The ICO Phenomenon and Its Relationships with Ethereum Smart Contract Environment

Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) are public offers of new cryptocurrencies in exchange of existing ones, aimed to finance projects in the blockchain development arena. In the last 8 months of 2017, the total amount gathered by ICOs exceeded 4 billion US$, and overcame the venture capital funnelled toward high tech initiatives in the same period. A high percentage of ICOS is managed through Smart Contracts running on Ethereum blockchain, and in particular to ERC-20 Token Standard Contract. In this work we examine 1388 ICOs, published on December 31, 2017 on icobench.com Web site, gathering information relevant to the assessment of their quality and software development management, including data on their development teams. We also study, at the same date, the financial data of 450 ICO tokens available on coinmarketcap.com Web site, among which 355 tokens are managed on Ethereum blochain. We define success criteria for the ICOs, based on the funds actually gathered, and on the behavior of the price of the related tokens, finding the factors that most likely influence the ICO success likeliness

LikeStarter: a Smart-contract based Social DAO for Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding has become a popular form of collective funding, in which small donations or investments, made by groups of people, support the development of new projects in exchange of free products or different types of recognition. Social network sites, on the other hand, promote user cooperation and currently are at the basis of any individuals cyber-interactions. In this paper, we present LikeStarter, a blockchain-based decentralized platform that combines social interactions with crowdfunding mechanisms, allowing any user to raise funds while becoming popular in the social network. Being built over the Ethereum blockchain, LikeStarter is structured as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), that fosters crowdfunding without the intervention of any central authority, and recognizes the active role of donors, enabling them to support artists or projects, while making profits.Comment: Proceedings of the 2st Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains for Distributed Systems (CryBlock'19). Paris, France, 29 April, 201

Open Innovation After Initial Coin Offerings - An Empirical Investigation of Crowd Participation and Third-Party Support

This study investigates the relationship between third-party support of young ventures and crowd engagement in open source development projects grounded in signaling theory. It is centered on the empirical analysis of a multi-source secondary dataset of 697 firms which conducted an initial coin offering (ICO) and published their source code online. We find that internal third-party support by technology advisors is positively associated with crowd engagement for open source development projects. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, we find internal support by business advisors and prestigious external support to be negatively related to crowd participation. The study enhances our understanding of antecedents of software co-creation and contributes to IS literature on third-party endorsement in open innovation and ICOs

Understanding smart contracts as a new option in transaction cost economics

Among different concepts associated with the term blockchain, smart contracts have been a prominent one, especially popularized by the Ethereum platform. In this study, we unpack this concept within the framework of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE). This institutional economics theory emphasizes the role of distinctive (private and public) contract law regimes in shaping firm boundaries. We propose that widespread adoption of the smart contract concept creates a new option in public contracting, which may give rise to a smart-contract-augmented contract law regime. We discuss tradeoffs involved in the attractiveness of the smart contract concept for firms and the resulting potential for change in firm boundaries. Based on our new conceptualization, we discuss potential roles the three branches of government – judicial, executive, and legislative – in enabling and using this new contract law regime. We conclude the paper by pointing out limitations of the TCE perspective and suggesting future research directions

Предизвикателствата пред финансирането на Финтех компаниите чрез алтернативни способи

Алтернативното финансиране има съществено значение за осигуряването на средства за финтех компаниите. В края на ХХ и началото на ХХI век финтех (FinTtech) технологиите и финтех инвестициите търпят бурно развитие и на няколко основни етапа започват да се внедряват на масовия пазар – банкоматите, електронните фондови борси и др. „Финтех“ е категория, обхващаща много различни технологии, които фирмите все повече използват, за да подобряват и автоматизират финансовите услуги в своето ежедневие и усъвършенстват и революционизират множество пазари – банковият, застрахователният и др. Финтех компаниите използват нововъзникващите технологии, като т.нар. „големи данни“ (Big data), блокчейн технологиите, криптовалутите и др., за да направят финансовите услуги по-достъпни и ефикасни. Финтех технологиите, като основа за изграждане на алтернативни финансови услуги, са от съществена важност за стартиращи финтех фирми и за превръщането на бизнеса им в печеливш

MITIGATING LOAN ASSOCIATED FINANCIAL RISK USING BLOCKCHAIN BASED LENDING SYSTEM

Lending systems in real world are not much secure and reliable as the borrower and third parties involved in this aspect may create various deceitful situations. Blockchain is a secure system where the utilization of smart contract can avoid deceptive phenomena involved in lending but the decline in exchange rate of cryptocurrency can create the opportunity to pay back less than the borrowed amount in terms of fiat money. In this paper, a blockchain and smart contract-based lending framework is designed which requires the borrower to provide Ethereum Request for Comments (ERC)-20 standard tokens as collateral to mitigate the associated risks. The smart contract feature is utilized to automate the system without any third-party management. Besides, transaction stored in the blocks creates transparency among the users of the system. To tackle the aforementioned issues, ERC-20 token value is increased periodically and the instability of the exchange rate is surveilled by the system. By the end of this paper, some test cases and charts relevant to the data set are evaluated to assess the effectiveness of the system

ICO tokens as an alternative financial instrument : a risk measurement

Purpose: This research aims to check the risk of investing in tokens and cryptocurrencies to show how much investors could lose and determine whether ICO and cryptocurrency return rates are persistent. Design/Methodology/Approach: In the article, ICO tokens and cryptocurrencies were tested using VaR. Then a Shapiro-Wilk test was performed. Due to the appearance of long tails, in the next step, Renyi’s entropy was calculated. Furthermore, R/S analysis was calculated (the Hurst exponent), and on this basis, Weron’s bootstrapping was applied. Findings: Many tokens have a VaR result between 20% and 30% (26.69% on average, median 21.94%). Renyi’s entropy of 24 tokens is more than 0.5 and less than 1. Nineteen tokens have an entropy of more than 1. For cryptocurrencies, the entropy level is between 0.68 and 0.85. In 84% of cases, the Hurst exponent is more than 0.52. The Hurst exponent values of the return rates of five tokens are above the upper bound of Weron’s intervals, and four out of five the Hurst exponent values of cryptocurrencies are above the upper bound of Weron’s intervals. Practical Implications: There are not many articles centering on evaluating risk in investing in ICO tokens. This approach may be of crucial importance for investors and financial markets managers. Originality/Value: The development of cryptocurrencies led to the rise of ICO. Scientific papers focusing on these elements concentrate on the functioning of processes, raising capital, and volatility.peer-reviewe