In pursuit of good governance for the energy industry blockchain

Abstract

This paper interprets the principles of good governance and corporate governance in the context of distributed ledger technologies, namely blockchain, analyzing specifically how these principles apply to a blockchain-enabled energy market. With blockchain, governance becomes decentralized and automated, creating a new, technical bureaucracy. However, a programmed decision tree does not inevitably produce a digitized democracy and a functional marketplace. While blockchain governance decisions have been predominantly technical, they increasingly embroil legal, moral, cultural and even philosophical considerations. As a result, governance is increasingly recognized as a critical challenge in the future development of blockchain-enabled marketplaces. Future, multidisciplinary research by lawyers, engineers, political scientists and philosophers should venture further into developing good governance principles for blockchain, focusing on equity and inclusion.