The BlockchainGov Newsletter #19 | March 2025

The BlockchainGov Newsletter #19 | March 2025

Welcome to the March edition of BlockchainGov's newsletter, where we explore how real-world developments like Elon Musk's "Special Elon Zone" exemplify Network State theory, highlight our researchers' contributions to mechanism design and sustainable blockchain, and share updates from our recent events and publications.

I. Research

Recent news about "The Special Elon Zone" (SEZ) proposal, which would grant Elon Musk control over land surrounding Starbase with authority to establish his own regulations, directly connects to our ongoing research on network sovereignty.

This development isn't merely headline news; it represents the real-world implementation of Network State theory that our projects have been examining for years. The SEZ case exemplifies precisely why our symposium with the European University Institute Schumann Centre on "New Network Sovereignties" is so timely and relevant. As our research has consistently highlighted, the emergence of private actors gaining "functional sovereignty" over territories raises profound questions about democratic governance that align perfectly with BlockchainGov's core investigations.

The symposium features interventions from Vitalik Buterin, Michel Bauwens , and Nathan Schneider exploring whether such private regulatory zones can be justified, and examining historical precedents that inform our understanding of these governance experiments. This real-world case study provides valuable empirical evidence for our theoretical frameworks on how digital innovations are reshaping traditional notions of sovereignty beyond physical borders.

Our researcher, Sofía Cossar , working alongside Ori Shimon , has contributed to the launch of Mechanism Library v1.0: a comprehensive resource that systematically maps the on-chain design space. The library contains 128 mechanisms and 281 examples, creating what the authors describe as "a pattern language for crypto design." This collection organizes on-chain mechanisms across seven core functions: fundraising (coordinating capital flow), allocation (distributing scarce resources), value capture (monetizing generated value), rewards and penalties (shaping incentives), exchange (trading and pricing assets), governance (structuring decision-making), and data management (managing information flow and integrity). The library represents the first attempt to systematically document these mechanisms in a structured, comparative format.

The full library is available at mechanism.institute/library.

II. Events

Wessel Reijers presented the MIT Press book 'Blockchain Governance' on March 28th at Humboldt University Berlin. The event featured responses by Katrin Becker and was moderated by Anna Nosthoff. Available both in-person and online, the session explored key themes from the book that connect to BlockchainGov's research on distributed governance systems and network sovereignty.

III. Press

RESET - Digital for Good featured our researcher Tara Merk in their article "The Blockchain Paradox: Can Its Potential for Digital Solutions Outweigh Its Carbon Footprint?" Journalist Kezia Rice interviewed Tara about sustainable blockchain alternatives, where she explained that Bitcoin's continued use of energy-intensive Proof of Work despite greener Proof of Stake options is "an ideological choice." Tara highlighted the emerging "Regens" community developing climate-focused blockchain applications like Kolektivo's community currency and supply chain tracking technologies, as well as the important role of regulations for better ecological practices.

IV. What Are We Reading

• "Does Trump Want America to Look More Like Saudi Arabia?" by Quinn Slobodian in The New York Times - This opinion piece explores parallels between Trump's economic vision and Saudi Arabia's political economy. Slobodian examines connections between wealth concentration, political power, and territorial sovereignty that align with our research on network states and emerging forms of digital governance.
• "Crypto and the Property Question" by Andrea Tosato and Christopher K. Odinet - This paper examines whether digital assets are legally considered property under American law, analyzing both historical frameworks and the new UCC Article 12. The authors highlight how property law has evolved from formalistic categories toward functional approaches that better align with digital asset market practices.
• "Digital Platform Ecosystems" by Hein et al. - This article offers a framework for digital platform ecosystems based on three core elements: platform ownership, value-creating mechanisms, and complementor autonomy. The synthesis of economic, technical, and social perspectives provides a valuable framework for analyzing blockchain systems, too.

V. Misc

We're delighted to congratulate Tara Merk on her selection for the 2025/2026 cohort of Research Fellows at the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy (ICDE) at The New School! Tara joins an impressive international group of scholars from Brazil, South Korea, India, and the U.S. who are collectively reimagining the digital economy through public tech, solidarity finance, and cooperative AI. This fellowship will support Tara's valuable work researching democratic, community-rooted alternatives to extraction and exclusion in digital systems. We look forward to the insights and collaborative opportunities this fellowship will bring to our research community.

Thanks for reading BlockchainGov's March roundup - we'll be back next month!