The interest for blockchains and cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, from corporations, policymakers and individuals continues to increase. Due to its rapid growth in adoption, this technology can no longer be ignored. However, researchers have mainly been focused on the technical details of Bitcoin while the business and managerial opportunities have received little attention. This is especially true when looking at Bitcoin mining, the very fundamental operation that protects and maintains the network. Initiatives from the commercial sector are abundant as companies scramble to gain a competitive advantage in this industry but their business models and strategies are unexplored by modern literature. The thesis aims to contribute with knowledge to fill this gap in literature by studying the business models of Bitcoin mining and investigate their sustainability. This thesis is a case study with embedded units of three Swedish companies in the Bitcoin mining industry together with the commissioner company. The findings show that all companies have developed sustainable business models with very different approaches to value creation. In an industry marked by high dependence on volatile externalities, vertical integration of electricity production was shown to be a successful business model strategy for capturing value. Furthermore, the study highlights that such a strategy opens the possibility for a Bitcoin miner to create or take part in a private financial ecosystem of bitcoin that is largely disconnected from the traditional economy of local fiat currencies. The result of this study makes three contributions to literature. Firstly, the findings contribute to knowledge on the economics and the business models of the Bitcoin mining industry. Secondly, the thesis contributes by applying the business model strategy of vertical integration on the Bitcoin mining industry and showing that it can help companies create value. Lastly, the thesis contributes by developing the Business 2 Protocol (B2P) model for describing the dynamics of the Bitcoin mining industry. / Intresset för blockkedjor och kryptovalutor som Bitcoin från företag, lagstiftare och individer fortsätter att öka i snabb takt. Den snabba adoptionstakten som vi nu ser kan denna teknik inte längre förbises. Trots detta har nuvarande forskning främst fokuserat på de tekniska detaljerna kring Bitcoin medan de affärsmässiga möjligheterna i det stora hela har förbisetts. Detta gäller speciellt Bitcoin mining, den fundamentala verksamhet som skyddar nätverket och får det att fungera. Det finns gott om kommersiella initiativ i branschen där företag skyndar sig in i branschen för att etablera sig och försöker etablera marknadsmässiga övertag med affärsmodeller och strategier som är outforskade av den moderna forskningslitteraturen. Målet med denna uppsats är att utforska detta gap i litteraturen genom att studera affärsmodellerna hos Bitcoin mining och undersöka hur hållbara de är ur ett miljömässigt och finansiellt perspektiv. Det här examensarbetet är en studie av tre svenska företag inom Bitcoin mining branschen. Resultaten pekar mot att företagen i studien har arbetat med att utveckla hållbara affärsmodeller genom att närma sig värdeskapande från olika ingångsvinklar. I en bransch som är präglad av högt beroende av volatila externaliteter så har vertikal integration av energiproduktion visats vara en framgångsrik affärsstrategi för att skapa värde. Vidare så visar studien att en sådan strategi möjliggör för en Bitcoin miner att skapa eller ta del av ett privat finansiellt ekosystem av bitcoin som till stor del är frikopplat från den traditionella ekonomin av lokala fiatvalutor. Resultaten från det här examensarbetet gör tre bidrag till den befintliga litteraturen. För det första så bidrar det med kunskap om ekonomin och affärsmodellerna kopplade till Bitcoin mining branschen. Vidare så visas hur en strategi med en vertikalt integrerad affärsmodell kan användas för värdeskapande inom Bitcoin mining. Slutligen så utvecklas modellen Business 2 Protocol (B2P) för att beskriva dynamiken som finns i Bitcoin mining branschen.

Blockchain technologies and cryptocurrency have made a significant impact on today's computing and financial sectors, and the use cases for blockchain applications are increasing day by day. However, there is little understanding of blockchain and cryptocurrencies amongst the general public. In this work, we present LACE, a kinetic sculpture and decentralized ledger created to educate audiences on the complexities of cryptocurrency creation through a visual form. We discuss the design and implementation of LACE as a modular system constructed of 10 kinetic units, each unit containing an array of Microsoft Surface tablets and one delta robot arm to perform touch based operations on each tablet with a modified stylus. Through this structure, we establish a distributed computing system in which each tablet represents blockchain nodes that maintain copies of the blockchain, mine for new blocks and process transactions through visual software interfaces. Additionally, we implement an interactive gaming module to help audiences understand the work of blockchain creation and the mining process. Finally, we evaluate the LACE project's effectiveness to teach audiences through a detailed questionnaire at the 2022 Accelerate Festival in Washington, DC. We found that 73% of visitors agreed they were able to learn something new from LACE and 82% enjoyed their interaction with LACE. / Master of Science / Global technology, computing, economic and financial sectors are all increasingly influenced by the use of the relatively new technologies known as blockchain and cryptocurrency. A blockchain is a publicly distributed digital ledger that keeps track of transaction data securely through cryptography. This technology is heavily associated with the global economy, following the introduction of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in 2008. Cryptocurrency has often been compared to fiat currencies which are not backed by a commodity with intrinsic value like gold. Bitcoin is seen as a commodity due to its scarcity, with approximately 19 million bitcoins in existence and can be used as a monetary value to purchase goods and services. Studies have shown that a large segment of the general public has little to no understanding of these concepts, even those who have significant related investments. To help expand the understanding of these topics to general audiences, we present LACE; a kinetic sculpture and digital ledger designed to educate audiences on the complexities of cryptocurrency creation through visual and interactive demonstration. LACE demonstrates the processes of blockchain technologies through physical robotic movement and interactive software visualizations. Consisting of a collection of 10 acrylic hexagon units stacked together like building blocks to mimic a virtual network, each unit interacts with an array of Microsoft Surface tablets through an operating robot arm and modified stylus. These tablets illustrate the work of a blockchain through various visualizations, demonstrating the work of nodes and miners who operate and maintain a blockchain network. To help audiences understand the work of blockchain creation and the mining process, we implement an interactive gaming module where participants can act as a miner within a blockchain network and assist in the process of mining for new blocks, help maintain the blockchain and process transactions. We evaluate the LACE project's effectiveness to teach audiences through a detailed questionnaire at the 2022 Accelerate Festival in Washington, DC. We found that 76% of visitors had a better understanding of blockchain concepts following their interactions with LACE and 82% enjoyed their interaction with the sculpture overall.

[pt] O presente trabalho se propôs a efetuar uma investigação resumida do mercado de mineração de criptomoedas no Brasil e analisar a viabilidade econômica da implantação de uma fazenda de mineração de Bitcoins em território brasileiro. O estudo foi realizado em três etapas, onde foram abordadas análises determinísticas baseadas em possíveis cenários, observação da sensibilidade do investimento em relação as principais variáveis do problema e por último a utilização de métodos estocásticos visando estimar o risco do investimento, em razão do ambiente de incerteza. Os resultados demonstram que este é um investimento de altíssimo risco e que não existe viabilidade econômica em minerar Bitcoin no Brasil, com cotação do abaixo de US$ 10.065. O estudo aponta o custo da energia elétrica como o mais expressivo, seguido do investimento nos equipamentos de mineração e sugere que a operação seja estabelecida em países com menor custo de eletricidade, clima mais baixo e menores taxas de importação e de imposto de renda. / [en] This work carries out a brief investigation of cryptocurrencies mining market in Brazil and to analyze the economic viability of the investment in a Bitcoin mining farm in Brazil. The study was carried out in three stages, where deterministic analyzes were based on possible scenarios, observation of the sensitivity of the investment relative to the main variables of the problem and finally the use of stochastic methods to estimate the investment risk under uncertainty. The study points to the cost of electricity as the most significant, followed by investment in mining equipment and suggests that the operation be established in countries with lower electricity costs, lower climate and lower import and income tax rates.

The monetary policies of states and systems built upon them do not naturally allow transactions of a very small value, as the transaction costs exceeds the actual value of the transaction. These types of transactions are called micropayments. This is problematic as it removes the possibility to monetize content that has a valuation that is so low that the costs of the transaction exceeds the value of the content. In this thesis we aim to create a system that allows micropayments to monetize low value content. We do so by developing a design theory based on Gregor and Jones conceptual model for design theories within Information Systems research. The system that we develop will use the end users computational power to generate a value, by running a cryptocurrency miner. We present the background knowledge required to fully understand the presented design theory. Within the design theory, we present a theoretical framework to base systems on that enables micropayments through cryptocurrency mining. We also present a developed proof of work prototype that proves the validity of the theoretical framework. Lastly we discuss our design theory. We conclude that the design theory enables transactions of a very low value, such as 0,0001 \$ cents. Transactions of such small value is not possible with systems built upon states monetary policies. We also conclude that the proposed design theory can be further developed to function independently of cryptocurrency mining. Instead the value for the transaction could be generated through solving complicated problems if institutions are willing to pay for computational power to solve them.