Blockchain technology enables new kinds of decentralized systems. Thus, it has often been advocated as a “disruptive” technology that could have the potentiality of reshaping political, economic, and social relations, “solving” problems like corruption, power centralization, and distrust toward political institutions. Blockchain has been gradually gaining attention beyond finance and is thus applied by a range of different actors. This includes local, regional, and national governments interested in the potentiality of experimenting with blockchain-supported governance. This article contributes to identifying blockchain as a contested socio-political object prone to contradictory political imaginaries regarding its potentialities, particularly when applied to policy. The article explores some of the most praised of blockchain’s affordances (e.g., decentralization and transparency) in the context of Estonia, one of the most cited examples of blockchain governmental applications. Estonia has received international attention as the alleged first national infrastructure integrating blockchain. However, so far, few have asked: what kind of blockchain-based tools have been built by the Estonian government in practice and why? And to what extent do blockchain-based governmental applications reflect the original promises of disruption of the crypto-community? This article draws on a qualitative approach to explore several blockchain-based socio-technical objects to identify the narratives that have emerged in Estonia. The research shows clear contrasting views between stakeholders and technical experts from inside and outside the institutional sphere. The conflict revolves around two different social imaginaries associated with permissioned vs. public blockchains. The paper concludes with an analysis of the profound political implications of each vision.

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政府层面的基于区块链的应用：颠覆还是幻觉？爱沙尼亚的情况

区块链技术支持新型去中心化系统。因此，它经常被提倡为一种“破坏性”技术，它可能具有重塑政治、经济和社会关系的潜力，“解决”腐败、权力集中和对政治机构不信任等问题。区块链已逐渐获得金融以外的关注，因此被一系列不同的参与者应用。这包括对试验区块链支持治理的潜力感兴趣的地方、地区和国家政府。本文有助于将区块链识别为一个有争议的社会政治对象，在其潜力方面容易产生矛盾的政治想象，特别是在应用于政策时。本文探讨了一些最受赞誉的区块链功能（例如，权力下放和透明度）在爱沙尼​​亚的背景下，这是区块链政府应用最常被引用的例子之一。爱沙尼亚作为所谓的第一个整合区块链的国家基础设施而受到国际关注。然而，到目前为止，很少有人问：爱沙尼亚政府在实践中构建了什么样的基于区块链的工具，为什么？基于区块链的政府应用程序在多大程度上反映了破坏加密社区的最初承诺？本文采用定性方法来探索几个基于区块链的社会技术对象，以确定爱沙尼亚出现的叙述。该研究表明，来自机构领域内外的利益相关者和技术专家之间存在明显对比的观点。冲突围绕与许可区块链与公共区块链相关的两种不同的社会想象展开。本文最后分析了每个愿景的深刻政治影响。