BREAKING DOWN THE BLOCKCHAIN HYPE – TOWARDS A BLOCKCHAIN MARKET ENGINEERING APPROACH

The blockchain has reached the tip of a global hype across a variety of industries. The potential of this technology, inter alia building the fundament of Bitcoin, is assumed to be immense and disruptive – particularly for the financial industry. FinTech start-ups as well as established players however are just about to explore the true potential of blockchain technology as the fundament of (financial) markets. Before this backdrop, Information Systems research is making valuable contributions to the field by integrating the technical view on blockchain with interdisciplinary research approaches. Our contribution to the growing body of Information Systems literature in the context of the blockchain is twofold: First, we conduct a comprehensive literature review of the most relevant and recent IS research on blockchain. Second, based on the findings of our review, we build on existing research and propose a Blockchain Market Engineering Framework, which can support researchers as well as practitioners in analyzing and designing the elements of blockchain-based markets on an individual and global level. In addition, we go beyond a purely analytical perspective and provide a toolbox to support the active construction of blockchain-based ecosystems and infrastructures. In doing so we pave the way for future research that will help to break down the blockchain hype

Towards a Comprehensive Blockchain Architecture Continuum.

The increasingly need for companies to keep a high level of synchronization globally and the advent of new technologies are pushing more and more to move decision-making and operational power from the centre of organizations to their edges. The blockchain could be the key technology to make this change possible. However, there is no bridge yet capable of shortening the still long distance between this new technological phenomenon and today\u27s business realities. Our work aims precisely at this goal; we propose a framework of blockchain models to help practitioners understanding and potentially implement new solutions based on this technological paradigm. In particular, we have developed an ontology that helps to identify and clarify in detail what are the concepts and structures revolving around this technology, and built a continuum of blockchain architectural solutions, ranging from a classic centralized IT architecture to one completely distributed within a public ecosystem

A structured framework to assess the business application landscape of blockchain technologies.

Blockchain is emerging as a game changing technology in many industries. Although it is increasingly capturing the business community’s attention, a comprehensive overview of commercially available applications is lacking to date. This paper aims to fill this gap. Firstly, we propose a structured approach to assess the application landscape of blockchain technologies. To build our framework, we relied on largely accepted classifications of blockchains, based on protocols, consensus mechanisms and ownership, as well as on the most cited application areas emerging from the literature. Secondly, we applied the framework on a database of 460 released blockchains. The analysis confirms a dominance of applications for cryptocurrencies, financial transactions and certification purposes, with a prevalence of permissionless platforms. We also found new application fields that go far beyond the seven initial areas addressed by the current body of knowledge, leading to some interesting takeaways for both practitioners and IS researchers

Towards a Framework for Evaluation of Blockchain Implementations

Organizations appear to implement blockchain solutions based on fear of missing out instead of a clear understanding of blockchain usefulness. Actually, ninety percent of current blockchain projects do not need a blockchain to meet their requirements. Therefore, we employ a Design Science Research approach to develop a framework for evaluation of blockchain implementations. The framework incorporates common factors of blockchain decisions, including blockchain innovation, blockchain design, inter-organizational integration, and implementation environment. We contribute to the scientific literature by structuring previous research efforts in a four-step framework, which provides a fruitful ground for future conceptual and empirical studies. For practitioners, the framework is useful to identify blockchain projects that facilitate purposeful blockchain adoption

Blockchain-Enabled Platforms: Challenges and Recommendations

Not even a tenth of blockchain-enabled platforms survive their first anniversary. The volatility of cryptomarkets has brought negative attention and led some to question the applicability of blockchain technology. This paper argues that the challenges for startups and incumbents behind these platforms are numerous, and that the speculative bubble around cryptocurrencies is only one of them. Blockchain still needs to demonstrate fully its disruptive potential and so far, entrepreneurs have not managed to significantly impact incumbents’ market shares. This transitory period requires incumbents to let go of traditional control mechanisms, and startups to scale down their global decentralised hopes. Indeed, whilst the technology can indeed scale fast, starting in a controlled market and managing growth is a counterintuitive but essential strategy for blockchain-enabled platforms to implement. Given the diverging nature of the technology, at present at least, the combined shortage of skills in blockchain and security, and the trust blockchain is built on, rushing to the global market is high risk. Nonetheless, given the potential returns, the risk appetite is high and both entrepreneurs and corporate executives share unrealistic expectations about a technology they cannot fully understand since it has not yet converged. In light of the above, this article identifies the main challenges faced when building blockchainenabled platforms and provides recommendations for startups and incumbents to overcome these. In order to reach these conclusions, the information obtained from twenty semi-structured interviews with leading actors in the field has been fundamental

SELLING DIGITAL ART FOR MILLIONS - A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF NFT ART MARKETPLACES

When a digital picture, that can be copied and distributed at zero costs, goes on sale for $69 million, something is up: Non-Fungible-Tokens, or simply NFTs, which became one of the most exciting topics in the digital realm in 2021 due to the rise in interest in blockchain technologies and the hype generated by internet personas and celebrities. This study is a pilot and explorative approach towards understanding the motivation, needs, goals, and strategies of creating and selling non-fungible tokens by art creators. To do so we utilize a qualitative, inductive category formation methodology with nine semi-structured interviews with digital artists that sold their creations on newly established NFT marketplaces for up to$400.000 apiece. Creators` motivations to engage in these new platform ecosystems ranged from to Social, Monetary, to Technological aspects, with classical platform aspects such as control mechanisms and network effects playing a major role in their adoption

Unlocking the hype : an analysis on how blockchain technology could affect hospitality culture

The aim of my thesis is to find the right “key” to unlock the hype surrounding blockchain technology and to find effective applications in the hospitality industry that could change its cultural framework. To do so, hospitality culture and how technology shapes it will be discussed. Blockchain technology is just one of the various innovations that is determining the “liquid” society we live in. For this reason, a general panoramic of the technological and managerial framework will be further discussed. Furthermore, the specificities of the blockchain will be described, considering both its positive and negative aspects. Through the analysis of qualitative and quantitative secondary source data and a comparison with interviews of experts of these sectors, evidence and opinions will be presented in order to discuss this innovative technology from a culture studies perspective

Exploring Blockchain Governance

Blockchain systems continue to attract significant interest from both practitioners and researchers. What is more, blockchain systems come in various types, such as cryptocurrencies or as inter-organizational systems in business networks. As an example of a cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, one of the most prominent blockchain systems to date and born at the time of a major financial crisis, spearheaded the promise of relying on code and computation instead of a central governing entity. Proponents would argue that Bitcoin stood the test of time, as Bitcoin continues to operate to date for over a decade. However, these proponents overlook the never-ending, heated debates “behind the scenes” caused by diverging goals of central actors, which led to numerous alternative systems (forks) of Bitcoin. To accommodate these actors’ interests in the pursuit of their common goal is a tightrope act, and this is where this dissertation commences: blockchain governance. Based on the empirical examples of various types and application domains of blockchain systems, it is the goal of this dissertation to 1) uncover governance patterns by showing, how blockchain systems are governed, 2) derive governance challenges faced or caused by blockchain systems, and, consequently, to 3) contribute to a better understanding to what blockchain governance is. This dissertation includes four parts, each of these covering different thematical areas: In the first part, this dissertation focuses on obtaining a better understanding of blockchain governance’s context of reference by studying blockchain systems from various application domains and system types, for example, led by inter-organizational networks, states, or an independent group of actors. The second part, then, focuses on a blockchain as an inter-organizational system called “cardossier”, a project I was involved in, and its governance as a frame of reference. Hereupon, for one, I report on learnings from my project involvement in the form of managerial guidelines, and, for two, I report on structural problems within cardossier, and problems caused by membership growth and how they can be resolved. The third part focuses on a wider study of blockchains as inter-organizational systems, where I summarize findings of an analysis of 19 blockchain consortia. The findings, for one, answer the question of why blockchain consortia adopt blockchain technology, and, for two, show internal and external challenges these systems faced to derive managerial recommendations. The fourth and last part studies blockchain governance’s evolution and contributes an analysis of blockchain’s governance features and its contrast to established modes of governance. These four parts, altogether, have scientific value as they increase our understanding on blockchain governance. Consequently, this dissertation contributes to the body of knowledge on modes of governance, distributed system governance, and blockchain governance in general. I do so, by grounding the concept of blockchain governance in empirical detail, showing how these systems are governed on various application domains and system types, and by studying empirical challenges faced or caused by these systems. This approach is relevant and necessary, as blockchain systems in general, but particularly outside of cryptocurrencies, mostly still are in pursuit of a sustainable blockchain governance. As blockchains can be expected to continue to mature, the upcoming years offer very fruitful ground for empirical research along the empirical insights and theoretical lines shown in this dissertation

Financial Innovation and Technology after COVID-19: a few Directions for Policy Makers and Regulators in the View of Old and New Disruptors

Innovation and technology have led to the redefinition of business models and development of new ones in many bricks and mortar sectors.  Similarly, blockchain and fintech have impacted the finance and banking industries and are expected to further affect them in the future, leading some media to coin the expression “Uberization of banking”.  The authors extrapolate from sharing economy models to conclude that while blockchain and fintech are poised to advance finance and banking, there are no disruptive features that corroborate the term.  By analogy and successive approximations, this article identifies the limitations of the arguments for disruption in finance and banking.  Besides, hinging upon stylized facts, the article establishes similarities with sharing economy models to identify potential threats stemming from financial innovations such as Tokenomics, tagged as “no-ABSs”.  Eventually, the authors identify entry points and ways forward arising from the COVID-19 pandemic for policy makers and regulators to regain their pivotal role in policing the market and ensuring transparency while driving innovation