Blockchain is considered by many to be a disruptive core technology. Although many researchers have realized the importance of blockchain, the research of blockchain is still in its infancy. Consequently, this study reviews the current academic research on blockchain, especially in the subject area of business and economics. Based on a systematic review of the literature retrieved from the Web of Science service, we explore the top-cited articles, most productive countries, and most common keywords. Additionally, we conduct a clustering analysis and identify the following five research themes: “economic benefit,” “blockchain technology,” “initial coin offerings,” “fintech revolution,” and “sharing economy.” Recommendations on future research directions and practical applications are also provided in this paper.

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A systematic review of blockchain

Blockchain as a disruptive technology for business: A systematic review

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have emerged as a new mechanism for entrepreneurial finance, with parallels to initial public offerings, venture capital, and pre-sale crowdfunding. In a sample of more than 1,500 ICOs that collectively raise $12.9 billion, we examine which issuer and ICO characteristics predict successful real outcomes (increasing issuer employment and avoiding enterprise failure). Success is associated with disclosure, credible commitment to the project, and quality signals. An instrumental variables analysis finds that ICO token exchange listing causes higher future employment, indicating that access to token liquidity has important real consequences for the enterprise.

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Initial coin offerings: Financing growth with cryptocurrency token sales

/pdf/initial-coin-offerings-financing-growth-with-cryptocurrency-km2ev1am0l.pdf

Initial Coin Offerings: Financing Growth with Cryptocurrency Token Sales

New technology is changing the nature of gambling with interactive modes of gambling becoming putatively associated with higher rates of problem gambling. This paper presents the first nationally representative data on the prevalence and correlates of problem gambling among Australian adults since 1999 and focuses on the impact of interactive gambling. A telephone survey of 15,006 adults was conducted. Of these, 2,010 gamblers (all interactive gamblers and a randomly selected subsample of those reporting land-based gambling in the past 12 months) also completed more detailed measures of problem gambling, substance use, psychological distress, and help-seeking. Problem gambling rates among interactive gamblers were 3 times higher than for noninteractive gamblers. However, problem and moderate risk gamblers were most likely to attribute problems to electronic gaming machines and land-based gambling, suggesting that although interactive forms of gambling are associated with substantial problems, interactive gamblers experience significant harms from land-based gambling. The findings demonstrate that problem gambling remains a significant public health issue that is changing in response to new technologies, and it is important to develop strategies that minimize harms among interactive gamblers.

https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/adb/28/3/769.pdf

The prevalence and determinants of problem gambling in Australia: assessing the impact of interactive gambling and new technologies.

This study explores the determinants of initial coin offering (ICO) success, where success is defined as the amount of capital a project could raise. ICOs are a tool for startups in the blockchain ecosystem to raise early capital with relative ease. The market for ICOs has grown at a rapid pace since its start in 2013. We analyze a unique dataset of 278 projects that finished their ICOs by August 2017 to assess determinants of funding success that we derive from the crowdfunding and venture capital literature. Our results show that ICOs exhibit similarities to classical crowdfunding and venture capital markets. Specifically, we identify resemblances in determinants of funding success regarding human capital characteristics, business model quality, project elaboration, and social media activity.

https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/11/4/80/pdf

Blockchain-Based ICOs: Pure Hype or the Dawn of a New Era of Startup Financing?

Blockchain technology provides an immutable ledger for secure value transactions in a network. This base layer technology has the potential to boost the efficiency of various processes in the energy sector. In this article, the intersection of blockchain and energy is analyzed based on the underlying references of 166 publications via co-citation analysis. Using exploratory factor analysis, six distinct research streams are identified: I. energy market innovation and transformation (through blockchain technology), II. blockchain for data sharing and security, III. energy management in smart grids and scalable systems, IV. information transmission across networks and its applications, V. peer-to-peer energy microgrids, and VI. potential of blockchain technology. For each of these streams, the highest-impact articles are reviewed. In addition, social network analysis allows to reveal the relationships and dependencies between the streams. The results indicate a high degree of homogeneity in this field of research, as the six streams explain more than 71% of variance. The degree to which the streams are centered on blockchain technology varies. While the two most established discourses and the least established one focus at least in part on blockchain, the other three streams prioritize energy issues. It is postulated that specific research fields on this topic are only beginning to emerge, implications are discussed and areas for future research are derived.

Blockchain and energy: A bibliometric analysis and review

The influence of stablecoin issuances on cryptocurrency markets

In most countries, the regulation of gaming is based on whether the predominance for the outcome of the game lies in skill or chance. As poker has become extremely popular in recent years, a heated discussion has evolved about the amount of skill involved in poker. Recent contributions to this question fail to convince, mostly because they do not imitate reality sufficiently. In one of the major works in this field Cabot & Hannum simulated poker games for various player profiles and interpreted the differences in the results as skill. But they only distinguish between skilled and unskilled players without defining these profiles or covering nuances in skill differences. In probably their most influential paper Dreef et al. made the important point that skill in poker is always relative - relative to the skill of other players and to the magnitude of the chance elements. Using these two works as a base point for this paper we derive the critical repetition frequency (CRF) of games. The CRF is defined as the threshold between a game that is predominantly influenced by chance or skill and is valid for all games. In the second part, we compute the CRF for poker with data from an empirical survey of 51,761 poker players and conclude that poker is a game of skill - but only for this sample. However, we also use the CRF to point out the shortcomings of the predominance test and question the current gaming-regulation based on the classification of a skill or a chance game.

Ingo Fiedler

Papers

Blockchain-Based ICOs: Pure Hype or the Dawn of a New Era of Startup Financing?

Blockchain and energy: A bibliometric analysis and review

The influence of stablecoin issuances on cryptocurrency markets

Quantifying Skill in Games - Theory and Empirical Evidence for Poker

Gambling spending and its concentration on problem gamblers