A Practice-Based Artificial Society Approach to Exploring the Evolution of Trust.

Blockchain systems promise to fundamentally transform the way users interact with systems of governance, finance, and administration. Since relevant changes are expected to appear on a global scale, considerable methodological challenges exist regarding the sound description and adequate design-theoretic conceptualisation of respective social transformations. Artificial societies are a proven method for exploring the dynamics of large scale social systems which are otherwise hard to observe. They allow for precise modelling of social processes, facilitating an experimental attitude towards large scale systems which otherwise remain inaccessible to researchers. Within this paper, we describe how artificial societies can be employed as part of a practice-based research strategy aimed at elucidating a large scale transformation of this kind: the role of trust within social practices facilitated by Blockchain technologies.