Edward Elgar Publishing Blockchain + Antitrust: The Decentralization Formula

This innovative and original book explores the relationship between blockchain and antitrust, highlighting the mutual benefits that stem from cooperation between the two and providing a unique perspective on how law and technology could cooperate. Delivering a legal, economic, and technical analysis of antitrust and blockchain, Thibault Schrepel provides a well-rounded examination of their mutual flaws and the limitations that occur when they ignore each other. He explores the anticompetitive practices that may arise in the field as well as covering enforcement issues before showcasing the potential of blockchain and antitrust to complement one another. He offers different ways of creating effective regulations and enforcement mechanisms for the purpose of benefiting their common interests. Covering key topics such as decentralization, blockchain evolution, and the objectives of competition law, this book will be of particular interest to academics and students researching at the intersection of law and technology. It will also be useful for legal practitioners interested in blockchain, as well as antitrust agencies and policy-makers. Review ‘Grounded in Schrepel's solid understanding of the law and technology debate, this book offers a unique framework and important guide for thinking through the many ways in which Antitrust law and Blockchain technologies can be complementary and create efficiencies from collaboration.’ – Roland Vogl, CodeX - The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, US ‘Packed with stimulating suggestions and insights, this is the first book exploring the role of competition law in regulating blockchain. Thibault Schrepel skillfully blends an accessible examination of the technology at play with a discussion about how competition law should be applied to both control and support its development.’– Giorgio Monti, Tilburg University, the Netherlands ‘Traditional financial payment systems run by banks or by tech companies such as PayPal have natural network effects, and are held to be open to some degree of monopoly. Blockchain systems, because they are highly distributed and transparent, are often said to be free of such tendencies. Thibault Schrepel argues this isn’t true: blockchains may foster anticompetitive practices in many ways. As our economic world moves increasingly into cryptocurrencies and blockchain transactions, Schrepel’s analysis and suggested remedies are both timely and important.’– W. Brian Arthur, Santa Fe Institute, US ‘Data and Antitrust have become a hot button issue. However, as of yet there is little legal scholarly writing on the topic of how blockchain with its promise of data integrity will change this debate. This book tries to do precisely that, and is an incredibly useful read for any legal scholar interested in the digital space.’– Catherine Tucker, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US ‘Thibault Schrepel’s Blockchain + Antitrust: the Decentralization Formula, is an eminently readable and satisfying examination of the history, technology, and incipient law of Blockchain – from its historical roots in a libertarian search for order, to its complex and often misunderstood internal workings, and finally to the abundant legal concerns that might loom in the future. This book is particularly helpful for someone who needs to be guided through Blockchain’s most important technical and operational elements.’– Herbert Hovenkamp, University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Wharton School, US ‘By reducing transaction costs and facilitating trust among parties to transactions, blockchains reduce the need for centralized legal structures in economic activity. They also make transactions less transparent to regulators and can be used to harbor anticompetitive practices. Hence they contribute to deconcentrating economic structures and, simultaneously, raise challenges for competition law enforcement. However, competition authorities can also benefit from th