I was talking about exactly this recently in the context of Leviathan by Hobbes. Under the same terms he uses to justify sovereign authority, rights could also be delegated to a system like bitcoin — which can exercise "force" in a sense (through established rules for what you can or can't do with your own property), but only in a non-arbitrary way (whereas Hobbes says that the sovereign need not obey his own laws). I'm not sure I buy Hobbes' arguments though. More broadly, I think systems are strictly inferior to persons as a category — the ideal sovereign (Jesus) would be both impartial and personal. But in our fallen world, an impartial system is a huge upgrade over corrupt authority, and could potentially be considered legitimate under the same terms.