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The thesis begins by describing the current problems in the fragmented world of music copyrights indicating musicians are not being paid accurately due to lack of transparency in the calculation of royalties and this lead to legal battle. Later we investigate how blockchain technology can alleviate much of the difficulties associated with this complexity. We further explore the legislative and institutional support for the technology necessary for a successful implementation, in form of legislations and governmental projects. We find out that numerous authorities have started voting favourable legislations and recognizing the technology as a valid public ledger. Eventually, we confirm our findings by analysing existing laws.

Financial interactions on the capital market involve a wide variety of actors and processes. The requirement of security and privacy results to a large extent in non-shared and unintegrated databases among the different parties, leading to complex, time consuming and costly procedures. The last decade's introduction of innovative blockchain technologies such as Bitcoin, has brought attention to the possibilities of decentralized peer-to-peer networking in general, and its potential influence in the financial sector in particular. This master thesis investigates the possibilities for the capital market to adapt such a system from a technical point of view, with main focus on scalability. The analysis covers crucial aspects such as a peer-to-peer application's ability to handle large transaction volumes while maintaining security. The degree project also includes continued work on Visigon's blockchain application prototype with main focus on the network communication, as well as simulations of its performance capability. Results from the simulations showed that the transaction throughput capacity is limited to the time of broadcasting the transaction to the network, and thus decreasing linearly with increasing network size. The required time for handling other parts in the process appears constant and takes up a small fraction of the total time, therefore future work lays in further optimization of the communication protocol.

Blockchain technology emerged in 2009 together with the introduction of Bitcoin, the first virtual currency which enabled nodes in a network, that do not necessarily trust each other, to exchange digital value without the use of trusted intermediaries. Since then, the idea of disintermediation and decentralization has gained traction in a large number of applications outside the world of finance and virtual currencies. This thesis is written in collaboration with Scania, an automotive industry manufacturer, with the purpose of gaining a better understanding of blockchain technology and how it can be used in the transportation industry. This thesis proposes five potential blockchain use cases that aim to either enhance Scania’s existing services or to create new services. Out of these five use cases, one is deemed inappropriate in regards to the use of blockchain technology while the other four have potentials benefits. The common denominator among these use cases is that they are decentralized in nature meaning that the use of intermediaries is mitigated. It is recognized that all use cases could be implemented using traditional, centralized databases and that the use of blockchain boils down to a technology choice with its own trade-offs relative to other potential choices. This thesis concludes that blockchain technology offers a new kind of database architecture, the main benefit of which is that it lets several non-trusting entities agree on a common set of facts, without having a trusted intermediary establishing these facts.

Purpose - The purpose of this master thesis is to explore if and how blockchain technology can improve textile and apparel recycling processes. It further aims to investigate which institutional and infrastructural preconditions have to be met for it to do so. This research seeks to extend the understanding of the technology’s potential and to derive theoretical and managerial implications. Design/ Methodology/ Approach - The study applies a qualitative, explorative research approach, following a deductive research strategy. Thereby, a theoretical framework was derived based on the results of a literature review. Primary data was collected using the method of semi-structured expert interviews and analysed using the method Thematic Analysis. The sample contained experts from different entities of the textile and apparel recycling industry, namely textile waste collectors, textile waste sorters, textile-to-textile recyclers, manufacturers, recycling experts and digital service-providers. Findings - The results show that blockchain technology in fact holds the potential to improve industry processes through its ability to verify data and assign value. However, the findings suggest that the main challenges of the textile and apparel recycling industry are grounded in its institutional complexity. Therefore, the lack of sufficient infrastructure, information exchange and value creation inhibit the industry from using blockchain technology to its full potential. Implications - To overcome this, it is advised that the individual industry players must collaborate to fulfil the essential institutional and infrastructural requirements. This means creating an inter-organisational network that relies on the exchange of recycling-relevant information, uniform data structures and unified norms and practices. Originality/ Value - Scientific research lacks a coherent understanding of the relation between blockchain technology and textile and apparel recycling. This research bridges this gap by illustrating the industry’s challenges and exploring blockchains potential to address them, while laying out the institutional and infrastructural preconditions for blockchain to contribute to an improved textile and apparel recycling.

This diploma theses concerns the matter of blockchain technology and its practical use, especially for nonfinancial services. Theoretical part describes the blockchain technology from the technological and juridical point of view and examples of its practical use are also mentioned. In the practical part two laboratory exercises were designed for further familiarization of the blockchain technology, in which students try some real applications on their own.

This diploma thesis deals with the creation of a design for the utilization of blockchain technology in a corporate environment. The main goal of this work is to create a proposal for a business process and its implementation in a specific blockchain platform. The analysis of the current state of the process describes current process and company’s requirements for the functionality of new technology. In the design part of the work, I compared specific blockchain platforms. As a result of this part I chose the most suitable solution for the implementation of my proposal. This chapter further includes the design of a methodology for verifying whether the process is suitable for the implementation of a blockchain technology or not. Moreover, it describes how to proceed when choosing a suitable solution and highlights its key factors.

Background: The convergence of payment behaviours can contribute to the diffusion of new payment technologies and thus economic performance. There is evidence that the electrification of the retail payment system promotes the performance of the banking sector and economic growth. The retail payment market is a prime example of a two-sided market where new payment instruments need to reach a critical mass of users to become viable and grow further (Martikainen, Schmiedel & Takalo, 2015). Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse Bitcoin, as a payment method, and review the models already used to shed more light on its further potential adoption by retailers. We apply the DOI theory and review the TAM model to determine the underlying characteristics of Bitcoin that will enable further adoption or rejection among retailers. Method: We conduct a case study on Bitrefill AB which offers a rich method for investigating and researching. With the process of interpretation in context, we make inference from the case of Bitrefill in connecting with events and experiences of other retailers (Expedia, Alibaba, Overstock and CheapAir). Conclusion: According to the results, the adoption of Bitcoin relies heavily on positive relative advantages to other payment methods, compatibility and simplicity of its use while negative characteristics that pull it back from being adopted include the complexities in understanding the technology behind it, damaging outcomes varying from the expected.

Blockchain technology has received tremendous attention during the last decade. Huge investments incentives have been made into Blockchain technology and companies worldwide are adapting the new modern innovation. Advocates for Blockchain technology claims that the safe and transparent distributed decentralized ledger has the potential to transform entire industries. One of the biggest operational risks for financial institutions is risks associated with cyber security and cybercrimes. It is argued that Blockchain technology should reduce possibilities for cyber-attacks, increase transparency, and reduce risk. No previous research has been found to confirm this research proposition with perspective to stock return. Still, there remain uncertainties regarding how Blockchain technology affects individual businesses, operational activities and stock behaviours. This research gap is aimed to be partly bridged with this thesis in a Swedish setting.  The primary purpose with this study is therefore to study if the introduction of Blockchain technology in Swedish corporations have an impact of stock return volatility. The longitudinal research methodology of this thesis is designed to satisfy a deductive, quantitative research design, with objectivist ontological assumptions and epistemological positivist approach to generate axiological value-free results. Multiple Linear Regressions and Panel data regression have been performed as well as t-tests to test two hypotheses with regard to systematic risk and total risk as measurements for historical volatility of returns.   The primary findings show a non-significant slight reduction for total risk of stock return, and a slight increase in the systematic risk of stock return. Using mathematical set theory one can argue that the unsystematic risk of stock return decreases. This has proven to be in line with previous theoretical research suggestions which states that operational risk should be reduced. However, the effects observed through the statistical procedures are quite small. Thus, this could indicate that investors’ perceptions of Blockchain technology are still associated with negative issues.  Financial theories such as asymmetry of information, adverse selection, signalling, risk-return fundamentals and behavioural aspects of finance are applied to describe the results, together with previous research, to use the theoretical framework in a coherent way. More research is emphasized to further explore this phenomenon, in order to draw generalizable, significant conclusions though different geographical contexts and markets.  <img src="blob:https://umu.diva-portal.org/2dd6dec1-d82a-4a8e-8093-18a24087fcb2" />

Health Informatics has enlightened by the recent development in the internet of medical things 4.0. Healthcare services have seen greater acceptance of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in recent years; in light of the increasing volume of patient data, the traditional way of storing data in physical files has eventually moved to a digital alternative such as Electronic Health Record (EHR). However, the conventional healthcare data systems are plagued with a single point of failure, security issues, mutable logging, and inefficient methods to retrieve healthcare records. Solid (Social Linked Data) has been developed as a decentralized technology to alter digital data sharing and ownership for its users radically. However, Solid alone cannot address all the security issues posed to data exchange and storage. This work combines two decentralized technologies, Solid ecosystem and Blockchain technology, to tackle potential security issues using Solidity-based Smart Contracts, thereby providing a secure patient centric design. This research evaluates a model solution for secure storage, emphasizing secure auditing of accessing the data stored. The architecture will also come with algorithms that will provide developers with logical instructions to implement the artefact.