Title: Decentralisation and governance in IoT: Bitcoin and Wikipedia case

Authors: Anass Sedrati; Nelly Stoyanova; Abdellatif Mezrioui; Abdelaziz Hilali; Aziza Benomar

Addresses: Mathematics, Computer and Networking Department – INPT, Avenue Allal Al Fassi, 10.000, Rabat, Morocco; Rise Research Institutes of Sweden, Isafjordsgatan 22, 16440 Kista, Stockholm, Sweden ' Information Society Policy Department, Ministry of Transport, IT and Communications, 9 Dyakon Ignatiy Str., 1000 Sofia, Republic of Bulgaria ' Mathematics, Computer and Networking Department – INPT, Avenue Allal Al Fassi, 10.000, Rabat, Morocco ' Mathematics, Computer and Networking Department – INPT, Avenue Allal Al Fassi, 10.000, Rabat, Morocco ' Mathematics, Computer and Networking Department – INPT, Avenue Allal Al Fassi, 10.000, Rabat, Morocco

Abstract: In the era of digital revolution many contemporary events that changed the world were shaped through the internet. Nowadays, the emergence of internet of things (IoT), combining physical objects with virtual networks is expected to have even more influence. This new 'decentralised' structure in the world raises questions such as power, governance and the notion of democracy online. The aim of this paper is to investigate these notions. We have taken the examples of Bitcoin and Wikipedia and examined their decision-making process. Our analysis has found some inconsistencies in their policies, that are in contradiction with democracy and consensus principles of governance. Starting from our findings, we present further improvements that can be used to achieve more democracy and equity in the digital context.

Keywords: governance; internet; decentralisation; Bitcoin; Wikipedia; democracy; power; IoT; internet of things.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEG.2020.109540

International Journal of Electronic Governance, 2020 Vol.12 No.2, pp.166 - 189

Received: 08 Sep 2018
Accepted: 16 Jan 2019
Published online: 15 Sep 2020 *

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