Building a Taxonomy for Gambling Smart Contracts

Abstract

In recent years, the blockchain technology has matured and established new opportunities in the digital world. With the release of the Blockchain 2.0, the Ethereum Network and smart contracts, it is now possible to operate applications decentralized and independently. These applications promise lower transaction costs, better efficiency and higher security. However, there is still a lack of in-depth understanding and standardization within the variety of recently developed smart contracts. In addition, there is still no proper taxonomy that structures the technical elements of a smart contract and makes them comparable. Hence, we develop a smart contract taxonomy using an inductive research approach. Following Nickerson et al. (2013) we analyze the smart contracts of 47 gambling DApps to identify the 18 dimensions and 41 characteristics of your technical and code-based taxonomy. In future research, we will continue to expand the developed taxonomy and include other application areas. Finally, a general taxonomy for research and product development will be available to science and practice, ensuring a consistent and standardized implementation of smart contracts.