Blockchain antitrust – old wine in new bottles?

Competition Lore Podcast

Blockchain is a technology that both bedazzles and bewilders! For its hard core advocates, it is seen as the answer to the problem of concentrated power on the internet. For others, its workings are as impenetrable as its implications.

In this episode we are joined by Dr Thibault Schrepel, Assistant Professor at the Utrecht University School of Law and Faculty Affiliate at the Harvard Berkman Center, who has made researching and teaching blockchain antitrust his specialty. We canvas the risks of anti-competitive conduct on blockchain and the challenges it is likely to pose for authorities in enforcing the competition rules.

For those who are fairly new to the topic, you may find it useful to listen first to episodes 23 and 24 in which we laid the groundwork for this episode with an explanation of what this technology involves and whether it might pose a threat to Big Tech.

You can also find Thibault on his innovative website, Concurrentialiste, or follow him on Twitter @LeConcurrential, and I highly recommend his recent blockchain papers:

Is Blockchain the death of Antitrust Law? The Blockchain Antitrust Paradox, 2018

Collusion by Blockchain and Smart Contracts, 2019

Antitrust Without Romance, 2019

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

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