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Eric Alston is a Scholar in Residence in the Finance Division and the Faculty Director of the Hernando de Soto Capital Markets Program in the Leeds School of Business at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ. He also serves as a Research Associate with the Comparative Constitutions Project. Alston received his MA in Economics from the University of Maryland and his JD from the University of Chicago. His research and teaching is centered in the fields of law and economics and institutional and organizational analysis, the conceptual and methodological toolkits of which he applies to questions in the development of rights along frontiers, the design and implementation of constitutions, and digital governance challenges with an emphasis on cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks. Alston’s publications include constitutional design studies, the emergence of economic institutions in the frontier US West, and a range of questions in the design and governance of blockchain networks. His current grant work involves a National Science Foundation project exploring the development of Colorado given land entry records and census data, and a Templeton World Charity Foundation project examining quantitative measures of digital currency market development and manipulation. Alston’s outreach and service activities include advising constitutional design projects, as well as providing a range of governance design expertise for digitally networked organizations, including one of the world’s first data trusts.