Philosophy

Chair for Philosophy & Blockchain

The Chair for Philosophy & Blockchain addresses philosophical questions raised by blockchain. From trust and authority to the nature of money, identity, ownership, and digital communities, it examines how blockchain instantiates, challenges, and reshapes fundamental philosophical concepts.

What happens to the foundations of knowledge, trust, and value when relationships amongst humans and/or artificial agents are no longer mediated by traditional, intermediary institutions, but by decentralised technologies? The Chair for Philosophy & Blockchain at ZIBR explores the ethical, epistemological, and ontological dimensions of blockchain. It investigates how historical and contemporary currents in blockchain innovation are shaped by philosophical presuppositions, and how philosophical inquiry can guide innovation, highlight opportunities and their tipping points into solutionism, hype, and hubris, and help societies navigate the promises and pitfalls of decentralisation.
Philosophical Foundations Meet Blockchain Reality
What is blockchain? As a socio-technical phenomenon, blockchain challenges how we understand and navigate reality, fiction, and collective knowledge. The Chair examines how blockchain and its constitutive features transform the interaction and cooperation of human and artificial agents.
Trust, Identity, and Ownership
From Bitcoin’s claim to be trustless electronic cash to the tokenization of identity and assets, blockchain reconfigures what it means to own and to rely on others. How can a blockchain blur the line between reality and fiction? How does tokenization reshape our sense of identity, owning, and belonging? The Chair studies these and other emerging impacts on concepts in philosophy and beyond.
Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries
Blockchain is a multifaceted phenomenon rife with tensions, ambiguities, continuities and discontinuities with previous and ongoing inquiry. Particular emphasis is thus placed on the integration with (i) related philosophical subdisciplines in Philosophy of Technology and Applied Ethics, particularly AI Ethics, Bioethics, and the Ethics of Emerging Technologies, as well as (ii) neighboring disciplines such as Sociology, Political science, and Law.

This Chair pursues a critical and constructive analysis of opportunities, risks, disruptions, claims, and realities in blockchain ecosystems.

Prof. Dr. Patrik Hummel
Professor of Philosophy and Blockchain
Get to know the Chair
The Chair for Philosophy & Blockchain aims to serve as a key voice in reflecting on decentralised technologies through the lens of philosophical inquiry. It contributes to philosophical discourse, interdisciplinary research, international debates, and informed, critical public reflection of blockchain’s wider implications.
A joint endeavor of the University of Lucerne and the Canton of Zug
Email
info@zibr.ch
Address
Dammstrasse 16, 6300 Zug
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