IntroductionUnderstanding the Concept of DAOs Benefits and Challenges of Implementing DAOs Chapter 1: Establishing Strategic Governance with the Help of DAOsWhat is Strategic Governance? The Role of DAOs in Strategic Governance Key Considerations for Implementing DAO-based Governance Case Studies and Examples Chapter 2: Comprehensive Guide on Structuring and Safeguarding DAOsDAO Structure and Organization Legal and Regulatory Considerations Security and Risk Mitigation Strategies Best Practices for Safeguarding DAO Assets Chapter 3: Using DAOs to Prepare for Integral Hard ForksUnderstanding Hard Forks in the Context of DAOs Leveraging DAOs for Seamless Hard Fork Transitions Planning and Execution Strategies for DAO Hard Forks Case Studies and Lessons Learned Chapter 4: How to Create a Fair and Democratic Ecosystem with the Help of DAOsPrinciples of Fairness and Democracy in DAOs Designing Inclusive Decision-Making Processes Ensuring Equal Participation and Representation Tools and Techniques for Building a Fair DAO Ecosystem Chapter 5: How to Protect DAOs from Internal Threats?Identifying Internal Threats to DAOs Implementing Security Measures and Auditing Dealing with Governance Attacks and Manipulation Recovery and Resilience Strategies Chapter 6: How to Go About Democratic Governance in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)?Core Principles of Democratic Governance Strategies for Effective DAO Governance Balancing Autonomy and Governance in DAOs Case Studies and Successful Examples Chapter 7: How to Empower Democratic Integrity in DAOs?Ensuring Transparency and Accountability Building Trust and Reputation Systems Addressing Governance Disputes and Conflict Resolution Promoting Ethical Practices and Values Chapter 8: Using Voting and Escrow Mechanisms to Strengthen DAOsUnderstanding Voting and Escrow in DAOs Different Voting Models and Mechanisms Leveraging Escrow for Secure Transactions Enhancing DAO Governance through Voting and Escrow Chapter 9: Navigating the Era of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)Evolution and Future Trends of DAOs Potential Applications and Industries Impacted Regulatory and Legal Landscape Challenges and Opportunities Ahead ConclusionRecap of Key Insights Final Thoughts on DAO Implementation and Governance

“Blockchains will matter crucially; this book, beautifully and clearly written for a wide audience, powerfully demonstrates how.” —Lawrence Lessig “Attempts to do for blockchain what the likes of Lawrence Lessig and Tim Wu did for the Internet and cyberspace—explain how a new technology will upend the current legal and social order... Blockchain and the Law is not just a theoretical guide. It’s also a moral one.” —Fortune Bitcoin has been hailed as an Internet marvel and decried as the preferred transaction vehicle for criminals. It has left nearly everyone without a computer science degree confused: how do you “mine” money from ones and zeros? The answer lies in a technology called blockchain. A general-purpose tool for creating secure, decentralized, peer-to-peer applications, blockchain technology has been compared to the Internet in both form and impact. Blockchains are being used to create “smart contracts,” to expedite payments, to make financial instruments, to organize the exchange of data and information, and to facilitate interactions between humans and machines. But by cutting out the middlemen, they run the risk of undermining governmental authorities’ ability to supervise activities in banking, commerce, and the law. As this essential book makes clear, the technology cannot be harnessed productively without new rules and new approaches to legal thinking. “If you...don’t ‘get’ crypto, this is the book-length treatment for you.” —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution “De Filippi and Wright stress that because blockchain is essentially autonomous, it is inflexible, which leaves it vulnerable, once it has been set in motion, to the sort of unforeseen consequences that laws and regulations are best able to address.” —James Ryerson, New York Times Book Review

The growth of Blockchain technology presents a number of legal questions for lawyers, regulators and industry participants alike. Primarily, regulators must allow Blockchain technology to develop whilst also ensuring it is not being abused. This book addresses the challenges posed by various applications of Blockchain technology, such as cryptocurrencies, smart contracts and initial coin offerings, across different fields of law. Contributors explore whether the problems posed by Blockchain and its applications can be addressed within the present legal system or whether significant rethinking is required.

Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009 several hundred different ‘cryptocurrencies’ have been developed and become accepted for a wide variety of transactions in leading online commercial marketplaces and the ‘sharing economy’, as well as by more traditional retailers, manufacturers, and even by charities and political parties. Bitcoin and its competitors have also garnered attention for their wildly fluctuating values as well as implication in international money laundering, Ponzi schemes and online trade in illicit goods and services across borders. These and other controversies surrounding cryptocurrencies have induced varying governance responses by central banks, government ministries, international organizations, and industry regulators worldwide. Besides formal attempts to ban Bitcoin, there have been multifaceted efforts to incorporate elements of blockchains, the peer-to-peer technology underlying cryptocurrencies, in the wider exchange, recording, and broadcasting of digital transactions. Blockchains are being mobilized to support and extend an array of governance activities. The novelty and breadth of growing blockchain-based activities have fuelled both utopian promises and dystopian fears regarding applications of the emergent technology to Bitcoin and beyond. This volume brings scholars of anthropology, economics, Science and Technology Studies, and sociology together with GPE scholars in assessing the actual implications posed by Bitcoin and blockchains for contemporary global governance. Its interdisciplinary contributions provide academics, policymakers, industry practitioners and the general public with more nuanced understandings of technological change in the changing character of governance within and across the borders of nation-states.

How the blockchain—a system built on foundations of mutual mistrust—can become trustworthy. The blockchain entered the world on January 3, 2009, introducing an innovative new trust architecture: an environment in which users trust a system—for example, a shared ledger of information—without necessarily trusting any of its components. The cryptocurrency Bitcoin is the most famous implementation of the blockchain, but hundreds of other companies have been founded and billions of dollars invested in similar applications since Bitcoin's launch. Some see the blockchain as offering more opportunities for criminal behavior than benefits to society. In this book, Kevin Werbach shows how a technology resting on foundations of mutual mistrust can become trustworthy. The blockchain, built on open software and decentralized foundations that allow anyone to participate, seems like a threat to any form of regulation. In fact, Werbach argues, law and the blockchain need each other. Blockchain systems that ignore law and governance are likely to fail, or to become outlaw technologies irrelevant to the mainstream economy. That, Werbach cautions, would be a tragic waste of potential. If, however, we recognize the blockchain as a kind of legal technology that shapes behavior in new ways, it can be harnessed to create tremendous business and social value.

The authors present a method for systemically comparing alternative institutional arrangements for the development of rural infrastructure.

Learn how to use Solidity and the Ethereum project – second only to Bitcoin in market capitalization. Blockchain protocols are taking the world by storm, and the Ethereum project, with its Turing-complete scripting language Solidity, has rapidly become a front-runner. This book presents the blockchain phenomenon in context; then situates Ethereum in a world pioneered by Bitcoin. See why professionals and non-professionals alike are honing their skills in smart contract patterns and distributed application development. You'll review the fundamentals of programming and networking, alongside its introduction to the new discipline of crypto-economics. You'll then deploy smart contracts of your own, and learn how they can serve as a back-end for JavaScript and HTML applications on the Web. Many Solidity tutorials out there today have the same flaw: they are written for “advanced” JavaScript developers who want to transfer their skills to a blockchain environment. Introducing Ethereum and Solidity is accessible to technology professionals and enthusiasts of all levels. You’ll find exciting sample code that can move forward real world assets in both the academic and the corporate arenas. Find out now why this book is a powerful gateway for creative technologists of all types, from concept to deployment. What You’ll Learn See how Ethereum (and other cryptocurrencies) work Compare distributed apps (dapps) to web apps Write Ethereum smart contracts in Solidity Connect Ethereum smart contracts to your HTML/CSS/JavaScript web applications Deploy your own dapp, coin, and blockchain Work with basic and intermediate smart contracts Who This Book Is For Anyone who is curious about Ethereum or has some familiarity with computer science Product managers, CTOs, and experienced JavaScript programmers Experts will find the advanced sample projects in this book rewarding because of the power of Solidity