Blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and distributed organizations

Abstract

One panel in the International Conference of Information Systems (ICIS), held in December 2016 in Dublin, attracted attention that surpassed the hundreds of seats of the auditorium and forced the security to close the doors when the stairs became completely occupied. The audience, eager to join the debate on the research perspectives on the topic of blockchain in the information systems (IS) field, represented one of the first academic manifestations of the great expectations placed on this emergent topic in this research community. One year later, the organizers of this panel (Avital, Beck, King, Rossi, & Teigland, 2016) were the editors of what was probably the first special issue on blockchain in a relevant IS journal (Beck, Avital, Rossi, & Thatcher, 2017). Although these events indicate milestones for the IS field, the blockchain started to shake the world almost a decade before.

Keywords

• editorial
• blockchain
• cryptocurrencies
• distributed organizations