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Blockchains have enabled innovation in distributed economic institutions, such as money (e.g., cryptocurrencies) and markets (e.g., decentralised exchanges), but also innovations in distributed governance, such as decentralised autonomous organisations. These innovations have generated academic interest in studying web3 governance, but as yet there is no general theory of web3 governance. In this paper, we draw on the contrast between a 'romantic view' of governance (characterised by consensus through community voting) and the 'exchange view' of governance from public choice theory (characterised by an entrepreneurial process of bargaining and exchange of voters under uncertainty). Our analysis is the first to argue that the latter 'exchange view' of governance is best to understand the dynamics of governance innovation in web3, providing the foundations for a new general theory of governance in this frontier field. We apply the 'exchange view' of governance to three case studies (Curve, Lido and Metagov), exploring how these projects enable pseudonymous, composable and permissionless governance processes to reveal value. Our approach helps illuminate how this emergent polycentric governance process can generate robustness in decentralised systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of regulatory accumulation has increasingly been recognised as a policy problem in its own right. Governments have then devised and implemented regulatory reform policies that directly seek to ameliorate the burdens of regulatory accumulation (e.g. red tape reduction targets). In this paper we examine regulatory reform approaches in Australia through the lens of policy innovation. Our contributions are twofold. We first examine the evolutionary discovery process of regulatory reform policies in Australia (at the federal, intergovernmental, and state levels). This demonstrates a process of policy innovation in regulatory mechanisms and measurements. We then analyse a new measurement of regulatory burden based on text analytics, RegData: Australia. RegData: Australia uses textual analysis to count 'restrictiveness clauses' in regulation – such as 'must', 'cannot' and 'shall' – thereby developing a new database (RDAU1.0). We place this 'restrictiveness clauses' measurement within the context of regulatory policy innovation, and examine the potential for further innovation in regulatory reform mechanisms. This paper examines the political economy of regulatory reform in Australia. We analyse regulatory reduction mechanisms and measurements as a process of policy innovation. We introduce RegData: Australia – a new project aimed at quantifying regulation using textual analytics – as an input into further regulatory reform innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright law continues to be in crisis owing to its historical relationship with technology. Taking an Australian focus and a "ledger-centric" view of the economy, the authors propose that copyright law has been challenged by technology in two distinct ways. First, advances in production technologies allow for new forms of creative expression--leading to legislative changes to enhance copyright coverage. Secondly, advances in information and communications technologies enable new types of storage and wider distribution of copyright material--leading to legislative changes to overcome enforcement issues. Blockchain technology does not have an obvious historical parallel as it is not a production or an information and communications technology. Specifically, blockchain is an institutional technology that reveals new possibilities for governing copyright rights. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of blockchain technology's new entry into the historical record of copyright law and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technology acts as infrastructure for self-executing smart contracts. Because contracts are incomplete and some parties are opportunistic, these new contracting possibilities create dispute resolution challenges. For instance, will smart contracts be recognized, and any disputes resolved, within the existing territorial courts? In this Article, we first map some institutional governance possibilities for contracting parties (e.g. mediation, private arbitration, and courts) to create a Dispute Resolution Possibility Frontier (DRPF). Second, we provide case studies of emerging blockchain-based dispute resolution mechanisms. Blockchain-based smart contracts create a source of new disputes requiring resolution, but also can serve as a technology that facilitates new methods of dispute resolution, including for disputes arising from traditional legal contracts. Contracting parties will subjectively make tradeoffs for their most effective dispute resolution mechanism, and the costs of dispute resolution will change over time through a process of institutional innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]