I am particularly interested in how blockchain might allow for new forms of trust in the digital environment and beyond. One way of doing this, I reckon, is to find accessible use cases and study the interaction between users and the platform or any other combination of human-computer interaction. Yet, at this stage, I find it really hard to select case studies and especially to define a research question which is both coherent with trust research literature and blockchain studies. How would you approach this?
Good question! Blockchain is supposed to be a trust mechanism between parties that have not established any trust between them — there is no history of good behavior. Maybe the question to ask is can blockchain be a long term substitute for trust? Or, do we as humans, prefer to interact/deal with those we feel comfortable with, and have a positive history with?
Indeed a very interesting topic! And a bit puzzling, if you want to undertake empirical research on it. How could you observe, if people, who use blockchain technology (for what purpose), do trust the technology or, if the technology itself disburdens users from seeking for trustful relationships. Maybe it makes sense to start with a rather shirt-sleeved preliminary examination. Observe/interview blockchain users (broker or someone els engaged in fintech) how they use blockchain technology and what the changes are to their prior working/business strategies.
On the function of trust i still recommend Luhmanns' analysis: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Trust+and+Power-p-9781509519453
Would be interested to know how you will continue, so please post an update.
I would look at related research about trust in technology first.
Trust in general is very much a social construct. What different in blockchains is the trust is mitigated through the technology, and not put in the hands of third parties(think financial institutes, governments, etc.). The question is, by using blockchains are we back to trusting eachother as humans, or are we still putting trust in the technology.
But I would argue in most cases, there are still different layers you need to trust before you interact with the blockchain. In day to day use-cases, using a blockchain application/dapp, shouldn't be different from using an app using centralized data structure.
However, I recommend reading this article which explore smart contracts as social contracts.
Article Governance in Blockchain Technologies & Social Contract Theories
Interesting question. I think it is extremely important not to get carried away by the technology issue here - is block chains and the way they work very different from eg money or other generalized media? True there is a technology behind blockchains that substitute the government backing of money or legal codification but i all three cases the issue of trust is probably more concerned with other people than the medium it self: do other people trust in this system? If not, they stop using it and the system collapses even if it is technologically sound. I would look at Simmels philosophy of money and his discussion of trust in regards to money to get at this questions. This means that you should look at both emergent systems and established systems to figure out 1. what kinds of expectations of other peoples behaviour do system-trustors have and 2. how are these expectations established and how are they broken down? Technology will play a key part here, but fundamentally, i think trust has to do with the agency of others.
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