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Protocol Design as Governance - Eric Alston

Lecture Eric Alston
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Eric Alston presents a curriculum module for his blockchain and finance students, arguing that protocol design functions as governance across four domains: standards, networks, complexity/uncertainty, and constitutive choice. He draws on readings from David Lang, Venkatesh Rao, and his own institutional economics work to argue that protocols are a 'scalar mechanism' for human coordination, distinguishing institutions (exogenously enforced, foreseeable rules) from norms (emergent, ubiquitous constraints), and uses modularity theory to explain how complex systems 'imprison' complexity within subsystems via constitutional-like interfaces.

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Topics

constitutive-choiceconstitutional-entrenchment governance kill-switch-protocols modularity-and-information-hiding norms-vs-institutions-distinction protocol-school-2025 protocols school standards-vs-compulsory-legislation