Abstract Digital innovations in banking and payments recently have garnered a great deal of attention. Specifically, distributed ledger technology (DLT) has the potential to fundamentally change the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in the financial sector. DLT is a novel and fast-evolving approach to record and share data, e.g., payment transactions, among members of a decentralized network. Using transaction cost theory, the paper examines how DLT will change the cross-border payment infrastructure. DLT can reduce the overall transaction costs potentially resulting in the disappearance of correspondent banks.
Johannes Rude Jensen, Victor von Wachter, Omri Ross
We document an ongoing research process towards the implementation and integration of a digital artefact, executing the lifecycle of a leveraged trade with permissionless blockchain technology. By employing core functions of the 'Dai Stablecoin system' deployed on the Ethereum blockchain, we produce the equivalent exposure of a leveraged position while deterministically automating the monitoring and liquidation processes. We demonstrate the implementation and early integration of the artefact into a hardened exchange environment through a microservice utilizing standardized API calls. The early results presented in this paper were produced in collaboration with a team of stakeholders at a hosting organization, a multi-national online brokerage and cryptocurrency exchange. We utilize the design science research methodology (DSR) guiding the design, development, and evaluation of the artefact. Our findings indicate that, while it is feasible to implement the lifecycle of a leveraged trade on the blockchain, the integration of the artefact into a traditional exchange environment involves multiple compromises and drawback. Generalizing the tentative findings presented in this paper, we introduce three propositions on the implementation, integration, and implications of executing key business processes with permissionless blockchain technologies. By conducting computational design science research, we contribute to the information systems discourse on the applied utility of permissionless blockchain technologies in finance and beyond.
Smart contracts have been plagued by security incidents, which resulted in substantial financial losses. Given numerous research efforts in addressing the security issues of smart contracts, we wondered how software practitioners build security into smart contracts in practice. We performed a mixture of qualitative and quantitative studies with 13 interviewees and 156 survey respondents from 35 countries across six continents to understand practitioners' perceptions and practices on smart contract security. Our study uncovers practitioners' motivations and deterrents of smart contract security, as well as how security efforts and strategies fit into the development lifecycle. We also find that blockchain platforms have a statistically significant impact on practitioners' security perceptions and practices of smart contract development. Based on our findings, we highlight future research directions and provide recommendations for practitioners.
Johannes Rude Jensen, Victor von Wachter, Omri Ross
Novel blockchain technology provides the infrastructure layer for the\ncreation of decentralized appli-cations. A rapidly growing ecosystem of\napplications is built around financial services, commonly referred to as\ndecentralized finance. Whereas the intangible concept of decentralization is\npresented as a key driver for the applications, defining and measuring\ndecentralization is multifaceted. This pa-per provides a framework to quantify\ndecentralization of governance power among blockchain appli-cations. Governance\nof the applications is increasingly important and requires striking a balance\nbe-tween broad distribution, fostering user activity, and financial incentives.\nTherefore, we aggregate, parse, and analyze empirical data of four finance\napplications calculating coefficients for the statistical dispersion of the\ngovernance token distribution. The gauges potentially support IS scholars for\nan objective evaluation of the capabilities and limitations of token governance\nand for fast iteration in design-driven governance mechanisms.\n
Iakovos Pittaras, Nikos Fotiou, Vasilios A. Siris, George C. Polyzos
We explore the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), such as blockchains, in mobile gaming, focusing on ecosystem expansion and diversification, customer attraction and retention, exploitation of context sensitive and personalized advertisements, and improved monetization of in-game assets. We evaluate the cost and transaction delay of DLTs in a location-based mobile game ecosystem using two types of blockchains (permissioned and permissionless or public), based on defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Our evaluation shows the advantages of using both types of blockchains as well as interledger technologies that combine them. Permissioned blockchains enable high performance, e.g., in terms of throughput and delay, and low cost, while permissionless (public) blockchains, through their transparency, immutability, and openness, support trust and facilitate interactions among unrelated parties. Finally, we show that the combination of IoT devices and DLTs in mobile gaming offers new business opportunities and enables innovative business models for both traditional mobile gaming companies and other participants in the ecosystem, e.g., game players, cafes, malls, and similar establishments, advertising companies, and independent programmers.
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have emerged as an interesting new category of software application. Initial applications are disrupting the finance industry, but the technology is not restricted to fintech applications or assets. While other devices or software applications also claim to be autonomous, in many cases there have been levels proposed to scale or categorize the degree of autonomy afforded those applications. This notion of a level of autonomy is particularly important for consumer awareness as these autonomous devices and applications scale out to mass-market services. The societal impact from the operationalization of these technologies can be significant in terms of safety, security, privacy, and the consequences of failures. This article develops a proposed measure of autonomy for DAOs based on the existing legal/financial concept of liabilities.
Horst Treiblmaier, Melanie Swan, Primavera De Filippi, Mary C. Lacity · 6 authors
Distributed ledger technology, frequently designated as 'blockchain,' is evolving from its hype phase toward greater maturity and long-term value creation. Although many academic communities were initially slow to grasp the technology's numerous potential implications, meanwhile a substantial amount of research is dedicated to investigating the development and impact of blockchain and related technologies. As undertaken, most research projects take a specific homogenous perspective, such as a technical or business viewpoint. To date, blockchain research studies are largely missing a bridge between and across academic disciplines. Given the manifold implications of blockchain technology, a fruitful crossdisciplinary exchange is therefore needed. In this paper, we bring together researchers with varying expertise to provide a vision into what may be next in terms of concepts, applications, and research agendas. We consider business, economic, societal, legal, technical, and philosophical viewpoints and propose multiple research questions as well as hypotheses arising from these diverse viewpoints. Simultaneously, we challenge various academic communities to tackle some of the most crucial issues of current blockchain research and to develop a solid foundation for future exploration.
As technology progresses, organisations must understand where to direct their value-creating efforts to achieve or sustain competitive advantage. This is even more true in the case of emerging technologies, where innovative activities often focus on achieving a technology promise while overlooking a set of technological, operational, organisational and user-related problems that must be overcome before the technology can fulfil this promise. Through an innovative application of text-mining, this paper develops a practical methodology to identify a range of problems related to a technological field in an unsupervised manner, that may benefit firms, researchers and policymakers. We apply the methodology to the field of blockchain and compare it to traditional literature reviews.
Hendrik Amler, Lisa Eckey, Sebastian Faust, Marcel Kaiser · 6 authors
The decentralized and trustless nature of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology leads to a shift in the digital world. The possibility to execute small programs, called smart contracts, on cryptocurrencies like Ethereum opened doors to countless new applications. One particular exciting use case is decentralized finance (DeFi), which aims to revolutionize traditional financial services by founding them on a decentralized infrastructure. We show the potential of DeFi by analyzing its advantages compared to traditional finance. Additionally, we survey the state-of-the-art of DeFi products and categorize existing services. Since DeFi is still in its infancy, there are countless hurdles for mass adoption. We discuss the most prominent challenges and point out possible solutions. Finally, we analyze the economics behind DeFi products. By carefully analyzing the state-of-the-art and discussing current challenges, we give a perspective on how the DeFi space might develop in the near future.
Purpose Given the growing importance of blockchain technology (BT), the authors use the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), which posits that BT adoption intention depends on the complementarity between UTAUT and blockchain transparency (BTRAN) and examine it in a new setting: the boundary condition of perceived helpfulness. Design/methodology/approach The authors review the major conceptual literature on both UTAUT and BT to identify their principal common factors. They examine the complementarity between UTAUT and BTRAN and further test the moderating effect of perceived helpfulness. The authors used the PLS technique for data analysis because this technique can test the direct and interaction effects. Findings The complementarity between UTAUT and BTRAN strongly affects BT adoption intention. The authors further show that perceived helpfulness moderates the relationship between adoption intention and usage behavior. At high levels of perceived helpfulness, usage behavior increases rapidly with adoption intention. Originality/value The results indicate that UTAUT is a valuable theory to identify the determinants of adoption intention, confirming its robustness in blockchain-enabled supply chain management. The combination of UTAUT and BTRAN can contribute a plausible approach to the strategy literature: the complementarity effect might create more benefits than adopting a single practice.
Juan Ignacio Ibañez, Chris N. Bayer, Paolo Tasca, Jiahua Xu
Triple entry accounting (TEA) is simultaneously a novel application in the blockchain universe and one of the many concepts applied in blockchain technology. Its Wild Wild West status is accompanied by a lack of consistent and comprehensive set of categories, a state of play that impedes a proper apprehension of the technology, leading to contradictions and oversight of important nuances. To clearly delineate the confines of TEA within the world of blockchain, we provide building blocks to standardise its terminology. Particularly, we distinguish between essential elements such as accounting and bookkeeping, as well as between decentralised systems, distributed ledgers, and distributed journals.
As blockchain technology is maturing to be confidently used in practice, its applications are becoming evident and, correspondingly, more blockchain research is being published, also extending to more domains than before. To date, scientific research in the field has predominantly focused on subject areas such as finance, computer science, and engineering, while the area of service management has largely neglected this topic. Therefore, we invited a group of renowned scholars from different academic fields to share their views on emerging topics regarding blockchain in service management and service research. Their individual commentaries and conceptual contributions refer to different theoretical and domain perspectives, including managerial implications for service companies as well as forward-looking suggestions for further research.
Jesús Alfonso Soto Pineda, Antonio J. Villanueva Tobalina
espanolEl articulo configura la primera entrega, de cuatro, de la evaluacion que los autores realizan acerca de la relacion entre la Tecnologia de Registro distribuido, blockchain, y la Defensa de la competencia. Asi, el presente documento se centra en una cuestion tecnica, mas de naturaleza economica que de naturaleza juridica, que resulta esencial para comprender las potenciales implicaciones de la blockchain en el ecosistema competitivo y en el derecho de la libre competencia —o antitrust— que intenta salvaguardarle: la relativa a la taxonomia de las redes, los registros y las cadenas de bloques Englishhe paper configures the first outcome of four, about the analysis of the authors regarding the relationship between Distributed Ledger Technology, blockchain, and antitrust. Thus, this document points out a technical issue that is more economical than juridical and it is also essential to understand the possible implications of the blockchain on markets and on the part of the law that protects them: the one related to the taxonomy of the networking, the ledgers, and the chains of blocks.
Abstract The development of blockchain-based applications, to date mostly virtual currencies, touches many areas of law and economics. The most well-known applications of public blockchains rely on Proof of Work as a consensus mechanism in which miners compete to solve a cryptographic puzzle. We argue that economic tools for market definition may be adapted to delineate relevant cryptocurrency mining markets. Antitrust law can help to prevent network attacks and exclusion of transactions with lower fees by large miners. When multiple blockchains are part of the same market, the role of network effects in securing the leading position of more established cryptocurrencies can potentially lead to exclusionary behaviour.
Research background: As humanity evolves, so do the new payment options. Today, one of the most popular and powerful electronic money is Bitcoin. Over time, virtual currency is becoming one of the most widely available and used means of payment. Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to analyse ATMs in post offices, focusing on virtual currency ATMs. The paper also includes an analysis of available ATMs for virtual currencies and a comparison of their capabilities. Methods: We compare three most important ATM manufacturers and their most used models. It examines the use of those ATMs in post offices in Slovakia and abroad. Paper also analyses the attitude of customers of Slovak Post towards the deployment of virtual currency ATMs at its branches (on a sample of 400 respondents). Findings & Value added: In the Slovak Republic postal services are offered by several companies (19 out of 24 providers responded to our questionnaire). Slovak Post is leading provider of distribution, communication, and payment services in Slovakia. Czech Post is an example of country where virtual currency ATMs were introduced but subsequently withdrawn from post offices. In turn, Austrian Post Office is an example of a country where this system still operates and expands. While Slovak market still lacks such a service in the postal business, these trends will adapt over time. The virtual currency ATMs we have in Slovakia, are not operated by postal enterprises.
Teck Ming Tan, Jari Salo, Petri Ahokangas, Veikko Seppänen · 5 authors
Typically, people have a misconception about blockchain as they associate this technology with cryptocurrency. This chapter does not focus, however, on bitcoin or cryptocurrencies that pertain to its intrinsic value. Rather, the authors focus on the disintermediation feature of blockchain technology by providing insights into how this technology could substitute for the functions and roles of the intermediary. The findings show that blockchain technology is not equipped with financing and physical distribution functions. The current research further demonstrates that most of the blockchain service providers that are listed in the Liechtenstein Blockchain Act are required to perform the traditional roles of an intermediary. Thus, blockchain technology is not found to support a full concept of disintermediation. This chapter is vital in order for existing intermediaries to gain a deeper understanding of how to analyze and optimize their existing functions and roles while adjusting their business model in the token-based economy.