Blockchains: to compete, or to cooperate?: a discussion on blockchain technology and its potential to transformation traditional business models

Absztrakt (kivonat)

Blockchain technology is as an archive tool used for recording ownership and value via an online digital platform. It offers efficiencies and alternative solutions to the high cost service sector and centralised authority that we see in traditional business models today. In the last 2 years, the internet has seen a spike in interest surrounding the blockchain concept. While most of this information lacks concrete evidence, majority of the available sources agree that the technology is ground-breaking, with potential to disrupt the methods behind traditional economics. This thesis is a compilation of the available studies and predictions surrounding the blockchain concept. It aims to provide an introduction to the technology, using this information to analyse the keys industries affected and in what ways. This analysis will help to answer the question of whether blockchain technology will disrupt society through its ability to compete with existing firms, transforming traditional models that have been used to coordinate markets for centuries. The aim of this research is to contribute to the literature by testing the hypothesis that blockchain technology will compete with traditional business models. The aim is to address the extent to which these systems will be disrupted. The results from this thesis conclude that blockchain technology will compete with traditional models by making them outdated and inefficient at serving future market demands. However, the results also show that the same industries facing attack are also the ones investing in the cooperation with blockchain technology, with the purpose of leveraging existing resources to remain competitors in the anticipated digital economy. This information indicates that blockchain will be used to reshape corporate processes and thus, contrary to what the literature says, may not actually disrupt current systems to its full potential.