The Economics of Blockchain Consensus: Exploring the Key Tradeoffs in Blockchain Design
About this ebook
The focus is on the value and the achievement of blockchain consensus; that is, how distributed and independent nodes are able to reach an agreement on what the current state of digital ledgers, that are the product of blockchains, are. The book shows that the goals of computer scientists in designing blockchains place very high weight on security beyond what an economist trained in game theory and mechanism design would require. It shows how blockchains can be redesigned to account for key economic trade-offs, and will be of interest to researchers and students of economics, financial technology and computer science, alongside policymakers.
About the author
Joshua Gans is a Professor of Strategic Management and holder of the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair in Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He is also chief economist of its Creative Destruction Lab and oversees its blockchain program for startups.
