papers.ssrn.com Open in urlscan Pro
104.17.88.47  Public Scan

Form analysis
2 forms found in the DOM

POST https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/results.cfm

<form class="search-input-wrapper" action="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/results.cfm" method="POST"><input type="text" name="txtKey_Words" aria-label="Search box" tabindex="-1"><input type="hidden" name="isQuickSearch" value="true"><button
    type="Submit" aria-label="Submit" tabindex="-1"><i class="icon icon-gizmo-search"></i></button></form>

Name: formSuggestions —

<form name="formSuggestions" role="suggestions">
  <div class="feedback-description">
    <label for="txtFeedback">
      <span class="feedback-label">Feedback</span>
      <span class="feedback-required">&nbsp;(required)</span>
    </label>
    <textarea id="txtFeedback" name="txtFeedback" maxlength="1000" placeholder="(1,000 Characters Max)" required=""></textarea>
  </div>
  <div class="feedback-email">
    <label for="txtEmail">
      <span class="feedback-label">Email</span>
      <span class="feedback-required">&nbsp;(required)</span>
    </label>
    <input type="email" id="txtEmail" name="txtEmail" value="" required="">
  </div>
  <button class="btn-orange btn-add-to-cart feedback-submit"> Submit <i class="icon-gizmo-navigate-right" aria-hidden="true"></i>
  </button>
</form>

Text Content

Skip to main content

Make use of personalized features like alerts and saved searches

Create accountSign in
 * Product & Services
    * Research Paper Series
    * Site Subscriptions
    * Sponsored Services
    * Jobs & Announcements
    * Conference Papers
    * Partners in Publishing
    * First Look

 * Subscribe
 * Submit a paper
 * Browse
 * Rankings
    * Top Papers
    * Top Authors
    * Top Organizations

 * Blog↗
 * Contact

 * Product & Services
    * Research Paper Series
    * Site Subscriptions
    * Sponsored Services
    * Jobs & Announcements
    * Conference Papers
    * Partners in Publishing
    * First Look

 * Subscribe
 * Submit a paper
 * Browse
 * Rankings
    * Top Papers
    * Top Authors
    * Top Organizations

 * Blog↗
 * Contact



Create accountSign in


Download this Paper
Open PDF in Browser
Add Paper to My Library
Share:
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

Permalink
Using these links will ensure access to this page indefinitely
Copy URL
Copy DOI


DECENTRALIZED SOCIETY: FINDING WEB3'S SOUL



37 Pages Posted: 11 May 2022

See all articles by E. Glen Weyl


E. GLEN WEYL

Microsoft Research; RadicalxChange Foundation


PUJA OHLHAVER

Flashbots Ltd.


VITALIK BUTERIN

Ethereum Foundation

Date Written: May 10, 2022


ABSTRACT

Web3 today centers around expressing transferable, financialized assets, rather
than encoding social relationships of trust. Yet many core economic
activities—such as uncollateralized lending and building personal brands—are
built on persistent, non-transferable relationships. In this paper, we
illustrate how non-transferable “soulbound” tokens (SBTs) representing the
commitments, credentials, and affiliations of “Souls” can encode the trust
networks of the real economy to establish provenance and reputation. More
importantly, SBTs enable other applications of increasing ambition, such as
community wallet recovery, sybil-resistant governance, mechanisms for
decentralization, and novel markets with decomposable, shared rights. We call
this richer, pluralistic ecosystem “Decentralized Society” (DeSoc)—a
co-determined sociality, where Souls and communities come together bottom-up, as
emergent properties of each other to co-create plural network goods and
intelligences, at a range of scales. Key to this sociality is decomposable
property rights and enhanced governance mechanisms—such as quadratic funding
discounted by correlation scores—that reward trust and cooperation while
protecting networks from capture, extraction, and domination. With such
augmented sociality, web3 can eschew today’s hyper-financialization in favor of
a more transformative, pluralist future of increasing returns across social
distance.



Keywords: Web3, pluralism, blockchains, soulbound tokens, NFTs

JEL Classification: D43, D62, D63, K11, P48, D82

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Weyl, Eric Glen and Ohlhaver, Puja and Buterin, Vitalik, Decentralized Society:
Finding Web3's Soul (May 10, 2022). Available at SSRN:
https://ssrn.com/abstract=4105763 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4105763


ERIC GLEN WEYL (CONTACT AUTHOR)

MICROSOFT RESEARCH ( EMAIL )

6224 Lake Washington Blvd NE
Kirkland, WA 98033
United States
8579984513 (Phone)


HOME PAGE: http://www.glenweyl.com

RADICALXCHANGE FOUNDATION ( EMAIL )

HOME PAGE: http://www.radicalxchange.org


PUJA OHLHAVER

FLASHBOTS LTD.


VITALIK BUTERIN

ETHEREUM FOUNDATION ( EMAIL )


Download this Paper
Open PDF in Browser




DO YOU HAVE A JOB OPENING THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO PROMOTE ON SSRN?

Place Job Opening


PAPER STATISTICS

Downloads
65,822
Abstract Views
176,024
Rank
27

PlumX Metrics
Plum Print visual indicator of research metrics
 * Citations
   * Policy Citations: 2
 * Usage
   * Abstract Views: 175430
   * Downloads: 65716
 * Captures
   * Readers: 165
 * Mentions
   * Blog Mentions: 4
   * News Mentions: 59
   * References: 1
 * Social Media
   * Shares, Likes & Comments: 647
   * Tweets: 3555

see details
Plum Print visual indicator of research metrics
 * Citations
   * Policy Citations: 2
 * Usage
   * Abstract Views: 175430
   * Downloads: 65716
 * Captures
   * Readers: 165
 * Mentions
   * Blog Mentions: 4
   * News Mentions: 59
   * References: 1
 * Social Media
   * Shares, Likes & Comments: 647
   * Tweets: 3555

see details


RELATED EJOURNALS

 * Governance, Incentives, & Compensation eJournal
   
   Follow
   
   GOVERNANCE, INCENTIVES, & COMPENSATION EJOURNAL
   
   Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic
   
   FOLLOWERS
   1,686
   PAPERS
   3,641
   This Journal is curated by:
   René M. Stulz at Ohio State University (OSU) - Department of Finance

 * Corporate Law: Law & Finance eJournal
   
   Follow
   
   CORPORATE LAW: LAW & FINANCE EJOURNAL
   
   Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic
   
   FOLLOWERS
   1,384
   PAPERS
   6,173
   This Journal is curated by:
   Bernard S. Black at Northwestern University - Pritzker School of Law

   Social & Political Philosophy eJournal
   
   Follow
   
   SOCIAL & POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY EJOURNAL
   
   Subscribe to this free journal for more curated articles on this topic
   
   FOLLOWERS
   861
   PAPERS
   19,074
   
   Microeconomics: Welfare Economics & Collective Decision-Making eJournal
   
   Follow
   
   MICROECONOMICS: WELFARE ECONOMICS & COLLECTIVE DECISION-MAKING EJOURNAL
   
   Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic
   
   FOLLOWERS
   773
   PAPERS
   17,560
   
   Ethics eJournal
   
   Follow
   
   ETHICS EJOURNAL
   
   Subscribe to this free journal for more curated articles on this topic
   
   FOLLOWERS
   641
   PAPERS
   8,963
   
   Games & Political Behavior eJournal
   
   Follow
   
   GAMES & POLITICAL BEHAVIOR EJOURNAL
   
   Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic
   
   FOLLOWERS
   435
   PAPERS
   4,213
   
   Information Systems & Economics eJournal
   
   Follow
   
   INFORMATION SYSTEMS & ECONOMICS EJOURNAL
   
   Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic
   
   FOLLOWERS
   231
   PAPERS
   14,003
   This Journal is curated by:
   Erik Brynjolfsson at National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
   
   Applied Computing eJournal
   
   Follow
   
   APPLIED COMPUTING EJOURNAL
   
   Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic
   
   FOLLOWERS
   220
   PAPERS
   4,395
   
   Economic Sociology eJournal
   
   Follow
   
   ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY EJOURNAL
   
   Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic
   
   FOLLOWERS
   89
   PAPERS
   2,809
   
   Decision-Making in Computational Design & Technology eJournal
   
   Follow
   
   DECISION-MAKING IN COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY EJOURNAL
   
   Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic
   
   FOLLOWERS
   62
   PAPERS
   2,085


Feedback
Feedback to SSRN
Feedback  (required)
Email  (required)
Submit

If you need immediate assistance, call 877-SSRNHelp (877 777 6435) in the United
States, or +1 212 448 2500 outside of the United States, 8:30AM to 6:00PM U.S.
Eastern, Monday - Friday.
Submit a Paper
Section 508 Text Only Pages

SSRN QUICK LINKS

 * SSRN Solutions
 * Research Paper Series
 * Conference Papers
 * Partners in Publishing
 * Jobs & Announcements
 * Newsletter Sign Up

SSRN RANKINGS

 * Top Papers
 * Top Authors
 * Top Organizations

ABOUT SSRN

 * SSRN Objectives
 * Network Directors
 * Presidential Letter
 * Announcements
 * Contact us
 * FAQs

 * 
 * 
 * 

Copyright Terms and Conditions Privacy Policy

We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content.
To learn more, visit Cookie Settings. This page was processed by aws-apollo-5dc
in 0.141 seconds



We use cookies that are necessary to make our site work. We may also use
additional cookies to analyze, improve, and personalize our content and your
digital experience. For more information, see ourCookie Policy

Cookie Settings Accept all cookies