From Mutualism to Amensalism: A Case Study of Blockchain and Digital Identity Wallets

Innovation with emerging technologies is often challenging. They are still evolving and many are surrounded by unbalanced claims and hyperbole, which give rise to ambiguity and complicate adoption. These difficulties become even more pronounced when organizations attempt to introduce two loosely coupled emerging technologies. Building on a six-year case-study of the European Blockchain Partnership that attempted to simultaneously introduce blockchain and digital identity wallets, we flesh out the evolution their relationship. Our analysis surfaces a complex material-discursive process that first only discursively and later also materially de-coupled the two technologies along three population ecology principles for species interaction: technological mutualism, technological commensalism, and technological amensalism. Our study contributes an information systems perspective on the enactment and evolution of loosely coupled emerging technologies. Moreover, we use insights from population ecology to better explain and understand the underlying mechanisms.