“Given the complexity of technologies emerging on blockchain, one should carefully consider the moral issues that have or could emerge when determining use cases.”
Blockchain technology can serve as a shared database ledger that tracks assets and transactions with little to no oversight but, in theory, unlimited users. Its potential applications, spanning smart contracts to blockchaining intellectual property, indicate promise for fluid collaborations, efficient remuneration and thorough intellectual property management. However, there are still crucial issues, including privacy, compatibility, liability and jurisdiction that remain undefined. Moreover, because all fields necessitate specialized codes of conduct and ethics, if blockchain technology is expected to make a significant difference in society, then it too, deserves its own field of ethics, like artificial intelligence (AI), nuclear technology, biotechnology, and space exploration. Leading minds across disciplines need to contemplate how this technology can be shaped to have a positive impact, first by examining what this field is capable of doing and its potential consequences. For example, central to the idea of blockchain is the creation of decentralized, leaderless organizations. This begs the question of who is responsible when something goes wrong? Who determines what behavior is allowed? When thinking macroscopically, and into the future, if blockchain technology is anticipated to change the nature of money, how could this affect power dynamics, economies and politics?
From Dolly to Digital Ledgers
In 1996, when Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned, ethical quandaries and slippery slope arguments exploded. Does the prohibition of human cloning, however far in the distant future, comport with human rights in interfering with the right to reproductive privacy and autonomy? Although this is an admittedly extreme comparison, shouldn’t the blockchain field also work toward…
