Blockchain, Bitcoin, and ICOs: a review and research agenda

Abstract

Blockchain, a decentralized validation protocol in which no one individual entity completely controls the process or information, is labeled both a “techno tour de force” and a “fraud.” Austrian School researchers view the blockchain application Bitcoin as an ideal example of currency decentralization while ethics scholars fret about this very lack of control. Given the significant importance of the future of blockchain technology to a range of disciplines and the fragmented knowledge base with little cross-disciplinary integration to fields such as computer science and law, we begin by offering a nontechnical explanation of the basics of blockchain and its applications such as smart contracts, cryptocurrencies, tokens, and initial coin offerings. We systematically review 152 articles in the burgeoning academic literature on blockchain and its applications and synthesize the findings from five parallel lines of enquiry for scholars: computer science, economics, entrepreneurship, and law and governance. Finally, we outline a comprehensive research agenda for scholars of regulation policy and governance, entrepreneurship and sustainability, organization design and theory, and consumer behavior, highlighting promising phenomenon, methodologies, data, and theories. We aim to simplify and explain blockchain for what it is—a valuable tool that is revolutionary, transformational, and critical for scholars to understand and investigate.