Economics Lab

Macro Research

Macroeconomic research looks at the protocol as a whole. It looks to study and measure how a protocol’s economy behaves as one unit, and try to understand how and why economic events happen. The more research we do, the better we understand the macroeconomic principles that govern the blockchain space. The better we understand these principles, the more we can help protocols create robust and balanced economic mechanisms. The more economically sound protocols become, the better the blockchain space is.

Micro Research

Microeconomics explains why people can never have enough of what they want and how that influences policies.
Economics Design conducts the social science study of the implications of incentives and decisions, specifically about how those affect the utilization and distribution of the protocol’s resources. Microeconomics shows how and why different goods have different values, how protocols, individuals and businesses conduct and benefit from efficient production and exchange, and how they best coordinate and cooperate with one another.

Governance Research

Decentralised protocols are increasingly involving community-led governance as a means of modifying the protocol. Studying the various patterns of this new form of governance is what we call Governance Research. Undertaking this form of research allows us to see the merits and flaws of protocol governance. Examples of governance research might include testing whether the popularity of certain proposals leads to a positive or negative bias in voting, or whether technically complex proposals have a lower or higher than average chance of being passed. Qualitative forms of governance research might include examining the tools that DAOs or protocols used in order to facilitate governance and noting their merits or shortcomings.