Department of Economics and Business - Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Title:: Blockchain's struggle to deliver impersonal exchange
Author:: Benito ArruÃ±ada
Date:: January 2017 (Revised: January 2017)
Abstract:: The paper identifies what value blockchain adds to the contractual and property processes, exploring its potential and analyzing the main difficulties it is facing. It argues that, contrary to naive conceptions that proclaim the end of intermediaries and state involvement, blockchain applications will rely on a variety of interface, completion and enforcement specialists, including standard public interventions, especially for property transactions. Without these interventions, blockchain applications will at most enable trade in in personam claims—instead of in rem rights—, therefore facilitating personal instead of truly impersonal—that is, asset-based—transactions.
Keywords:: property rights, enforcement, transaction costs, impersonal exchange, blockchain, distributed ledgers.
JEL codes:: D23, K11, K12, L85, G38, H41, O17, P48.
Area of Research:: Business Economics and Industrial Organization
Published in:: Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology, 19, 55-105.

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