Productivity Enables Security: The Economics of Blockchain Settlement

Dec 5, 2025

Campbell Harvey , Kose John , Fahad Saleh

Working Paper No. 00199-00

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Blockchain technology holds the promise of transforming our financial system but a key question lingers regarding whether this technology can ensure secure settlement. We develop an equilibrium model to study that question with regard to the most prominent blockchain type, a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain. We demonstrate that blockchain security increases with the productivity of the blockchain. Moreover, we show that there exist reasonable conditions under which a PoS blockchain is secure against arbitrarily large incentives to disrupt settlement.


Campbell Harvey

Campbell Harvey

Kose John

Kose John

Fahad Saleh

Fahad Saleh

University of Florida