Jan 1, 2019·Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Rafael Ziolkowski, Geetha Parangi, Gianluca Miscione, Gerhard Schwabe
The blockchain comes with the promise of being a disruptive technology with the potential for novel ways of interaction in a wide range of applications. Although scholarly interest in the technology is growing, a comprehensive analysis of blockchain applications from a governance perspective lacks to date. This research pays special attention to the governance of blockchain systems and illustrates core governance decisions on 15 blockchain implementations from four application domains. Additionally, this research sheds light on changes brought by the blockchain in terms of governance. Based on academic literature, semi-structured-interviews with representatives from those companies, and content analysis of grey literature, different blockchain governance decisions have been derived and their enactment described. The identification of those enriches the scarce body of knowledge on blockchain-based implementations with a better understanding of how key governance decisions are enacted.
Transactions involving cryptocurrency are rapidly gaining traction in the United States, prompting the need for regulation. Hence, California legislators proposed the cryptocurrency regulation Assembly Bill 1123. However, based upon the outcome of a virtually identical regulation in New York, this proposed bill is theoretically projected to stifle business growth and potential innovation. This Article focuses on one approach to remedy this by advocating for reform at the federal level and recommending the utilization of the regulatory sandbox as a framework for future regulation.
Hai Trieu Le, Ngoc Tien, Nguyen Ngoc, Nghia Duong‐Trung · 7 authors
One of the major problems of e-commerce globally is the selling and buying of goods among the parties over the Internet in which the traders may not trust their partners. Cash on delivery allows customers to pay in cash when the product is delivered to their home or a location they choose. This is sometimes called a payment system because customers receive goods before making a payment. This paper investigates a critical verification process issue in the cash on delivery system. In particular, we propose a multi shippers mechanism, which consists of blockchain technology, smart contracts and hyper-ledger fabric platform to achieve distributed and trustworthy verification across participants in the decentralized markets. Our proposed mechanism is given to not only ensure the benefits of the seller but also prevent shipper’s fraudulent. The solution leverages the consistency and robustness of decentralized markets where trust is flexible and effectively controlled. To demonstrate the application and implementation of the proposed framework, we conduct several case studies on real-world transaction datasets from a local computer retailer. We also provide our sources codes for further reproducibility and development. Our conclusion is that the continued integration of multi-shipper mechanism and blockchain technology in the decentralized markets will cause significant transformations across several disciplines.
Jan 1, 2019·Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
This paper explores the emergence of ecosystems in the context of Fintechs infusing digital technology into financial services. The rapid rise of Fintechs has changed the business landscape, challenging the established firms with novel solutions and services. As a result, the established firms are turning to new models of cooperation, replacing the hierarchically managed value chains with ecosystems that are modular and decentralized in their architecture. First, a bibliometric analysis was conducted to present the content and relationships in Fintech research in general. Then, a case study on two of the biggest retail banks in Finland and their innovation relationships in developing Distributed Ledger Technologies and related services was conducted. The results show how established players have established multiple innovation relationships, in different ecosystems as well as between them. These can be seen to demonstrate the emergence of Fintech ecosystems. The study contributes to previous literature by making the linkages explicit, particularly by examining the contextual elements that are crucial enablers or hindering factors in such relationships.
Jan 1, 2019·Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Benedikt Notheisen, Sven Willrich, Maximilian Diez, Christof Weinhardt
In recent years, blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) and its disruptive potential has been one of the most discussed topics in the field of information systems. Driven by the prospect of cost savings and efficiency gains, financial markets are at the core of these discussions. However, in the increasingly convoluted and constantly evolving market of technology providers and platforms, organizations struggle to find a solution that fulfills the specific requirements of their application scenario. To evaluate the suitability of different blockchain-based platforms for securities post-trading, we develop a new methodology to create a technology classification that takes the demands of a specific application context into account. The resulting requirement-based taxonomy sheds light on factors that impede the adoption of blockchain- and DLT-based post-trading, highlights future research challenges, and offers a valuable tool to induce communication between involved stakeholders.
Christian Fries, Peter Kohl-Landgraf, Björn Paffen, Stefanie Weddigen · 11 authors
In this note we describe the application of existing smart contract technologies with the aim to construct a new digital representation of a financial derivative contract. We compare several existing DLT based technologies. We provide a detailed description of two separate prototypes which are able to be executed on a centralized and on a DLT platform respectively. Beyond that we highlight some insights on legal aspects as well as on common integration challenges regarding existing process and system landscapes. For a further introductory note and motivation on the theoretical concept we refer to https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/business-law-blog/blog/2018/12/smart-derivative-contract-constructing-digital-financial-derivative . A very detailed methodological overview of the concept of a smart derivative contract can be found in doi:10.2139/ssrn.3163074.
Given the ubiquity of digital technologies, and increased use of autonomous algorithms, it is likely that many of today’s social and organizational processes will one day include autonomous elements. The Bitcoin blockchain is likely the first case of an increasingly generative and autonomous way of organizing, and the specific properties of blockchain infrastructures—distribution of control, openness to manipulation, and generativity of the underlying source code—make it an ideal case to study patterns of self-organizing. This paper investigates the phenomenon of self-organizing through a study of forking in the Bitcoin blockchain infrastructure between 2010 and 2016. It adds to the emerging body of research on digital infrastructures, and particularly blockchain infrastructures, by conceptualizing forking as a pattern of self-organizing in blockchain infrastructures that specifically involves the underlying infrastructure, the scale of code changes, individual objectives, and collective adoption, whether specific or general. Thus, this paper demonstrates how forking in blockchain infrastructures mediates between divergent organizing objectives and existing capabilities, on the one hand, and generates self-organizing on the other hand. In this paper, we further contextualize our findings in extant work on digital infrastructures, offer a guide for designers of blockchain infrastructures, and propose the concept of “generative mirroring” as a pattern through which blockchain infrastructures and organizing adaptively coevolve.
This paper examines companies' adaptation of cryptocurrencies and comprises a quantitative empirical study. The emerging potentials of cryptocurrencies but the gap of practical application and respective existing knowledge are addressed in this paper. Technological, economic, social and regulatory aspects are depicted in the literature review. In addition, a comprehensive status quo of on companies' cryptocurrency adaptation research is provided and previous contributions are discussed. This study is based on an online questionnaire that was sent out to CFOs of German Prime Standard listed companies. As suggested in preceding papers the extended technology acceptance model (TAM2) is applied. Results indicate a very low level of adaptation and companies' utilisation of the blockchain technology. Lower potentials are seen in cryptocurrencies than in the underlying blockchain technology. The main obstacles are to overcome regulatory uncertainty and high price volatility. Low transaction costs and the omission of intermediaries are seen as great potential benefits. Suggestions for further research and practical implications are provided.
Before the implementation of a solution, it is cost-efficient and practical to be able to evaluate and analyze the expected value of use cases. Especially, this is emphasized in blockchain (BC) use cases, which typically have a wide business ecosystem and possibly disruptive business models. This paper presents two BC use case value evaluations and results. The IoT use cases were selected from two different industry segments: telecommunications-oriented 5G network slice brokering and the energy industry-related internal electricity allocation in a housing society. The use case value was assessed by applying a resource configuration framework and 4C - commerce, context, content, and connection - business model typology against BC and smart contracts characteristics and capabilities. The results derived from the data collected from the expert workshops proved the expected value of the use cases, and in general, the feasibility of BC technology for facilitating various value-creating resource configuration processes was shown. Furthermore, the resource configuration framework proved to be a valuable theoretical approach for analyzing and developing also the BC-enabled novel use cases and business models. According to the findings, further development of the framework is proposed with an introduced novel decentralized resource configuration prototype that can replace predominant platform-based business models.
Since it takes time and effort to put a new product or service on the market, one would like to predict whether it will be a success. In general this is not possible, but it is possible to follow best practices in order to maximize the chance of success. A smart contract is intended to encode business logic and is therefore at the heart of every new business on the Ethereum blockchain. We have investigated how to measure the success of smart contracts, and whether successful smart contracts have characteristics that less successful smart contracts lack. The appearance of a smart contract on a listing website such as Etherscan or StateoftheDapps is such a characteristic. In this paper, we present a three-pronged analysis of the relative success of listed smart contracts. First, we have used statistical analysis on the publicly visible transaction history of the Ethereum blockchain to determine that listed contracts are significantly more successful than their unlisted counterparts. Next, we have conducted a survey among more than 200 developers via an anonymous online survey about their experience with the listing process. A significant majority of respondents do not believe that listing a contract itself contributes to its success, but they believe that the extra attention that is typically paid in tandem with the listing process does contribute. Finally, based on the respondents' answers, we have drafted 10 recommendations for developers and validated them by submitting them to an international panel of experts.
Abstract We develop a theory of blockchain governance. In our model, the proof-of-work system, the most common set of rules for validating transactions in blockchains, creates an industrial ecosystem with specialized suppliers of goods and services. We analyze the interactions between blockchain governance and the market structure of the industries in the blockchain ecosystem. We show that the proof-of-work system may lead to a situation in which some large firms in the blockchain industrial ecosystem—blockchain conglomerates—capture the governance of the blockchain. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.
We study optimal smart contract design for monitoring an exchange of an item performed offline. There are two parties, a seller and a buyer. Exchange happens off-chain, but the status update takes place on-chain. The exchange can be verified but with a cost. To guarantee self-enforcement of the smart contract, both parties make a deposit, and the deposits must cover payments made in all possible final states. Both parties have an (opportunity) cost of making deposits. We discuss two classes of contract: In the first, the mechanism only interacts with the seller, while in the second, the mechanism can also interact with the buyer. In both cases, we derive optimal contracts specifying optimal deposits and verification policies. The gains from trade of the first contract are dominated by the second contract, on the whole domain of parameters. However, the first type of contract has the advantage of less communication and, therefore, more flexibility.
Madeleine Maslin, Millicent Watt, Christopher Yong
This paper dissects the research methodologies implemented by the Research Team for the Smart Contracts Working Group (TC-307/IT-041 Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies) in developing standards to inform best practice in the design and use of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. In doing so, it explores the origins of blockchain standardisation and outlines the high-level methodology for conducting and delivering research in this rapidly evolving space.
The ultimate objective of cryptocurrencies is to become a payment system substituting, complementing, or competing with the conventional payment systems. Irrespective of whether such an objective could be accomplished, the functional similarities between certain cryptocurrencies and fiat money has persuaded competent authorities of certain EU Member States to grant payment institution licenses to cryptocurrency exchanges. At first blush, granting such an authorization would seem to be a step forward as it would bring otherwise unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges within the scope of the existing payment regulatory framework. However, this authorization effectively applies payment laws to new payment infrastructures that rely on volatile settlement assets with probabilistic finality. Since the volatility and finality risks cannot be fully addressed under the existing payment laws, an alternative policy option would be granting a special license to cryptocurrency businesses or introducing ring-fencing mechanisms to protect the conventional payment systems from the risks of cryptocurrency payments.