DISCUSSION PAPER No.8(17-006)
“Social Capital and Blockchain-based Digital Currencies”
Abstract
Blockchain technology has provided a new way of managing a community and the collective action of stakeholders which are not governed by authorities. On the other hand, social capital also plays the critical role to make community to function. This paper tries to reveal the hidden impact of blockchain technology on social capital, and how blockchain technology can help promote communities. This paper proposes the framework to assess the impact of blockchain-enabled services on social capital, and examine three case studies: local currency, token issuance by individuals, and Bitcoin split. From these exploratory analyses, it is inferred that the impact depends on the design of the services, and the positive impact on social capital would be more expected when the tokens are separated from capitalization based on fiat money and less focused on the direct economic returns.
Keyword
Blockchain, Social Capital, Digital Currency, Bitcoin
December 2017
