19 Nov Prof. Igor Calzada Publishes New Article on the Political Economy of Web3 Platformization in the journal Digital

Prof. Igor Calzada has published a new peer-reviewed article titled “The Political Economy of Web3 Platformization: Innovation Systems, Reaching the Moon, Governing the Ghetto” in Digital (MDPI), 2025, Vol. 5, Issue 4, Article 62 (https://doi.org/10.3390/digital5040062).

The article investigates how Web3 decentralization unfolds in practice and assesses whether decentralized infrastructures genuinely democratize digital governance. Drawing on multi-year action-research ethnography (2022–2025) in Silicon Valley, Washington D.C., Europe, and the Global South, the study examines seven contrasting ecosystems—Ethereum, MakerDAO, Uniswap, Mastodon, Celo, Grassroots Economics, and GoodDollar.

The findings show that participation asymmetries and concentration of influence remain structural features across Web3 governance systems. Calzada substantiates this argument with empirical indicators such as governance turnout rates and voting-power concentration, confirming patterns identified in wider scholarly debates on platform power and cyberlibertarian ideology (e.g., Golumbia 2016; Monsees 2020). These results echo Richard R. Nelson’s long-standing “Moon and the Ghetto” paradox, which highlights societies’ capacity for extraordinary technical innovation alongside persistent social exclusion (Nelson 1977; Nelson 2011).

By reframing Web3 through innovation-systems theory (Freeman 1987; Lundvall 1992; Nelson 1993; Mazzucato 2013) and commons-governance principles (Ostrom 1990; Ostrom 2010), the article argues that technological decentralization alone is insufficient to generate democratic resilience. Instead, successful cases—particularly in cooperative or federated settings—depend on strong institutional embedding, accountability mechanisms, and polycentric governance.

This publication contributes to ongoing discussions on digital sovereignty, platform governance, and the future of democratic digital infrastructures, offering evidence-based insights for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners working at the intersection of AI, Web3, and innovation governance.