Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain. Relevance and risks for companies in the age of digitization

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 1,7, University of Applied Sciences Essen, language: English, abstract: The progress of change in society through digitization, globalization and the rapid development of technology prompts new and innovative opportunities for companies across the world. Over the past few years, nearly everything is based on smart devices that are able to communicate among themselves. As a result, new technologies have arisen, been published and are able to be used by people around the world. One of the recently released and most popular topics is blockchain. This term earned its attention through its innovative and unpresented form of technology and has motivated several parties to learn more about this issue, examine it more closely and develop it further. Particularly the range of potential applicability makes it interesting for companies to analyse possibilities for implementation with respect to their own business. In addition, blockchain is related to another term that has arisen along with this technology, namely cryptocurrency. Especially Bitcoin is the forefather in the world of digital currencies. Over the past few years, Bitcoin has skyrocketed in popularity and value since its founding in 2009. Consequently, this digital currency has gained the attention of many people who are trying to predict the commercial development and future per- formance in the world's economy. There are many pros and cons and some powerful businessmen have published their own opinions based upon the respective commercial interests. ... Research question: Is it possible to use cryptocurrencies as a financial instrument in the context of corporate finance? Structure: 1 Introduction 1.1 Problem description 1.2 Course of investigation 2 Basics and theoretical foundations 2.1 Fundamentals of Blockchain 2.1.1 Transactions and its particularities in terms of Blockchain 2.1.2 How Blockchain works 2.2 Blockchain applications 2.2.1 Basic Blockchain applications 2.2.2 Practical relevance of Blockchain 3 Impacts of Blockchain to the banking industry 4 Implications with reference to corporate finance 4.1 General terminology of corporate finance 4.2 Blockchain-based financing as addition to traditional sources 4.2.1 Bank loans as a sample of debt financing 4.2.2 Initial Public Offering as a sample of equity financing 4.2.3 Peer-to-Peer-Lending as a counterpart to bank loans 4.2.4 Initial Coin Offering as a counterpart to an Initial Public Offering 4.3 Risks of dealing with cryptocurrencies 5 Critical review and deduction 6 Conclusion and outlook