Should Agencies Focus On The Development Of Private Permissioned Blockchains?

Further to our earlier blog posts on the New Competition Tool and the Digital Markets Unit, this month's CLIP is an OECD discussion paper authored by Chris Pike and Antonio Capobianco, on competition law and blockchain entitled Antitrust and the trust machine. The development of antitrust policy to address any potential concerns arising from the increasing use of blockchain in a variety of settings is likely to be high up the agenda of competition authorities globally over the coming months and years.

Whilst Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the best known variants, blockchain encompasses a host of 'distributed leger technologies' which have been implemented across a wide spectrum of industries and uses, including in supply chains. Ostensibly, blockchain is a two-sided platform that relies on an ability to attract users and validators. As with many other platforms, blockchain therefore raises both many advantages to users as well as the potential to raise