Decentralised finance platform ecosystems: conceptualisation and outlook

Abstract

This work contributes to architectural and economic understanding of a largely unexplored field of blockchain-based applications referred to as Decentralised Finance (DeFi). Merging technical and economic perspectives, we define DeFi as an ecosystem of decentralised applications which is built on top of permissionless smart contract platforms to mimic and extend traditional financial services. We frame DeFi as a research object in information systems (IS) and management-related platform literature. Further, we conceptualise DeFi as a platform economy within software ecosystems and in interdependence with exogenous factors. This enables us to identify three promising avenues for future research: (i) base layer blockchains as a platform for developers, (ii) the dApp economy of platform modules, and (iii) the diffusion and adoption of DeFi.