Abstract: The blockchain (i.e., a decentralized and encrypted digital ledger) has the potential to disrupt many traditional business models. This study investigates the emerging blockchain business-application landscape by analyzing its industry, venture capital funding, and regional distribution. We do so by matching four venture databases on blockchain-based startups. First, our results show that blockchain startups are most prominently represented in the Finance & Insurance and Information & Communication industries. A finegrained analysis of financial services yields increasing novel applications in existing service offerings – especially in payment networks and processing. Second, consistent with the first result, we find that mainly Finance & Insurance and Information & Communication industries are funded by venture capital. Third, our regional distribution analysis of the emerging ventures identifies two leading geographical blockchain clusters (i.e., the US and UK). Overall, our study contributes to the literature by providing one of the first analyses of blockchain-based business applications. Keywords: blockchain, business models, bitcoin, disruptive innovation
Title: Disrupting industries with blockchain: The industry, venture capital funding, and regional distribution of blockchain ventures
Authors: Maximilian Friedlmaier, Andranik Tumasjan, and Isabell Welpe Technische Universität München (TUM) – TUM School of Management
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