The diffusion of blockchain technologies has had huge impacts all over the world on many sectors and, among them, on the public domain. As a matter of fact, public administrations are implementing solutions to deliver public services adopting Distributed Ledgers Technologies (DLT) and this also influences the way to organize collaborations. However, this increasing attention is not mirrored by the academic literature, which mainly focuses on the technology itself and on the field of application, missing a focus on the organizational design aspect. Starting from these premises, the study aims at contributing and better detailing the comprehensive knowledge about the application of blockchain and DLT solutions in governments, also underlining the consequent changes in the governance mechanisms among different (public) administrations. To do so, the dissertation addresses three research questions: i) how is the current situation of blockchain technologies in the international public service environment and how to classify these applications? ii) How do collaborations change as a consequence of introducing blockchain technology? iii) How is a blockchain governance designed in the public sector? To answer these research questions, firstly an international census of blockchain projects implemented in public sector was conducted. This analysis allows to identify different projects and, finally, a case study was selected for deepening the topic: specifically, the European project PoSeID-on, implemented within a consortium and thus implying many heterogenous processes of collaboration among different actors. Data was collected through secondary sources, i.e. selected articles, and primary sources, i.e. interviews with experts. The analysis of the census resulted in a detailed description of the actual international environment highlighting the main characteristics of the projects, while the interviews suggested the relevant areas of impact that blockchain applications have on the organizational design and specifically on the existing collaborations. Findings have been integrated to the existing knowledge. The study demonstrates that blockchain projects in public sector overcame the phase of initial hype and they entered in a more mature stage and that collaborations between public entities are affected by the introduction of blockchain in several aspects, mainly concerning trust and privacy.
La diffusione della tecnologia blockchain ha avuto impatti enormi a livello mondiale su molti settori e, tra questi, su quello pubblico. Le amministrazioni pubbliche stanno implementando soluzioni per fornire servizi pubblici utilizzando le tecnologie cosiddette Distributed Ledgers Technologies (DLT) e questo influenza anche il modo di organizzare le collaborazioni. Tuttavia, questa crescente attenzione non si riflette nella letteratura accademica, la quale si focalizza principalmente sulla tecnologia e sul campo di applicazione, mancando il focus sugli aspetti di organizational design. Partendo da tali premesse, questo studio si pone l’obiettivo di contribuire e dettagliare meglio la conoscenza relativa all’applicazione di blockchain e soluzioni DLT a livello governativo, sottolineando in aggiunta il conseguente cambio nei meccanismi di governance tra diverse amministrazioni (pubbliche). Per raggiungere questo obiettivo, lo studio risponde a tre domande di ricerca: i) com’è la situazione attuale delle tecnologie blockchain nell’ambiente interazione dei servizi pubblici e come classificare queste applicazioni? ii) Come cambiano le collaborazioni conseguentemente all’introduzione della tecnologia blockchain? iii) Com’è progettata una blockchain governance nel settore pubblico? Per rispondere a queste domande di ricerca, in primo luogo è stato condotto un censimento internazionale dei progetti blockchain implementati nel settore pubblico. Questa analisi permette di identificare diversi progetti e, infine, un caso studio è stato selezionato per approfondire l’argomento: il progetto Europeo PoSeID-on, implementato tramite un consorzio e quindi caratterizzato da numerosi ed eterogenei processi di collaborazione tra attori diversi. La raccolta di dati è stata effettuata tramite fonti secondarie, come gli articoli selezionati, e tramite fonti primarie, come le interviste con esperti. L'analisi del censimento ha dato come risultato una descrizione dettagliata dell’attuale situazione internazionale evidenziando le principali caratteristiche dei progetti, mentre le interviste hanno indicato le aree d’impatto rilevanti che le applicazioni blockchain hanno su organizational design ed in particolare sulle collaborazioni esistenti. I risultati sono stati integrati con la conoscenza esistente. Lo studio dimostra che i progetti blockchain nel settore pubblico hanno superato la fase di hype iniziale e sono ora in una condizione più matura, e che le collaborazioni tra pubbliche amministrazioni sono influenzate dall’introduzione di blockchain in diversi aspetti, principalmente riguardanti fiducia e privacy.
Blockchain in public settings : an international census and a case study
Moia, Davide
2020/2021
Abstract
The diffusion of blockchain technologies has had huge impacts all over the world on many sectors and, among them, on the public domain. As a matter of fact, public administrations are implementing solutions to deliver public services adopting Distributed Ledgers Technologies (DLT) and this also influences the way to organize collaborations. However, this increasing attention is not mirrored by the academic literature, which mainly focuses on the technology itself and on the field of application, missing a focus on the organizational design aspect. Starting from these premises, the study aims at contributing and better detailing the comprehensive knowledge about the application of blockchain and DLT solutions in governments, also underlining the consequent changes in the governance mechanisms among different (public) administrations. To do so, the dissertation addresses three research questions: i) how is the current situation of blockchain technologies in the international public service environment and how to classify these applications? ii) How do collaborations change as a consequence of introducing blockchain technology? iii) How is a blockchain governance designed in the public sector? To answer these research questions, firstly an international census of blockchain projects implemented in public sector was conducted. This analysis allows to identify different projects and, finally, a case study was selected for deepening the topic: specifically, the European project PoSeID-on, implemented within a consortium and thus implying many heterogenous processes of collaboration among different actors. Data was collected through secondary sources, i.e. selected articles, and primary sources, i.e. interviews with experts. The analysis of the census resulted in a detailed description of the actual international environment highlighting the main characteristics of the projects, while the interviews suggested the relevant areas of impact that blockchain applications have on the organizational design and specifically on the existing collaborations. Findings have been integrated to the existing knowledge. The study demonstrates that blockchain projects in public sector overcame the phase of initial hype and they entered in a more mature stage and that collaborations between public entities are affected by the introduction of blockchain in several aspects, mainly concerning trust and privacy.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Thesis_MoiaDavide.pdf
non accessibile
Descrizione: Thesis Moia Davide
Dimensione
8.49 MB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
8.49 MB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in POLITesi sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
https://hdl.handle.net/10589/183607