtual. Perform-
ance is likewise important, including what counts as the performance
of an action in the blockchain context, and what might grant identity
or over-personify it. For humans, performativity is connected to the
expression of identity. While this is not directly applicable to block-
chains, one might consider performativity metaphorically. Both John
Austins speech acts (mere utterance has performative action) and
Judith Butlers notion of performance (identity is real only to the
extent that it is performed) can be transposed easily into the block-
chain context in that transactions do not exist in a fully realized way
until they are broadcast (that is, performed)—and if transactions are
not broadcast to the network, they are simply deemed not to exist.
Nuances in performativity theories could be helpful in further specify-
ing the range of existence of blockchain entities; in the case of transac-
tions, from wallet submission to validation, confirmation, broadcast,
and propagation. Indeed, while a peer node merely publishing transac-
tions on the network might not necessarily have a higher claim to iden-
tity than any other database, a smart contract that can update its own
code might have more ground to do so.
Finally, when it comes to messages being received and acknowl-
edged, blockchain networks have a sense of peer-to-peer reciprocity
that is articulated in the “hear say yes” affirmation relation Derrida
sees in Joyce (Derrida 1991, 256). Blockchain peer nodes engage in a
“hear say yes” affirmation as the means by which state changes are
confirmed and propagated through the system, since each party cosigns
and assents to the new state of the network. Accordingly, decentraliza-
tion is not merely architectural (in the setup of the peer-to-peer mesh

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616 MELANIE SWAN AND PRIMAVERA DE FILIPPI

network) but also operational, in the sense that each participating node
is responsible for evaluating and confirming the new blocks that will
become part of the new state of the world, rather than just accepting
the update from a hierarchically superior main node.
The third theme, axiology, is fitting models to sociopolitical institu-
tions. Axiologically, some of the main topics regarding what is valor-
ized or ignored in the world are ethical and moral issues, and
aesthetics. First looking at what we valorize as being moral or ethical,
we are concerned with right conduct as we enact our lives individually
and collectively. In this area, one paper looks at property as a political
institution (4), another at the political structures of money production
(7), and a third at human rights issues in the context of political cor-
ruption (3). Second, concerning what we valorize as aesthetic (what is
elegant, efficient, beautiful, or sublime), one paper discusses the
blockchain-based protection of digital artworks (2), with the assump-
tion that digital artworks are valuable in society. A broader considera-
tion of the aesthetics of blockchain might encompass on one hand an
evaluation of the computational elegance or efficiency of the crypto-
graphic equations or software, for example using techniques like
Occams razor (the simplest solution is the most efficient and elegant).
On the other hand, the aesthetics of blockchain might range to the
analysis of artworks made with blockchain code or the political mes-
saging of blockchains, such as Cryptoarts fine art combined with bit-
coin storage or cryptographic art, such as the ASCII Bernanke
recorded in the bitcoin blockchain (Pastebin 2011).
From a high-level abstraction, the framing of all these papers is episte-
mological, in the sense that the general problem is a grasp at understand-
ing blockchain technology as a new occurrence in the world. Within the
general epistemological problem of an understanding of blockchains,
there is a host of other issues: what blockchains are ontologically, what
we can know of ourselves and our world through blockchains, and how
we can make the world a better place (or not) axiologically with block-
chains. To answer these questions, we must explore a variety of known
ontological, epistemological, and axiological approaches to bring us
toward a more profound articulation and understanding of blockchains,
as has been demonstrated here with mathematical and scientific models,
signification models (naming, performativity, and confirmation), and
world sociohistorical political and aesthetic models.

3. Results and Conclusion

Implications of a Philosophy of Blockchain
The papers, both individually and in thematic synthesis, support the
thesis of this symposium that conceptual resources may be obtained

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 INTRODUCTION 617

through an open call for the philosophical investigation of a topic, in

this case blockchains. Overall, from the papers it emerges that, on one
hand, blockchains seem to have some elements of models, concepts,
and objects that we already know but, on the other hand, also have
other elements that are unlike the things we know. This establishes
blockchains as having an ontological status of novelty or emergence in
providing something new compared to what we have previously under-
stood as reality. The argument in favor of blockchains perceived as a
novel occurrence in the world is configured in two ways in the papers.
First, there is the idea of novel emergence in a unitary sense: block-
chain technology is itself a new kind of thing. Second is the point that
blockchains are a novel emergence in a generative and systemic sense:
blockchain technology is not a stand-alone and discrete kind of thing
but one that is intertwined with many other aspects of what we are
doing and thinking about ourselves and reality, in both physical and
virtual domains. In addition, blockchains connote the possibility of
“moreness” for our existence in the world and our ability to shape and
create reality. This line of philosophical reasoning suggests that a
blockchain is not just a new widget but rather a new kind of widget.
Taken to the extreme, blockchain technology might constitute a new
and foundational mode of configuring reality. At minimum, block-
chains could lead to a new era of network computing, in which the
secure value transfer of money, assets, and contractual arrangements
can occur in an automated and trustworthy manner via computational
systems. It is as difficult now to foresee the full impact of blockchain
technology as it was (and maybe still is) to estimate the full effect of
the Internet.
While conceptual resources for a better understanding of block-
chain technology have been obtained in this analysis, particularly in
the sense of higher-order generalizations that explain the phenom-
enon, limitations must also be acknowledged. It would be pyrrhic to
have the expectation of a singular and fully formed philosophy of
blockchain as a result of this exercise. In terms of the development of
the field of philosophical inquiry, the philosophy of blockchain is a
topic that is more conceptual than, for example, the formal scientific
progression of ideas through the phases of conjecture, theory, hypoth-
esis, and law. Although perhaps more than conjecture, the philosophy
of blockchain does not yet qualify as a theory. This is because typi-
cally a theory is theoretically well supported, explanatorily powerful,
and phenomenologically robust, with consistency and testability. On
one hand, future efforts could work toward establishing a “theory of
blockchain” in the philosophical domain, building on the ontological
and epistemological claims made here. On the other hand, blockchain
philosophy may never be formalized as a scientific theory, and there
could be arguments against evaluating it this way. The key point is

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618 MELANIE SWAN AND PRIMAVERA DE FILIPPI

that some novel conceptual resources have been obtained in this

exercise.
In conclusion, the primary result of this symposium is that concep-
tual resources have been generated for the problem at hand of achieving
a better understanding of blockchain technology from a philosophical
perspective. This constitutes a successful start toward building a com-
prehensive philosophy of blockchain to the extent that repeated themes
have been identified, in all areas of philosophical inquiry (ontology,
epistemology, and axiology), and ideas have been elaborated to contrib-
ute to a philosophical understanding of blockchain technology. The sec-
ondary result of this symposium is metaphilosophical. This is the
validation of philosophy as a means for understanding a new domain,
and as an investigative tool for the analysis of an emerging technology.
Philosophy as a metaphilosophical approach is demonstrated as one
that can provide an understanding of the conceptual, theoretical, and
foundational dimensions of novelty and emergence in the world, partic-
ularly in this case of the emergence of blockchain technology. The
immediate benefit of substantiating philosophy as an approach for
blockchain studies is that it helps to frame the field of blockchain phi-
losophy. The positivist ontological and epistemological claims made in
this analysis could lead to more specific inquiry in areas ranging from
the foundational to the applied. New areas of investigation might be
inaugurated—for example, critical blockchain studies, the economic
theory implications of blockchains, and an examination of temporality,
risk, and futurity in decentralized financial systems.

Melanie Swan
Department of Philosophy
Purdue University
100 N. University St., 7th floor
West Lafayette, IN 47907
USA
[email protected]

Primavera de Filippi
CERSA/CNRS/Universite Paris II
10 rue Thenard
75005 Paris
France
[email protected]

Acknowledgments
A special thank-you to Renato P. dos Santos, Florian Glaser, and
Craig Hayenga for reviewing certain sections.

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 INTRODUCTION 619

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