HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Blockchain
Sec. Blockchain Economics
The Architecture of Blockchain Value: Capabilities, Pillars, and Growth Dynamics
European Patent Office, The Hague, Netherlands
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract
This paper develops a capability-based framework for understanding the architecture and value of blockchain systems. We classify networks into three paradigms: single-capability systems that deliver one core function, multi-capability systems that integrate a bounded set of programmable services, and meta-capability systems that coordinate extensible marketplaces of heterogeneous services. To explain how these paradigms scale, we introduce five architectural pillars, purpose, consensus, incentives, tokenomics, and network effects, that jointly constrain the feasibility and sustainability of capability provision. Building on these foundations, we propose a valuation model in which network value arises from adoption, per-unit service value, and architectural network effects, with composability across capabilities generating quadratic scaling in the symmetric benchmark. We prove a formal dominance result: under symmetric conditions, meta-capability systems dominate multi-capability systems, which in turn dominate single-capability systems. The framework links protocol design choices directly to value creation and clarifies why some architectures scale reliably while others face structural bottlenecks, providing a structured basis for evaluating long-run viability and strategic positioning of blockchain ecosystems.
Summary
Keywords
Blockchain architecture, Composability, consensus mechanisms, Decentralized systems, Digital capabilities, Incentive design, network effects, tokenomics
Received
16 November 2025
Accepted
19 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Papadogiannis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Agisilaos Papadogiannis
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.