Today’s Collaborative Economy relies on centralized hubs for data collection, where communities are disempowered and economic profits are concentrated. I present P2P Models, a new €1.5 million, EU-funded research project to build blockchain-powered organizations which are decentralized, democratic and distribute their profits. http://p2pmodels.eu Presented in Harvard's EconCS research group at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), in September 2017. Full video available in https://video.seas.harvard.edu/media/Samer_Hassan+2017+09+15-EconCS_Seminar-/1_keyt2szw (This presentation is a composition of text and images; Text is released under open license CC BY 4.0 Int; Images are copyrighted and used under Fair Use).

1. Samer Hassan @samerP2P
P2P MODELS
Decentralized Blockchain-based Organizations
for Bootstrapping the Collaborative Economy

2. $15B (2015)
$335B (2025)
Collaborative
Economy

3. Challenges
A: Infrastructure.
Centralized Surveillance
B: Governance
Disempowered Communities
C: Economics
Concentration of Profits

4. Challenges
A: Infrastructure.
Centralized Surveillance
B: Governance
Disempowered Communities
C: Economics
Concentration of Profits

5. Challenges
A: Infrastructure.
Centralized Surveillance
C: Economics
Concentration of Profits
B: Governance
Disempowered Communities

6. P2P MODELS Research Question
Can we build online platforms that rely on...
● …Decentralized infrastructure?
● ...Democratic organization?
● ...Distribution of profits?

7. P2P MODELS Project
● Principal Investigator: Samer Hassan
● Host Institution: Univ. Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
● Budget: 1.5M€
● Funding Body: European Research Council
● Duration: 2017-2022

8. Digital Currency

9. Decentralization

10. Decentralized Digital Currency?

11. Blockchain
Centralized Distributed with
Blockchain

12. Blockchain
Centralized Distributed with
Blockchain

13. Blockchain
Centralized Distributed with
Blockchain
A synchronization
mechanism for a
database replicated in a
trustless P2P network

14. Bitcoin
Centralized Distributed with
Blockchain

15. Bitcoin as Gold

16. Bitcoin as Gold

17. Altcoins
Centralized Distributed with
Blockchain

18. Smart Contracts
Centralized Distributed with
Blockchain
Smart Contract

19. Decentralized Autonomous
Organizations (DAOs)

20. Challenges
A: Infrastructure.
Centralized Surveillance
B: Governance
Disempowered Communities
C: Economics
Concentration of Profits

21. Goal A1:
Building DAOs

22. Goal A1:
Building DAOs

23. Goal A2:
DAOs for Collab. Economy

24. Outcome:
Framework

25. Challenges
A: Infrastructure.
Centralized Surveillance
B: Governance
Disempowered Communities
C: Economics
Concentration of Profits

26. Goal B:
Encode Governance Models

27. Goal B:
Encode Governance Models

28. Challenges
A: Infrastructure.
Centralized Surveillance
C: Economics
Concentration of Profits
B: Governance
Disempowered Communities

29. Goal C:
Encode Economic Models

30. Goal C:
Encode Economic Models

31. Outcome:
Models
COLLABORATIVE
MODULES
ECONOMIC
MODELS
GOVERNANCE
MODELS

32. Methods:
Simulation

33. Methods:
Social Research
COLLABORATIVE MODULESECONOMIC MODELS GOVERNANCE MODELS

34. Outcome:
Pilots & Testbed
3 Flagship Pilots
Agile & Lean Development
Rapid Prototyping

35. Outcome:
Pilots & Testbed
3 Flagship Pilots

36. ● What are the limits of purely
technical governance?
● How autonomous can these
agent-mediated organizations be?
● Can we encode
democratic-by-design models?
Testbed for Experimentation:
Governance

37. ● Which forms of incentives increase
productivity?
● Which incentives disrupt
collaborative dynamics?
● How they affect the governance
and vice-versa?
Testbed for Experimentation:
Economics

38. New Generation Collaborative Economy
New field
● Interdisciplinary
● Agent-mediated orgs

39. Changing the Rules
of the Game?
Open Interoperable EcosystemCentralized Monopolies

40. Questions on P2P MODELS?
WP1: Framework
WP2: Models
WP3:
Social Research
WP4-5:
Pilots & Testbed

41. Backup Slides

42. (Quick) Blockchain 101

43. Blockchain 101: Bitcoin

44. Blockchain 101: Bitcoin
(2008 on The Cryptography Mailing list at metzdowd.com)

45. Blockchain 101: Bitcoin
Bitcoin Price Evolution

46. Blockchain 101: Bitcoin
● Digital Currency & P2P Payment System
● Distributed Management
○ No Central Gov / Bank
● Secure Transactions
● Public & Verifiable Transactions
● Pseudonymous

47. Blockchain 101: The Blockchain
● Altcoins
● DApps

48. Blockchain 101: The Blockchain
● Altcoins
● DApps
● Ethereum

49. Blockchain Enables
New Regulation by Code

50. Smart Contracts
● Emulate traditional contracts
○ Voluntary agreements
○ Enforced by law
● “Trustless” & self-enforcing
○ Efficiency
○ Reduction of costs (negotiation, verification)
○ No ambiguity
○ Automatically execute terms
https://bitsonblocks.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/contract.jpg

51. Smart Contracts
● Emulate traditional contracts
○ Voluntary agreements
○ Enforced by law
● “Trustless” & self-enforcing
○ Efficiency
○ Reduction of costs (negotiation, verification)
○ No ambiguity
○ Automatically execute terms
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Snack_machine_3538.JPG

52. Smart Contracts
● Emulate traditional contracts
○ Voluntary agreements
○ Enforced by law
● “Trustless” & self-enforcing
○ Efficiency
○ Reduction of costs (negotiation, verification)
○ No ambiguity
○ Automatically execute terms

53. Smart Contracts on the Blockchain
● Snippets of code
○ Deployed on the blockchain
● Executed by the network
● Autonomous
○ Independent from any third-party to operate
○ Potentially not controlled
https://www.robots.com/images/Robot%20integration.jpg?w=240

54. Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO)
● Complex SC
○ For multiple parties to interact
● Self-governed Org
○ Incorruptible set of rules
● Autonomous Governance
○ Independent from creator
● Decentralized
○ Cannot be switched off
● Self-sufficient
○ May charge users to pay for services

55. Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO)

56. Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO)

57. Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO)

58. DAO Hiring Service

59. DAO Selling Service

60. Internet of Things
https://vangogh.teespring.com/shirt_pic/8773600/10066236/6/648/480x9999/front.jpg
● SC/DAOs in a walled garden
● Oracles
○ Hw Oracles: IoT
● Smart Property
○ Read blockchain state & react