Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Foundations of Cryptoeconomic Systems

Blockchain networks and similar cryptoeconomic networks aresystems, specifically complex systems. They are adaptive networkswith multi-scale spatiotemporal dynamics. Individual actions towards a collective goal are incentivized with "purpose-driven" tokens. These tokens are equipped with cryptoeconomic mechanisms allowing a decentralized network to simultaneously maintain a universal state layer, support peer-to-peer settlement, andincentivize collective action. These networks therefore provide a mission-critical and safety-critical regulatory infrastructure for autonomous agents in untrusted economic networks. They also provide a rich, real-time data set reflecting all economic activities in their systems. Advances in data science and network sciencecan thus be leveraged to design and analyze these economic systems in a manner consistent with the best practices of modern systems engineering. Research that reflects all aspects of these socioeconomic networks needs (i) a complex systems approach, (ii) interdisciplinary research, and (iii) a combination of economic and engineering methods, here referred to as "economic systems engineering", for the regulation and control of these socio-economicsystems. This manuscript provides foundations for further research activities that build on these assumptions, including specific research questions and methodologies for future research in this field.Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Foundations of Cryptoeconomic Systems

Blockchain networks and similar cryptoeconomic networks are systems, specifically complex systems. They are adaptive networks with multiscale spatio-temporal dynamics. Individual actions may be incentivized towards a collective goal with “purpose-driven” tokens. Blockchain networks, for example, are equipped cryptoeconomic mechanisms that allow the decentralized network to simultaneously maintain a universal state layer, support peer-to-peer settlement, and incentivize collective action. These networks represent an institutional infrastructure upon which socioeconomic collaboration is facilitated – in the absence of intermediaries or traditional organizations. They provide a mission-critical and safety-critical regulatory infrastructure for autonomous agents in untrusted economic networks. Their tokens provide a rich, real-time data set reflecting all economic activities in their systems. Advances in network science and data science can thus be leveraged to design and analyze these economic systems in a manner consistent with the best practices of modern systems engineering. Research that reflects all aspects of these socioeconomic networks needs (i) a complex systems approach, (ii) interdisciplinary research, and (iii) a combination of economic and engineering methods, here referred to as “economic systems engineering,” for the regulation and control of these socioeconomic systems. This manuscript provides a conceptual framework synthesizing the research space and proceeds to outline specific research questions and methodologies for future research in this field, applying an inductive approach based on interdisciplinary literature review and relative contextualization of the works cited.Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Assessing the impact of XML/EDI with real option valuation

Hitherto the diffusion of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has been limited due to high implementation and operational costs. On the other hand, the Extensible Markup Language (XML) has quickly become a generally accepted standard for integrating processing of formatted data - the literature is virtually unanimous that an integration of EDI into XML would make EDI more accessible and implementation faster and cheaper. The process of standardization of various EDI standard formats over XML is still underway and the question arises whether an early adoption of the technology would pay off. This thesis investigates the issue using real-options methodology. Starting from the well-known Black-Scholes model the parameters of the model are operationalized to decide about the best adoption timing: (i) project costs of implementation, (ii) value of savings of the project (substitutional, complementary, and strategic benefits), and (iii) project risk, expressed as the variance used in Black-Scholes. The latter considers both the external autonomy of the player in implementing new technology and internal properties in technology adoption. Discussing the technological properties of XML/EDI above parameters are operationalized step by step and integrated into a decision model to help each individual firm put the XML/EDI investment decision into real numbers. In order to better visualize the parameters of this decision framework, four company profiles, based on the theory of technology diffusion, will be introduced and mapped against the parameters of the Black-Scholes formula. (author's abstract