Blockchain Economic Networks and Algorithmic Trust

This research develops a theoretical framework joining sociomateriality practice theories and social capital theories as the basis for a causal model of algorithmic trust in blockchain economic networks. Although there is extensive prior work regarding trust in social networks, collective trust models in the context of risk have not been developed. We argue that algorithmic trust is created as a new form of digital materialized capital using two lines of reasoning. The first is based on the social situatedness and digital nature of blockchain sociomaterial practices (drawing on Orlikowski and Scott 2015; Introna and Hayes 2011). The second develops relational theories of technology in which actors co-produce social reality (Barad 2007), and in which new forms of capital emerge as network resources (using social network trust studies (Sherchan et al. 2013)). We suggest an experimental design using game theory and networked games to evaluate algorithmic trust in credit network liquidity