Blockchain and Property in 2018: At the End of the Beginning

2016 U.S. presidential election that elevated this previously obscure issue to a prominent place in the public discourse. The fundamental problem that has been identified is that the consolidation of power in the hands of a few tech giants has become socially and politically dangerous. Proponents of this idea point to a variety of ills arising from the centralized control of data and of the attention economy in which it is generated, collected, and sold. These include the exploitation of social media marketing by political influence operations, the promulgation of extremist content, algorithmic bias,1. and the monetization of attention.2. A few companies, notably Facebook and Google, effectively control the online marketplace of ideas. As a result, they find themselves responsible for, among other things, policing speech on their platforms. But despite having accumulated powers previously diffused amongst the media, government, and civil society, these platforms are privately governed. And as forprofit enterprises, their interests are aligned not with those of the public, but with those of the shareholders to whom they are accountable. Moreover, the problem is inherently difficult to correct. The ubiquity of these platforms makes it hard for even the most socially-conscious users to “vote with BLOCKCHAIN AND PROPERTY IN 2018