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Network Law Review
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Article
NEW ARTICLE: “The Theory of Granularity”: Blockchain & Antitrust
- a Associate Professor of Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Faculty Affiliate, Stanford CodeX
Article info
- Published
- 14 January 2020
- Issue
- Winter 2020
- Cite as
- Schrepel, T. (2020, Winter). NEW ARTICLE: “The theory of granularity”: Blockchain & antitrust. Network Law Review. https://
www .networklawreview .org/ theory-of-granularity-blockchain-antitrust/
Dear friends,
Following months of (d̶o̶u̶b̶t̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶b̶u̶s̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶h̶e̶a̶d̶) research, I am very pleased to share my latest article: “The Theory of Granularity: A Path for Antitrust in Blockchain Ecosystems“.
In this article, I ask the following question: how to apply antitrust law, whose case law is almost entirely based on analyzing firms’ practices, when you don’t have firms anymore but decentralized communities (namely, blockchain)?
Here’s the idea: blockchain, by escaping the theory of the firm (i.e., an entity in which vertical control is used to reduce transaction costs), holds antitrust and competition law in check. Against this background, I introduce the “theory of granularity” which permits analysis of the roles played by each participant in a blockchain, and, in fine, to distinguish forms of horizontal control. Antitrust and competition becomes applicable again.
The article is freely available at this link (via SSRN):
> https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3519032 <
I hope that you’ll enjoy reading it,
I wish you a great day,
Thibault