Disrupting Industries With Blockchain: The Industry, Venture Capital Funding, and Regional Distribution of Blockchain Ventures

2016

The blockchain (i.e., a decentralized and encrypted digital ledger) has the potential to disrupt many traditional business models. This study investigates the emerging blockchain business-application landscape by analyzing its industry, venture capital funding, and regional distribution. We do so by matching four venture databases on blockchain-based startups. First, our results show that blockchain startups are most prominently represented in the Finance & Insurance and Information & Communication industries. A fine-grained analysis of financial services yields increasing novel applications in existing service offerings – especially in payment networks and processing. Second, consistent wi…