Making Sense of Blockchain Applications: A Typology for HCI

Chris Elsden, Arthi Manohar, Jo Briggs, Mike Harding, Christopher Speed, John Vines

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Blockchain is an emerging infrastructural technology that is proposed to fundamentally transform the ways in which people transact, trust, collaborate, organize and identify themselves. In this paper, we construct a typology of emerging blockchain applications, consider the domains in which they are applied, and identify distinguishing features of this new technology. We argue that there is a unique role for the HCI community in linking the design and
application of blockchain technology towards lived experience and the articulation of human values. In particular, we note how the accounting of transactions, a trust in immutable code and algorithms, and the leveraging of distributed crowds and publics around vast interoperable databases all relate to longstanding issues of importance for the field. We conclude by highlighting core conceptual and methodological challenges for HCI researchers beginning to work with blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherACM
Pages1-14
ISBN (Print)9781450356206
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Apr 2018

Publication series

NameCHI'18

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