What struck me most in the study of blockchain technology was how this technology could be the key to efficiently regulate data flow and decentralize today’s centralized platforms on the Web.  A variety of blockchain platforms and technologies have been developed over the last ten years, with the bitcoin public blockchain a prime example.¹  This paper uses bitcoin blockchain to explain the phenomenon and argue how a public blockchain² can become universal and restore the Web’s decentralization.

This article proceeds with an exploration of the role of antitrust and regulation in the development of a single universal blockchain platform.  Similar to the Web, a public blockchain based on open source protocols can create a single universal platform on which goods and services are traded; privacy and the safety of data better preserved than with existing regulation.³  Blockchain technology through a decentralization process may reduce market concentration and ensure open and free markets without an antitrust intervention.

Although some scholars believe that blockchain will be the death of antitrust law⁴ in that it reduces the market power of centralized platforms, an antitrust enforcement mechanism is still necessary.  Antitrust enforcers are irreplaceable neutral actors in promoting an appropriate use of innovative technologies preventing companies from transforming open and free markets into monopolies.  Initially, antitrust supervision and regulation might be sufficient.⁵  However, more sophisticated forms of regulation will also likely be necessary as blockchain becomes a crucial component of our economic systems.

The paper is structured into four Sections.  Having introduced the main issues here, Section 2 explains blockchain technology and investigates in detail how, similar to the Web, a public blockchain can evolve into a universal network.  Section 3 focuses on the role of antitrust in guiding the innovation process and the future blockchain era.  Section 4 then draws some conclusions on the responsibility of antitrust and regulation in new markets which run on a future single public blockchain.