Next Generation Home Sharing: Disrupting Platform Organizations with Blockchain Technology and the Internet of Things?

During the last decade, the sharing economy has given birth to a number of market mediators, which have grown to become the world’s most valuable companies. Centralized sharing platforms like Uber, Didi Chuxing, and Airbnb have transformed several traditional industries. However, with the rise of the blockchain technology, some voices predict that these platform companies will soon be at risk of being disrupted themselves. In this chapter, we address the question of whether blockchain technology has given birth to a new breed of sharing economy platforms that can challenge the incumbents’ business models. We identify five different stages of the application of blockchain technology in emerg…