![]() Fridgen, Gilbert ![]() ![]() ![]() E-print/Working paper (2023) Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) took the digital art space by storm in 2021, generating massive amounts of volume and attracting a large number of users to a previously obscure part of blockchain technology ... [more ▼] Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) took the digital art space by storm in 2021, generating massive amounts of volume and attracting a large number of users to a previously obscure part of blockchain technology. Still, very little is known about the determinants that contribute to NFT pricing and the market dynamics. This paper attempts to evaluate these factors analyzing 860,067 art NFTs that have been deployed on the Ethereum blockchain and have been involved in 317,950 sales. We introduce a first-of-its-kind ranking system for NFT artists, adding a novel dimension to our analysis. Our results suggest that market liquidity and intrinsic value strongly predict average price of NFTs. Contrarily, social media activity surprisingly shows a negative association with NFT prices. We also uncover the dominance of a small group of artists, demonstrating the pronounced 'superstar effect' and herding behavior within the NFT market. This market dynamic, however, shows signs of shifting towards independent decision-making during extreme market volatility. [less ▲] Detailed reference viewed: 48 (12 UL)![]() Barbereau, Tom Josua ![]() ![]() ![]() in Technology in Society (2023), 73 Ethereum's public distributed ledger can issue tokenised voting rights that are tradable on crypto-asset exchanges by potentially anyone. Ethereum thus enables global, unincorporated associations to ... [more ▼] Ethereum's public distributed ledger can issue tokenised voting rights that are tradable on crypto-asset exchanges by potentially anyone. Ethereum thus enables global, unincorporated associations to conduct governance experiments. Such experiments are crucial to Decentralised Finance (DeFi). DeFi is a nascent field of unlicensed, unregulated, and non-custodial financial services that utilise public distributed ledgers and crypto-assets rather than corporate structures and sovereign currencies. The inaugural Bloomberg Galaxy DeFi Index, launched in August 2021, included nine Ethereum-based projects – non-custodial exchanges as well as lending and derivatives platforms. Each project is governed, at least in part, by unregistered holders of tokenised voting rights (also known as governance tokens). Token-holders typically vote for or against coders' improvement proposals that pertain to anything from the allocation of treasury funds to a collateral's risk parameters. DeFi's governance thus depends on the distribution and exercise of tokenised voting rights. Since archetypal DeFi projects are not managed by companies or public institutions, not much is known about DeFi's governance. Regulators and law-makers from the United States recently asked if DeFi's governance entails a new class of “shadowy” elites. In response, we conducted an exploratory, multiple-case study that focused on the tokenised voting rights issued by the nine projects from Bloomberg's inaugural Galaxy DeFi index. Our mixed methods approach drew on Ethereum-based data about the distribution, trading, staking, and delegation of voting rights tokens, as well as project documentation and archival records. We discovered that DeFi projects' voting rights are highly concentrated, and the exercise of these rights is very low. Our theoretical contribution is a philosophical intervention: minority rule, not “democracy”, is the probable outcome of token-tradable voting rights and a lack of applicable anti-concentration laws. We interpret DeFi's minority rule as timocratic. [less ▲] Detailed reference viewed: 62 (13 UL)![]() Delgado Fernandez, Joaquin ![]() ![]() ![]() E-print/Working paper (2022) With advancements in distributed ledger technologies and smart contracts, tokenized voting rights gained prominence within Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Voting rights tokens (aka. governance tokens) are ... [more ▼] With advancements in distributed ledger technologies and smart contracts, tokenized voting rights gained prominence within Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Voting rights tokens (aka. governance tokens) are fungible tokens that grant individual holders the right to vote upon the fate of a project. The motivation behind these tokens is to achieve decentral control. Because the initial allocations of these tokens is often un-democratic, the DeFi project Yearn Finance experimented with a fair launch allocation where no tokens are pre-mined and all participants have an equal opportunity to receive them. Regardless, research on voting rights tokens highlights the formation of oligarchies over time. The hypothesis is that the tokens' tradability is the cause of concentration. To examine this proposition, this paper uses an Agent-based Model to simulate and analyze the concentration of voting rights tokens post fair launch under different trading modalities. It serves to examine three distinct token allocation scenarios considered as fair. The results show that regardless of the allocation, concentration persistently occurs. It confirms the hypothesis that the disease is endogenous: the cause of concentration is the tokens tradablility. The findings inform theoretical understandings and practical implications for on-chain governance mediated by tokens. [less ▲] Detailed reference viewed: 221 (19 UL)![]() Barbereau, Tom Josua ![]() ![]() ![]() E-print/Working paper (2022) Decentralised finance (DeFi) is a category of unlicensed, unregulated, and non-custodial financial services that utilise public, distributed ledgers like Ethereum. The Bloomberg Galaxy DeFi Index ... [more ▼] Decentralised finance (DeFi) is a category of unlicensed, unregulated, and non-custodial financial services that utilise public, distributed ledgers like Ethereum. The Bloomberg Galaxy DeFi Index, launched in August 2021, includes nine Ethereum-based projects – non-custodial exchanges as well as lending and derivatives platforms. Each project is governed, at least in part, by a community of unregistered individuals that hold tradable voting rights tokens (also known as governance tokens). Voting rights tokens allow holders to vote on proposed changes to a DeFi project’s features, parameters, or rules. DeFi’s governance power is thus linked to the distribution and exercise of tokenised voting rights. Since DeFi projects are typically not managed by companies or public institutions, not much is known about DeFi’s governance. Regulators and law-makers from the United States recently asked if DeFi’s governance entails a new class of “shadowy” elites. In response, we conducted an exploratory, multiple-case study that focuses on the voting rights tokens issued by the nine projects from Bloomberg’s Galaxy DeFi index. Our mixed methods approach draws on Ethereum-based data about the distribution, trading, and staking of voting rights tokens, as well as project documentation and archival records. Our findings contribute knowledge about the entitlements of DeFi’s voting rights tokens, the initial distribution strategies, and the actual voting and delegation activity. Our principal finding is that DeFi’s voting rights are highly concentrated, and the exercise of these rights is very low. Our theoretical contribution is descriptive: minority rule is the probable consequence of tradable voting rights plus the lack of applicable anti-concentration or anti-monopoly laws. We interpret DeFi’s minority rule as timocratic and acknowledge its possible transition to oligarchy. [less ▲] Detailed reference viewed: 80 (13 UL)![]() Barbereau, Tom Josua ![]() ![]() ![]() in Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2022 (2022, January) Bitcoin and Ethereum are frequently promoted as decentralized, but developers and academics question their actual decentralization. This motivates further experiments with public permissionless ... [more ▼] Bitcoin and Ethereum are frequently promoted as decentralized, but developers and academics question their actual decentralization. This motivates further experiments with public permissionless blockchains to achieve decentralization along technical, economic, and political lines. The distribution of tokenized voting rights aims for political decentralization. Tokenized voting rights achieved notoriety within the nascent field of decentralized finance (DeFi) in 2020. As an alternative to centralized crypto-asset exchanges and lending platforms (owned by companies like Coinbase and Celsius), DeFi developers typically create non-custodial projects that are not majority-owned or managed by legal entities. Holders of tokenized voting rights can instead govern DeFi projects. To scrutinize DeFi’s distributed governance strategies, we conducted a multiple-case study of non-custodial, Ethereum-based DeFi projects: Uniswap, Maker, SushiSwap, Yearn Finance, and UMA. Our findings are novel and surprising: quantitative evaluations of DeFi’s distributed governance strategies reveal a failure to achieve political decentralization. [less ▲] Detailed reference viewed: 856 (70 UL)![]() Papageorgiou, Orestis ![]() ![]() Report (2021) The purpose of this thematic report is to present an updated view of the aspects related to the energy efficiency of blockchain technologies. The topic of energy consumption of blockchains and especially ... [more ▼] The purpose of this thematic report is to present an updated view of the aspects related to the energy efficiency of blockchain technologies. The topic of energy consumption of blockchains and especially of the Bitcoin blockchain has recently triggered a lot of discussions and a debate has started on the topic of making Bitcoin a sustainable ecosystem. [less ▲] Detailed reference viewed: 178 (8 UL) |
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