Signaling Collective Action in Ecosystems

Collective action can turn individuals into communities or ecosystems that solve complex problems together. The advent of decentralization technologies (e.g., blockchain) has enabled tools that help coordinate collective endeavors even in environments without traditional social ties. Success in such communities often hinges on securing support from key partners, collaborators, and users in a largely asocial setting. In our conceptual work, we develop a model that explains how a decentralization protocol, such as a blockchain, can implement a coordination mechanism to reach a collective action goal. We demonstrate our arguments with an illustrative case, Tracey, which facilitates sustainable tuna fishing in the Philippines with the help of a blockchain-based mobile app. We draw from signaling theory to explain how different ecosystem members can reliably demonstrate their contributions and how a resulting signaling system can mimic social relationships in an asocial context by increasing the transparency of actions, enforcing the legitimacy of collective efforts, and reinforcing a shared identity among the ecosystem members. Our conceptual model highlights the role of narratives, shared identity, and a signaling system facilitated by decentralization protocol in fostering collective action in ecosystems.