From Manusmriti to Blockchain: Theories of Property through the Ages
papers.ssrn.com
From ancient Sanskrit law to decentralized blockchain, this article traces how humanity's theories of property ownership have been reinvented — and why the next reinvention may be the most radical yet.
Labor Theory of PropertySocial Contract TheoryInstitutional EconomicsDecentralized Ledger Theory
Theory Briefing
- Manusmriti, one of antiquity's earliest legal codes, embedded property rights in caste and ritual duty — a stark contrast to modern liberal ownership theory.
- Locke's Labor Theory of Property argued that mixing one's effort with land creates ownership, a logic now being stress-tested by digital and tokenized assets.
- Blockchain-based smart contracts enable self-enforcing, trustless property records, challenging the state-centric foundations on which every prior theory of ownership was built.