Capture resistant

Refers to the inability of an inside or outside agents to benefit from a resource or a process in an unintended or undesired way, or to instrumentalize or use a resource or a process for one's personal and non-intended goals / gains.

The term hijacking a resource or a process is also used

Within organizations (including networks), Governance is used to avoid capture (capture resistant governance), by implementing principles and rules to block the usurpation of shared assets.

Higher authorities, such as the state, can create a legal framework (lows) to regulate access to resource, by legally framing property regimes. These laws make reference to punishment (a cost) for agents that break the rules. Thus, a state becomes a capture resistant environment, conducive to various socioeconomic activities. This also relates to trust in the environment and the processes within.

The blockchain technology has introduced new capture resistant mechanisms mainly implemented through smart contracts and by implementing the nondominium form of property.

While an agent can capture a shared resource by accumulating either fundamental (over the resource itself) or soft (over the agents that have fundamental) power over it, the biggest risk is associated with fundamental power. Networks are most susceptible to capture during action phases where fundamental power is wielded, and therefore those phases are where capture-resistant mechanisms are most crucial.