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Blockchains. Media of Sovereignty

Subject Area Theatre and Media Studies
Term from 2020 to 2023
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 440949657
 
Final Report Year 2023

Final Report Abstract

In the project, the technology of blockchains, which is still very much in development, was examined with regard to various questions and using different methods. However, this technology, which has set out to penetrate and thus change many social fields, has so far hardly produced any plausible, serious or resilient applications in the areas of administration, logistics, or finance. Only NFTs briefly gave the appearance of a new class of digital objects that are relevant. Rather, speculation and fraud, as well as tough disputes with regulators were the topics to read about the last years when it came to blockchains. In order to get away from the hype and to focus on concrete objects that have real-world relevance, the project's questions have been modified to focus on two techniques that play a prominent role in the field of blockchains, but also beyond and especially in the broader Internet: cryptographic hash functions and technical protocols. Cryptographic hash functions are used, for example, to validate data quickly and securely, or to modulate access to data. Cryptographic hashes are well-formed, easily comparable and easily verifiable outputs of functions whose input can be any heterogeneous digital objects. In particular, their history and their own historicity have been considered. Due to the constant increase in computing and storage capacities, the cryptography behind such functions has already had to be strengthened several times in order to ensure the continued secure operation of the Internet. In this respect, the history of the Internet can be described as the history of cracked hash functions and the subsequent development of stronger procedures. However, it remains unsolved how meanwhile insecure procedures, such as MD5, can be taken out of circulation reasonably quickly. Similarly, it was noted that the use cases of cryptographic hashes are now almost unmanageable and their functionality is increasingly helping to secure existing social structures, meaning that cryptographic hash functions also have a political side. If blockchains are innovative, it is most likely through their protocols that govern their operation. This is what they have in common with classic Internet protocols, such as TCP/IP. The project therefore looked for aspects that connect the very different protocols and justify talking about a common semantic concept of protocols. An arc was drawn from ancient protocols (proto/kollein) and their epistemic performance, via classical Internet protocols to blockchain protocols, some of which execute complete economic models, and the commonalities of these very heterogeneous protocols were discussed.

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