Emerging technologies pose many new challenges for regulation and governance on a global scale. With the advent of distributed communication networks like the Internet and decentralized ledger technologies like blockchain, new platforms emerged, disrupting existing power dynamics and bringing about new claims of sovereignty from the private sector. This special issue addresses a gap in the literature by focusing the discourse on the issue of trust and confidence in the digital realm. In particular, looking at the evolution of the web (from Web 1.0, to Web 2.0, and then Web 3), this article analyses how every iteration reflects a different way of dealing with the problem of trust online, resulting in a different regulation and governance landscape. Technology is often regarded as a new lever of regulation, attempting to resolve the problem of “trust” online, either through the introduction of a new trusted authority (Web 2.0) or through the introduction of technological guarantees that provide more assurance—or “confidence”—in the way interactions can be operationalized (Web 3). Yet, each of these technologies also introduce new risks and governance costs, ultimately shifting the problem of trust in a new direction rather than resolving it or removing the need for trust altogether. The main contribution of the articles in this special issue is providing a better understanding of the trust challenges faced and posed by emerging technologies and demonstrating how they affect institutional governance—in both theory and practice—with a view to help policymakers find appropriate answers to these challenges.

中文翻译：

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如何管理信心机器？


新兴技术为全球范围内的监管和治理带来了许多新的挑战。随着互联网等分布式通信网络和区块链等去中心化账本技术的出现，新平台的出现打破了现有的权力动态，并带来了私营部门的新主权要求。本期特刊通过将论述集中在数字领域的信任和信心问题上，解决了文献中的空白。特别是，着眼于 Web 的演变（从 Web 1.0 到 Web 2.0，然后是 Web 3），本文分析了每次迭代如何反映处理在线信任问题的不同方式，从而导致不同的监管和治理环境。技术通常被视为一种新的监管杠杆，试图通过引入新的可信机构 （Web 2.0） 或通过引入技术保证来解决在线“信任”问题，从而为交互的可作方式提供更多保证或“信心”（Web 3）。然而，这些技术中的每一项也带来了新的风险和治理成本，最终将信任问题转向新的方向，而不是解决它或完全消除对信任的需求。本期特刊中文章的主要贡献是更好地理解新兴技术所面临的信任挑战，并展示它们如何在理论和实践中影响机构治理，以帮助政策制定者找到应对这些挑战的适当答案。