Politecnico di Torino Ingegneria Gestionale Tesi di Laurea Magistrale Blockchain-enabled emerging business models Supervisor: Carlo Cambini Candidate: Riccardo Rostagno Acknowledgements There are many people I would like to thank for the support without which this thesis would not have been possible. First, I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Carlo Cambini for his invaluable academic guidance and his kindness. I would also like to thank Dr. Enrico Ferro and Dr. Michele Osella for the possibility they gave me, and for passionate participation and input without which this thesis would not have been conducted. Their doors were always open for every trouble I came across during this work. I gratefully acknowledge the colleagues I had the privilege to confront with every day at Istituto Superiore Mario Boella. I would also thank my girlfriend Simona, and my friends, for providing me with unfailing support and encouragement. Finally, I must express, with all my heart, my very profound gratitude to my parents, Tiziana and Roberto, for the unconditional support throughout my years of study. Thank you. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... 2 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 2 State of the art ............................................................................................................ 4 2.1 Blockchain .......................................................................................................... 4 2.1.1 The concept of Blockchain.......................................................................... 4 2.1.2 The side of the Internet that was missing .................................................... 6 2.1.3 Closed database inefficiency ....................................................................... 8 2.1.4 Bitcoin: the first use of blockchain ............................................................. 9 2.1.5 Byzantine fault tolerance........................................................................... 13 2.1.6 Blockchain beyond Bitcoin ....................................................................... 16 2.2 Business models ............................................................................................... 19 2.2.1 The business model notion ........................................................................ 19 2.2.2 Business model tools ................................................................................. 19 2.2.3 Strategyzer’s blogposts ............................................................................. 21 2.2.4 Research questions .................................................................................... 21 3 Methodological overview ........................................................................................ 23 3.1 Systematic literature review ............................................................................. 23 3.1.1 Blockchain literature ................................................................................. 23 3.1.2 Business model literature .......................................................................... 24 3.2 Case study research .......................................................................................... 24 3.2.1 Sampling ................................................................................................... 25 3.2.2 Triangulation of information sources ........................................................ 26 3.2.3 Cross-case analysis.................................................................................... 27 4 Blockchain ecosystem.............................................................................................. 28 4.1 Review of pre-existing maps ............................................................................ 28 4.2 Value ecosystem framework ............................................................................ 32 4.2.1 Basic infrastructure ................................................................................... 33 4.2.2 On-chain application logic ........................................................................ 33 4.2.3 Utility/Crypto equity token ....................................................................... 33 4.2.4 Off-chain application logic ....................................................................... 34 4.3 Value ecosystem exemplification ..................................................................... 34 4.4 Ecosystem matrix ............................................................................................. 35 5 Archetypal actors ..................................................................................................... 37 5.1 Case studies ...................................................................................................... 37 5.1.1 Golem Project ........................................................................................... 41 5.1.2 Sia.............................................................................................................. 43 5.1.3 Populous .................................................................................................... 44 5.1.4 Power ledger ............................................................................................. 45 5.1.5 Augur ........................................................................................................ 46 5.1.6 Gnosis........................................................................................................ 47 5.1.7 Basic attention token ................................................................................. 48 5.1.8 Steemit ...................................................................................................... 49 5.1.9 Status ......................................................................................................... 51 5.1.10 Monetha .................................................................................................... 52 5.1.11 Salt ............................................................................................................ 53 5.1.12 TenX.......................................................................................................... 54 5.1.13 Syscoin ...................................................................................................... 56 5.1.14 OmiseGO .................................................................................................. 56 5.1.15 Hshare ....................................................................................................... 57 5.1.16 Ark ............................................................................................................ 58 5.2 Archetypal actors .............................................................................................. 67 6 Archetypal business models .................................................................................... 69 6.1 Archetypal business models’ identification ..................................................... 69 6.2 Maturity model framework .............................................................................. 69 6.3 Archetypal business models’ characterization ................................................. 70 6.3.1 Distributed assets as a service ................................................................... 70 6.3.2 Three-sided platform ................................................................................. 72 6.3.3 Light Intermediation ................................................................................. 73 6.3.4 Merged services ........................................................................................ 73 6.3.5 ICO as a service ........................................................................................ 74 6.3.6 Solo mining ............................................................................................... 75 6.3.7 Pool mining ............................................................................................... 76 6.3.8 Cloud mining............................................................................................. 77 6.3.9 Mining marketplace .................................................................................. 78 6.3.10 Membership based peer-to-peer lending ................................................... 79 6.3.11 Fly liquidity ............................................................................................... 80 6.3.12 Centralized exchanges ............................................................................... 81 6.3.13 Wallet to wallet exchange ......................................................................... 82 7 Conclusions and opportunities for future research .................................................. 84 7.1 Three-step maturity .......................................................................................... 85 7.2 Open issues and Opportunities for future research........................................... 88 Webography .................................................................................................................... 90 Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 99 Appendix ......................................................................................................................