Understanding the transformative nature of Blockchain: the top resources

3 min readJan 9, 2018

Blockchain enthusiasts love to share their views on how it is going to transform everything. The conversations on coin market caps and cost basis in financial services fail to capture Blockchains’ true transformational nature. If you think of how the world changed since the infancy of the Web Age in 1992, consider that this technology is more fundamental in several ways. Blockchains compete with economic institutions of capitalism (markets, firms, principal agent relationships, transaction cost theory, etc.) — and in my view Blockchain is weaponized Democracy of sorts.

Blockchain technology will allow developing economies and non-democratic societies to leap frog decades of economic and political institutional struggle. In a matter of years, there might be be legal certainty, property rights enforcement and functioning public institutions, instead of corrupt governments and failed states.

A great many people graciously endured my proselytizing on how blockchain technology will cure the world from abject poverty, corruption, and the like. The information below is my incomplete and growing guide to understanding the transformative nature of Blockchain.

Information is organized into sections: Economists, Researchers and Authors, Luminaries in the space, Videos (explanatory including “die Sendung mit der Maus”), Institutional Perspectives.

Economists — rethinking markets, transaction cost, organizations

Love transaction cost economics, Coase, your firm, and property rights? Get a frame of reference and glimpse on what is in store for markets, principals, agent, cities and states:

For me THE PAPER to understanding the significance of Blockchain: Davidson, Sinclair and De Filippi, Primavera and Potts, Jason, Disrupting Governance: The New Institutional Economics of Distributed Ledger Technology (July 19, 2016). https://ssrn.com/abstract=2811995
If the above title seems too scholarly for you, then go for the shorter intro by some of the same authors: The Blockchain Economy: A beginner’s guide to institutional crypto economics
Equally enlightening, but more practical. After this lecture, you will have more fun arguing with your Chicago friends, supply siders, and key take aways will give you strategies to reduce free riders in BSchool: Byzantine political economy
Some interesting points on transaction economics, crypto and cities: Potts, Jason and Rennie, Ellie and Goldenfein, Jake, Blockchains and the Crypto-City (October 24, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2982885

Researchers and Authors

A great many books and publications now exist on the topic. Enclosed the ones that I found helpful.

Melanie Swan researches social systems and technologies. She has a great website with many resources and I find her slideshare account specifically enlightening.
If you want to read only one book on Blockchain, or your first book, then William Mougayar’s should be top of the pile. William also has a brilliant twitter feed and comprehensive website. Also check out his current take on tokenomics.
More hard core research around technology issues you find with the following authors: Validity Labs, Cornell University, Emin Gun Sirer, Claudio Tessone, Arthur Gervais, Lorenz Breidenbach, [other suggestions welcome].
Great article in the NYT with a comprehensive and thorough analysis, by Stephen Johnson: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/magazine/beyond-the-bitcoin-bubble.html