Realizing a blockchain solution without blockchain? Blockchain, solutionism, and trust

Abstract

Blockchain is employed as a technology holding a solutionist promise, while at the same time, it is hard for the promissory blockchain applications to become realized. Not only is the blockchain protocol itself not foolproof, but when we move from “blockchain in general” to “blockchain in particular,” we see that new governance structures and ways of collaborating need to be developed to make blockchain applications work/become real. The qualities ascribed to (blockchain) technology in abstracto are not to be taken for granted in blockchain applications in concreto. The problem of trust, therefore, does not become redundant simply through the employment of “trustless” blockchain technology. Rather, on different levels, new trust relations have to be constituted. In this article, we argue that blockchain is a productive force, even if it does not solve the problem of trust, and sometimes regardless of blockchain technology not implemented after all. The values that underpin this seemingly “trustless technology” such as control, efficiency, and privacy and the story that is told about these values co-shape the actions of stakeholders and, to a certain extent, pre-sort the path of application development. We will illustrate this by presenting a case study on the Red Button (De Rode Knop), a Dutch pilot to develop a blockchain-based solution that enables people who are in debt to communicate to their creditors that they are, together with the municipality, working on improving their situation, thereby requesting a temporary suspension from debt collection.