IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2102.10096.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Decentralized is the Governance of Blockchain-based Finance: Empirical Evidence from four Governance Token Distributions

Author

Listed:
  • Johannes Rude Jensen
  • Victor von Wachter
  • Omri Ross

Abstract

Novel blockchain technology provides the infrastructure layer for the creation of decentralized appli-cations. A rapidly growing ecosystem of applications is built around financial services, commonly referred to as decentralized finance. Whereas the intangible concept of decentralization is presented as a key driver for the applications, defining and measuring decentralization is multifaceted. This pa-per provides a framework to quantify decentralization of governance power among blockchain appli-cations. Governance of the applications is increasingly important and requires striking a balance be-tween broad distribution, fostering user activity, and financial incentives. Therefore, we aggregate, parse, and analyze empirical data of four finance applications calculating coefficients for the statistical dispersion of the governance token distribution. The gauges potentially support IS scholars for an objective evaluation of the capabilities and limitations of token governance and for fast iteration in design-driven governance mechanisms.

Suggested Citation

  • Johannes Rude Jensen & Victor von Wachter & Omri Ross, 2021. "How Decentralized is the Governance of Blockchain-based Finance: Empirical Evidence from four Governance Token Distributions," Papers 2102.10096, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2102.10096
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2102.10096
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johann Kranz & Esther Nagel & Youngjin Yoo, 2019. "Blockchain Token Sale," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 61(6), pages 745-753, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Auer, Raphael & Haslhofer, Bernhard & Kitzler, Stefan & Saggese, Pietro & Friedhelm, Victor, 2023. "The Technology of Decentralized Finance (DeFi)," CEPR Discussion Papers 18038, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. José Campino & Ana Brochado & Álvaro Rosa, 2022. "Initial coin offerings (ICOs): Why do they succeed?," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-35, December.
    2. José Campino & Ana Brochado & Álvaro Rosa, 2021. "Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs): the importance of human capital," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 91(8), pages 1225-1262, October.
    3. Ali Sunyaev & Niclas Kannengießer & Roman Beck & Horst Treiblmaier & Mary Lacity & Johann Kranz & Gilbert Fridgen & Ulli Spankowski & André Luckow, 2021. "Token Economy," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 63(4), pages 457-478, August.
    4. Stefan Tönnissen & Frank Teuteberg, 2021. "Real Estate Crowdfunding mit ICOs – Erfolgsfaktoren und Handlungsempfehlungen [Real estate crowdfunding with iCOs—success factors and recommendations]," Zeitschrift für Immobilienökonomie (German Journal of Real Estate Research), Springer;Gesellschaft für Immobilienwirtschaftliche Forschung e. V., vol. 7(1), pages 35-58, April.
    5. Christian Hackober & Carolin Bock, 2021. "Which investors’ characteristics are beneficial for initial coin offerings? Evidence from blockchain technology-based firms," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 91(8), pages 1085-1124, October.
    6. Ipert, Chloé & Mauer, René, 2023. "Infrastructural or organizational decentralization? Developing a typology of blockchain ventures," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2102.10096. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.