The Promise and Prospects of Blockchain-Based Decentralized Business Models

The emergence of Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology have enabled novel solutions for creating, transacting, and validating digital assets. Inspired by these developments, a variety of project teams have been building blockchain-based “decentralized” business models (BDBM), marketplaces, and organizations. However, ambiguity and confusion exist around the meaning of “decentralized” in the context of blockchain technology-based business models in both research and practice. Moreover, the implications of BDBM’s mainstream adoption from a mass customers’ perspective are insufficiently understood. This article discusses and develops a two-dimensional framework explicating the notion of decentralization in BDBM. Based on this typology, the article analyzes the implications, prerequisites, and desirability of decentralization for BDBMs’ mainstream adoption.