---
title: "Institutional Discovery and Competition in the Evolution of Blockchain Technology"
author: "Berg, C.; Davidson, S.; Potts, J."
date: "2018-07-26"
url: "https://chrisberg.org/2018/07/institutional-discovery-and-competition-in-the-evolution-of-blockchain-technology/"
type: "Working papers"
published_in: "Working paper, SSRN"
doi: "10.2139/ssrn.3220072"
topics: "Institutional economics and public choice"
---

# Institutional Discovery and Competition in the Evolution of Blockchain Technology

*With Sinclair Davidson and Jason Potts*

**Abstract:** Blockchains are an institutional technology for facilitating decentralised exchange. As open-source software, anybody can develop their own blockchain, ‘fork’ an existing blockchain, or stack a new blockchain on top of an existing one – creating a new environment for exchange with its own rules (institutions) and (crypto)currency. Since the creation of Bitcoin in 2008, blockchains have proliferated, each offering iterative institutional variation. Blockchains present a discrete space in which we can observe the process of institutional discovery through competition. This paper looks at the evolution of blockchains as a Hayekian discovery process. The public nature of blockchains – most blockchains offer public transaction – allows us to observe experimentation and competition at an institutional level with a precision previously unavailable compared to other instances of institutional competition.

[Available at SSRN.](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3220072)