Blockchain, Public Trust, Law and Governance

In 2018, blockchain was the word of the year. There was not a day that went by without a news article on a novel application of blockchain technology. This distributed-ledger technology was the solution for corruption in elections in low-trust societies, it would facilitate the registration of land and make the role of notaries superfluous, and it could even replace traditional forms of state identification. Blockchain, a complex technology that is based on peer-to-peer validation, has the potential to address the trust, transparency, and bureaucracy challenges that several public bodies currently face. Furthermore, this technology creates room for new collaboration opportunities between governments and citizens. It verifies close to real time transactions, simplifies regulatory compliance, promises efficiency gains through the reduction of intermediaries, and reduces the risks of fraud and cybercrime. Despite the growing popularity of blockchain, very few legal scholars in 2018 could seriously argue that they understood the functioning of blockchain and only a small number of them was indeed able to explain it to a broader audience. Hundreds of scientific and popular articles and books were published, new academic journals on blockchain were created, and numerous events on blockchain were organized. Nonetheless, the implications of blockchain for public law, and the way in which blockchain can be used to replace the trust that citizens have on state authorities remained largely underexplored. This special issue includes three contributions that were presented at the conference ‘Blockchain, Public Trust, Law and Governance’ which took place at the University of Groningen at the end of 2018. At this two-day event, public law and governance issues regarding blockchain were discussed from different perspectives. This special issue is timely as blockchain has received a great deal of attention in academia and beyond. Throughout the world, multiple governments are experimenting with blockchain in different areas. However, blockchain remains a black box to many citizens, public bodies, and companies.