A Commons-compatible Implementation of the Sharing Economy: Blockchain-based Open Source Mediation

The network economical sharing economy, with direct exchange as a core characteristic, is implemented both, on a commons and platform economical basis. This is due to a gain in importance of trust, collaborative consumption and democratic management as well as technological progress, in the form of near zero marginal costs, open source contributions and digital transformation. Concurrent to these commons-based drivers, the grey area between commerce and private exchange is used to exploit work, safety and tax regulations by central platform economists. Instead of central intermediators, the blockchain technology makes decentralized consensus finding, using Proof-of-Work (PoW) within a self-sustaining Peer-to-Peer network, possible. Therefore, a blockchain-based open source mediation seems to offer a commons-compatible implementation of the sharing economy. This thesis is investigated through a qualitative case study of Sardex and Interlace with their blockchain application, based on expert interviews and a structured content analysis. To detect the most commons-compatible implementation, the different implementation options through conventional platform intermediators, an open source blockchain with PoW as well as Interlaces' permissioned blockchain approach, are compared. The following confrontation is based on deductive criteria, which illustrates the inherent characteristics of a commons-based sharing economy.