Algorithmic autopoiesis and the operational closure of law: The performativity of consensus as the production of socio-political reality

This article challenges the reduction of blockchain to an institutional technology for lowering transaction costs by interpreting it as an autopoietic system of operational closure. Drawing on Francisco Varela's theory of biological autonomy and Cornelius Castoriadis’ account of political autonomy, it distinguishes between functional autonomy, understood as systemic self-maintenance, and political autonomy, understood as collective self-institution. The article argues that blockchain governance is marked by a rigidity paradox: the deterministic mechanisms that secure trustless coordination also risk foreclosing the indeterminacy required for democratic deliberation. Through the cases of the Ethereum hard fork and KONG Land, the article shows how algorithmic consensus can produce a form of functional sovereignty while displacing the interpretive and instituting dimensions of law. It concludes by proposing the need to rethink decentralized governance as an open rather than closed autopoiesis.