Barriers and drivers to blockchain adoption: large-scale text analyses and survey experiments with African regulators. |
Eliza R Oak, Dr. Emmanuel Joel Aikins Abakah, & Mohammad Abdullah |
Yale, University of Ghana, & UniSZA, Malaysia |
This project will use digital trace data to collect data from interviews, surveys and other sources to identify the main drivers and barriers of blockchain adoption in Africa. The project will scrape data from news articles, Google trends and social media to create a country-level Blockchain Attitudes Adoption Index. It will then compare it with measures such as financial Sector stability. The research will be focused on Ghana, as a study of original data to assess perceived potential benefits of blockchain and its risks from individuals’ and regulators’ perspectives. |
Blockchain Censorship: Quantitative Analysis on Censorship of Public Blockchains |
Anton Wharstätter, Prof. Arthur Gervais, Liyi Zhou, Aviv Yaish, Kaihua Qin, Jens Ernstberger, Sebastian Steinhorst, Davor Svetinovic, Nicholas Christin, & Mikołaj Barczentewicz |
Technical University of Munich, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Hebrew University, Imperial College London, University College London, Carnegie Mellon University, & University of Surrey |
Investigate the implications of censorship on blockchains. The research will formalize and quantify the security impact of Blockchain censorship by presenting a holistic view of censorship at the consensus layer and the application layer. It will also dissect the quantitative extent and investigate the historical transaction confirmation delays on Ethereum. |
DAO Model Law |
Dr. Primavera De Filippi, Dr. Morshed Mannan, Silke Elrifai, Fatemah Fannizadeh, Constance Choi, Ori Shimony, & Rick Dudley |
COALA (Coalition of Legal Automated Applications), |
This project is aimed at updating and revising the DAO Model Law V1.0, which was first released in 2021. The goal is to take into account the advancements in technology, changes in governance standards and other factors that have occurred in the past two-years. It also aims to add the necessary amendments to the DAO Model Law so it can be used in different legal frameworks around the world. This effort builds on prior efforts work It has already affected the DAO legal frameworks of jurisdictions like Utah and New Hampshire. |
Ethereum microcredit financial Inclusion in a developing nation: Understanding the barriers and drivers |
Dr. Shazim Khalid, & Andrei O.J. Kwok |
Monash University |
This research will interview key stakeholders to understand the experiences, obstacles, and opportunities associated with using Ethereum as microcredit system in Kenya. The study’s goal is to inform policymakers by focusing on users’ perceptions of Ethereum’s reliability and effectiveness. financial The blockchain-based microcredit system will be discussed with developers, institutions and financial institutions. These insights can be used to refine the Ethereum Ecosystem to better suit the needs of users in areas that do not have access to traditional financing. financial services. |
Ethereum Development: A Blockchain for Communication |
Dr. Silvia Bartolucci, Dr. Giuseppi Destefanis, Dr. Rumanya Neykova, & Dr. Marco Urtu |
University College London, Brunel University London, & University of Cagliari |
This research proposes a detailed analysis of the Ethereum community, as well as the software complexity of open-source projects.source projects. The study uses network theory and sentiment analyses to understand the dynamics of the Ethereum developer community, predict internal conflicts, and visualize the data. This toolkit will improve transparency and understanding by leveraging comprehensive datasets from Github.source Projects and development techniques for practitioners as well as end-users. |
Ethereum Postdoctoral scholar (Legal). |
Reuben Youngblom |
MIT DCI |
This grant will create a postdoctoral position in MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative to bridge the gap between technical and legal understanding of digital currencies. Reuben Youngblom, a Stanford Law professor and MIT researcher, will provide technical exposure to the recent graduates in this position. The goal is for new legal professionals to have a deeper understanding of technical nuances within the digital currency landscape. This will help with better regulation and practice. |
Crypto Currency: An Ethnography |
Annaliese Milano |
London School of Economics |
This project aims to address the lack in depth academic exploration of cryptocurrency communities by leveraging two years of empirical study to produce an ethnographic analysis of the Ethereum community, and its relationship to the Bitcoin community. The investigation is being led by Anthropologists with expertise in immersive and long-term community study. The primary goals are to increase understanding of the cryptocurrency social layer for better protocol design and to correct outsiders’ misconceptions of these communities’ objectives. |
Governance archaeology in decentralized communities |
Prof. Nathan Schneider, & Prof. Federica Carugati |
University of Colorado Boulder |
The Governance Archaeology project aims to provide a global resource of historical governance practice, particularly from non-Western contexts, in order to facilitate collective governance and encourage institutional learning. The project will extend an existing prototype to include a wider range of practices. It will analyze emerging patterns and make the resource accessible and editable in an open-source format.source tool. In addition, a Web3 workshop will be conducted to maximize the use of this database by the community, contributing to successful and sustainable self governance strategies. |
Ethereum neutrality is legal and credible |
Mikołaj Barczentewicz |
Independent |
This project is designed to protect Ethereum’s status of a public network that operates without permission. It will explore the potential legal liabilities and implications for network participants such as validators in situations where they are given discretionary powers. This project was motivated by the possible risks that legal accountability might pose to Ethereum’s operations and structure. It is proposing to conduct in depth research on how legal risks can best be addressed, and whether they should influence protocol development. |
The missing puzzle of DAO socialware can be solved by combining Eastern cultures. |
Sujin Keen, twinfin, & Sunghooon Jin |
DAOeast Movement |
This research project named DAOeast aims to investigate’socialware,’ the component that fosters trusted communities by reciprocal noncontractual relationships. The study will use a diachronic method to examine socialware from the perspective of East Asian philosophy that is’relation-centric.’ It will also contemplate the convergence between Western philosophies that champion individual freedom and Eastern ones emphasizing the importance of human connection. |
Open-Source Software Development and Community Dynamics. Historical Insights and Implications for Ethereum |
Dr. Mariia Petryk & Dr. Jiasun Li |
Independent |
You can learn more about Ethereum by exploring its open-source code.source This project will apply data-driven analytics techniques to the open-source ecosystem. It builds on the team’s existing expertise in open-sourcesource Research into software. The plan is formal test hypotheses using studies on the evolution of open-source software.source software. The project is aimed at uncovering patterns relevant to Ethereum. By doing so, it hopes to provide guidance to guide the long-term growth of the Ethereum ecosphere. |
The Social Layer – An Ethnography on Ethereum Development |
Ann Brody & Dr. Paul Dylan-Ennis |
Independent |
This project will conduct an ethnographic research on Ethereum client developers who were involved in the Shanghai Hard Fork. Interviews will be used to explore the perspectives of developers and how they deal with community expectations and pressures. The research aims to gain an understanding of how Ethereum core developers manage ‘transparency” throughout the Shanghai Hard Fork development process and build trust with the wider community. |