Trust in blockchain technology
Publication date
2024-12-05
Document type
Dissertation
Author
Palt, Alexandra Dominique
Advisor
Referee
Granting institution
Helmut-Schmidt-Universität/Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg
Exam date
2024-10-23
Organisational unit
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Keyword
Process
Möllering
Actor-Network Theory
ANT
Translation
Callon
Blockchain
Ethereum
Hyperledger Fabric
Information technology
Trust
Abstract
This dissertation investigates the multifaceted role of trust in the creation of blockchain technologies, emphasizing two case studies: Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric. By combining Guido Möllering’s integrative trust framework and Michel Callon’s notion of translation from Actor-Network Theory (ANT), the research examines trust in blockchain technology as a socio-technical process. This renders visible multiple ontologies of trust. Trust and the absence of trust can constitute a problem or act as interessement devices. Leaps of faith enable enrolments and enrolment implies reflexive trust building. Moreover, trusting relationships connect actors, can hold actor-networks together, and mobilize them.
The research adopts a qualitative, abductive approach, triangulating data collected from fieldwork online and in interviews which captures a period from the end of 2013 to the beginning of 2018. In a reflexive process, the study employs translation theory to describe the emerging socio-technical world of blockchain technology as a dynamic process between human and non-human actors, contrasting it with trust theory. Although trust ontologies of the two cases Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric appear similar at first glance, findings highlight that the platforms and actors involved are different, as are the subjects of trust crises, the interessement devices, the existing trust relations, the trust building mechanisms and the mobilized actor-networks. Trust building in the Ethereum actor-network relies more on community-driven processes and technology, whereas Hyperledger Fabric builds more on established structures and corporate actors.
Contributions to organizational trust research include exploring trust’s role in the translation of two blockchain platforms, describing trust in information technology as a social process, and providing a nuanced view of actors attributing agency to technologies as non-human actors. Additionally, the study advances translation theory by articulating the diverse ontologies of trust in translation, which connect trust theory and Actor-Network Theory.
The research adopts a qualitative, abductive approach, triangulating data collected from fieldwork online and in interviews which captures a period from the end of 2013 to the beginning of 2018. In a reflexive process, the study employs translation theory to describe the emerging socio-technical world of blockchain technology as a dynamic process between human and non-human actors, contrasting it with trust theory. Although trust ontologies of the two cases Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric appear similar at first glance, findings highlight that the platforms and actors involved are different, as are the subjects of trust crises, the interessement devices, the existing trust relations, the trust building mechanisms and the mobilized actor-networks. Trust building in the Ethereum actor-network relies more on community-driven processes and technology, whereas Hyperledger Fabric builds more on established structures and corporate actors.
Contributions to organizational trust research include exploring trust’s role in the translation of two blockchain platforms, describing trust in information technology as a social process, and providing a nuanced view of actors attributing agency to technologies as non-human actors. Additionally, the study advances translation theory by articulating the diverse ontologies of trust in translation, which connect trust theory and Actor-Network Theory.
Version
Published version
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