Denna uppsats ämnar att undersöka de kommunikativa processer för blockedjeteknologi startups som ska lansera en så kallad “initial coin offering” och således mynta sin egna kryptovaluta, såsom till exempel bitcoin. Vi avser att undersöka det strategiska kommunikation processerna detta involverar. Från ena perspektivet är ett decentraliserat blockkedjesystem högt värderat på grund av det faktum att det jämställer samtliga medverkande och på så vis skapar en “perfekt demokrati”, å andra sidan argumenterar många att centralisering behövs för att bibehålla tillit. Tillit till organisationer skapas genom vetandet att det finns konsekvenser till dess handlingar som kan införas av högre auktoriteter ifall dessa handlingar faller utanför ramarna av vad som anses accepterat (De Fillipe & Wright, 2015). Utan en högre auktoritet som kan implementera detta blir tillit svårare att upprätthålla. Dock verkar blockkedjeteknologi motbevisa detta koncept. Hur är det möjligt för organisationer utan någon reglering från centrala myndigheter att skapa legitimitet och tillit för att på så sätt kunna få investeringar? Resultaten vi fann ställdes i jämförelse sig till våra tre legitimitets teorier som var kognitiv legitimitet, moral legitimitet och pragmatisk legitimitet, samt centrala teman och nyckelord. Att etablera en levande närvaro på sociala medier som till exempel Twitter, LinkedIn och framför allt Telegram grupper var mycket relevant. I telegram grupper sågs en grupp med många aktiva medlemmar och snabb svarsfrekvens från organisationen som mycket betydelsefullt, samt att ha botar som städar upp irrelevant material utan att deltagarna upplever detta som automatiserat och genuint. Att delta på event och etablera relationer med andra individer inom området och även närliggande områden som till exempel banksektorn var centralt, målet med detta var i många fall att kunna få betydelsefulla individer i sin styrelse av rådgivare vilket ökar legitimiteten. Att kunna ställa organisationens implementering av decentraliserad blockkedjeteknologi i jämförelse med den nuvarande centraliserade lösningen var essentiellt för att locka investerare som var villiga att riskera kapital för en ny modernare lösning.

The cryptocurrency market is continuously growing but is still a relatively unexplored field within academic research. The ambition with this thesis is to increase existing research on market efficiency of cryptocurrencies, by studying the risk exposure of identical investments between different cryptocurrency exchanges. The study includes four cryptocurrencies and nine different exchanges, the data is tested on a full sample period and two subsample periods. The results reveal significant Sharpe ratio differences for identical investments on selected exchanges, but also improved efficiency between the first and second subsample periods. The study concludes that there are significant market inefficiencies on the cryptocurrency market, but the results also suggests that the market is becoming more efficient over time.

A lo largo de la historia de la humanidad, el dinero ha tomado distintas formas, valores y alcances geopolíticos, ha llegado a situarse como la principal herramienta para engrandecer o destruir naciones. Hoy en día, muchas de las transacciones ya no son, necesariamente, en efectivo; una gran mayoría realiza pagos con dinero electrónico, a través de los aplicativos; y existe también otro grupo de usuarios que utiliza las criptomonedas para hacer sus operaciones. Estas últimas han llamado poderosamente la atención de académicos, financistas y público en general, pues representa un fenómeno de rápido crecimiento. Las criptomonedas, entonces, han respondido a la demanda insatisfecha de usuarios que encuentran grandes barreras en canales tradicionales como, por ejemplo, poca cobertura de las entidades financieras, demoras en las transacciones internacionales, filtración de información personal, exposición a hurtos, entre otros. Por estos motivos, las personas están dispuestas a aceptar nuevas formas de dinero que incorporen tecnología en su funcionamiento y uso, y que acabe con las barreras que presenta el sistema financiero conservador. Sin embargo, aparentemente, para algunos autores, no todas son ventajas en las criptomonedas, sino que presentan algunas características adversas que se califican como nocivas por determinadas fuentes, los bancos centrales principalmente. Esto se ha convertido en tema de discusión e investigación por parte de los gobiernos, que buscan la manera de regular este dinero intangible sobre el cual actualmente no tienen control. En este Paper se analiza, de acuerdo a lo expresado por distintos autores, si las criptomonedas deben ser consideradas dinero. / As has happened throughout the history of humanity, money has taken different forms, values and geopolitical domains, becoming the main tool to magnify or destroy nations. Many of the daily transactions are no longer necessarily in cash; a great majority makes payments with electronic money through the applications; and there is also another group of people who use cryptocurrencies to do their financial operations. The latter have attracted the attention of academics, financiers and the audiences in a powerful way, as it represents a fast growth phenomenon. The cryptocurrencies have responded to the dissatisfied users who find great barriers in traditional channels such as: poor coverage of financial institutions, delays in international transactions, filtering of personal information, exposure to thefts, among others. For these reasons, people are willing to accept new forms of money that incorporate technology in its operation and use, and to break down the barriers that the conservative financial systems has. But, apparently for some authors, not all are advantages when it comes to cryptocurrencies, these might have some adverse characteristics that are qualified as harmful by certain sources, mainly Central Banks. This has become a topic of discussion and research by governments, who seek ways to regulate this intangible money that they currently have no control over. In this Paper we analyze, according to what different authors has been expressed about whether cryptocurrencies should be considered money. / Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesional

Bakgrund: Satoshi Nakamoto kallas gruppen eller individen bakom kryptovalutan Bitcoin. Syftet med valutan är att kunna genomföra transaktioner snabbt, anonymt och kunna hålla tredje part, centralbanker och banker utanför. Syfte: Syftet är att undersöka och analysera svenska bankers inställning till Bitcoin. Det författarna till denna studie vill undersöka är hur bankens inställning ser ut till valutan om den blir allt mer populär att företag och privatpersoner börjar genomföra transaktioner utan inblandning med banken. Metod: För att kunna svara på syftet har studien genomförts med en abduktiv metod. Datainsamling har skett genom att intervjua relevanta personer på banker genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. I analysen förklaras sedan den datainsamlingen utifrån studiens teoretiska referensram. I syfte att få kvalificerade bedömningar om framtiden har studien använt sig av delfi-metoden. Slutsats: Författarna till studien kom fram till att Bitcoin inte utgör något hot mot bankerna eftersom de kan kopiera tekniken och bankens kärnverksamhet handlar inte bara om att genomföra transaktioner. Den underliggande tekniken till Bitcoin tillsammans med en mer legitimerad valuta (exempelvis e-krona) har en möjlighet att användas av banker i framtiden. / Background: Satoshi Nakamoto is the group or person behind the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The purpose of the currency was to make it possible to send money fast, anonymously and without involvement of third party, banks or national bank. Purpose: The purpose of our study is to be able to answer our theoretical questions through our empirical research. The authors of this study want to investigate how the bank’s attitude looks like if the currency becomes increasingly popular that companies and individuals begin to make transactions without their involvement. Methodology: To make it possible to answer our purpose, we have chosen an abductive method. Our data collection is from semi-structured qualitative interviews from relevant persons on banks. In our analytical part of the study we explain our collected data with help from our theoretical framework. In order to obtain qualified assessments, the study has used the delfi method. Conclusion: Our conclusion was that Bitcoin does not pose a threat against the banks since they can copy the technology behind it right away and as well because the bank’s core business is not about making transactions. The transaction technology Bitcoin relies on, in combination with a legitimate currency (for example the E-krona), has a possibility to be used by banks in the future.

In the past year cryptocurrencies have gained a lot of attention because of the increase in price. This attention has increased the number of people trading and investing in different cryptocurrencies which has lead to an increased number of transactions flowing through the different networks. This has revealed scalability issues in some of them, especially in the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. Many people are working on solutions to this problem. One proposed solution replaces the blockchain with a DAG structure. In this report the scalability of Bitcoin’s protocol will be compared to the scalability of the protocol used in the newer cryptocurrency, Nano. The comparison is conducted in terms of throughput and latency. To perform this comparison, an experiment was conducted where tests were run with an increasing number of nodes and each test sent different number of transactions per second from every node. Our results show that Nano’s protocol scales better regarding both throughput and latency, and we argue that the reason for this is that the Bitcoin protocol uses a blockchain as a global data-structure unlike Nano that uses a block-lattice structure where each node has their own local blockchain.

Since its initial inception, cryptocurrency has hit the world with both intrigue and skepticism. It was acting as an alternative form of currency that people could use that required no regulative authority to back it. As such, people had the option to make purchases in anonymous manners, leading to what most would consider unethical behaviours, and ultimately resulted in cryptocurrency gaining a poor reputation. However, specific trends in society have helped cryptocurrency growth to continue. A societal loss of trust in the traditional banking system and the positive perception towards the blockchain technology, which is a peer-to-peer system that cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, operate on are two such trends. Furthermore, recent years have witnessed exponential increases in the prices of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. This has led to widespread stories of people getting rich through cryptocurrency ownership, having been “wise-enough” to buy in on the cryptocurrency trend early enough to reap in the rewards of such as decision. And as a result, leading to more people wanting to be the next big success story and buying in on the cryptocurrency trend. This growing trend has also gained the attention of several multi-national companies, such as Expedia, Subway and Microsoft, who have begun accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Even though specific cases have seen this strategy implemented successfully, the volatility of cryptocurrency still poses a risk that has hindered the ability of cryptocurrency to become a widespread payment option.   Given the current trend surrounding cryptocurrency, this thesis serves the purpose is to investigate another alternative option for cryptocurrency use. That option being the potential for cryptocurrency to be used as an alternative payment option in the online gambling industry. Where it has been used as a payment option in other areas, it would be interesting to identify whether there is potential for the cryptocurrency to be adopted and used in this particular industry as well. In order to investigate this phenomenon from both the consumer and industry point-of-views, this thesis used a mixed-methods study, which consisted of a qualitative study and quantitative study. Our qualitative study focused on the industry side of the phenomena. To carry it out, we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with managers of a large online gambling company in order to gain deeper knowledge on their perspectives regarding their perceptions towards how cryptocurrency adoption would affect the online gambling industry. Based on the information gained from the interviews, specific themes were identified and further analyzed through a thematic analysis. Those themes included blockchain in online gambling, holding cryptocurrency, regulation and the reputation of cryptocurrency. Our results indicated that managers did not believe the industry was ready to adopt cryptocurrency due to specific regulatory factors, but that it had future potential, mainly regarding its association to blockchain. Our quantitative study focused on interpreting the perceptions of online gamblers regarding cryptocurrency use in online gambling. Specifically, identifying what would motivate them to use cryptocurrency in online gambling and if they were willing to accept it as a payment option. Based on the results obtained through a survey we distributed, we used linear regression to identify if online gamblers were willing to accept cryptocurrency. The resulting outcome was a moderate level of rejection towards cryptocurrency acceptance. The linear regression model also allowed us to interpret which predictor variables held the greatest level of importance towards predicting cryptocurrency acceptance. Those specific variables included cryptocurrency anonymity, usability, ownership, and belief in the future of cryptocurrency.   When comparing the results from both studies through triangulation, we were able to conclude that both consumers and the industry were not ready to fully accept cryptocurrency usage in online gambling. However, both sides indicated positive outlooks towards its future potential as a payment method.

This thesis examines open distributed blockchain technology from a legal perspective. The blockchain is a technology used to secure and ensure the integrity of data in an unsafe digital environment. Traditionally, peer-to-peer networks (P2P-networks), synonymous with distributed networks, have faced the issue of ensuring the integrity of data and deterring scams such as double spending, which refers to someone using the same assets twice, and has discouraged people from using P2P-networks. Scams like double spending have been possible in the absence of a governing party ensuring the integrity of the data, that is until the introduction of Bitcoin in 2008, which introduced a cryptographic solution to ensuring the data’s integrity in a P2P electronic cash system. By relying on cryptography, instead of trusting institutions for the integrity of transactions, the introduction of Bitcoin facilitated a move towards decentralization where classical middleman services, like banking, are becoming obsolete.The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is to be implemented in all European Union (EU) member countries on May 25th, 2018, is a regulation that aims to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe. The GDPR introduces several fundamental rights and freedoms for natural persons regarding the protection of their personal data. This means that certain responsibilities are imposed on the responsible parties that process personal data.This thesis examines to which extent the GDPR is applicable to an open distributed blockchain and if the fundamental principles under the regulation can be upheld, respectively if the responsible parties can fulfill their responsibilities imposed by the regulation.

Problem: Parallels have been drawn between the rise of the internet in 1990s and the present rise of bitcoin (cryptocurrency) and underlying blockchain technology. This resulted in a widespread of media coverage due to extreme price fluctuations and increased supply and demand. Garcia et al. (2014) argues that this is driven by several social aspects including word-of-mouth communication on social media, indicating that this aspect of social media effects individual attitude formation and intention towards cryptocurrency. However, this combination of social media of antecedent of consumer acceptance is limited explored, especially in the context of technology acceptance.   Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to create further understanding in the Technology Acceptance Model with the additional construct: social influence, first suggested by Malhotra et al. (1999). Hereby, the additional construct of social media influence was added to advance the indirect effects of social media influence on attitude formation and behavioural intention towards cryptocurrency, through the processes of social influence (internalization; identification; compliance) by Kelman.   Method: This study carries out a quantitative study where survey-research was used that included a total sample of 250 cases. This sample consists of individuals between 18-37 years old, where social media usage is part of the life. As a result of the data collection, analysis was conducted using multiple regression techniques.   Conclusion: Analysis of the findings established theoretical validation of the appliance of the Technology Acceptance Model on digital innovation, like cryptocurrency. By adding the construct of social media, further understanding is created in the behaviour of millennials towards cryptocurrency. The evidence suggests that there are clear indirect effects of social media on attitude formation and intention towards engaging in cryptocurrency through the processes of social influence. This study should be seen as preliminary, where future research could be built upon. More specifically, in terms of consumer acceptance of cryptocurrency and the extent of influence by social media.

Cryptocurrencies has become a very hot topic recently, with Bitcoin being the most popular. The increase in interest has led to an incentive to create payment systems for the currency that makes it easier to use for day-to-day shopping. A lot of companies are inves- tigating possible solutions for credit cards that are used for cryptocurrencies. This thesis aims to present and perform a security analysis on an already created concept of a credit card payment system for Bitcoin. The security analysis is done in a systematical approach where the modules were analyzed with predetermined restrictions and assumptions. The restricitons and assumptions are then removed one-by-one to find potential threats in the system. The outcome of the analysis is then evaluated in an attempt to find possible im- plementation methods that would mitigate or prevent the discovered threats. The possible implementations are also evaluated in terms of how they would affect the system.

This paper shows the existence of the size effect in the cryptocurrency market. The size effect is a market phenomenon observed in the stock market in which smaller assets outperform larger assets. Recent literature has revealed the size effect in other financial markets as well. In order to explain the size effect, this paper proposes a general quantitative theory that supports its existence in any financial markets under specific conditions. Furthermore, the paper tests for the size effect in the cryptocurrency market using daily price data from April 2013 to April 2018. The paper finds a statistically significant size effect across the cryptocurrency market during the sample period. In the process, we test a profitable pair-trading strategy that involves opening a short position on the higher rank (larger assets) and opening a long position on the lower rank (smaller assets) of the cryptocurrency market. Based on our findings, we discuss the implications on modern finance, specifically on the subjects of Efficient Market Hypothesis and asset pricing models.