Ethereum’s Business Strategy Case Study

Ethereum is a public blockchain-based distributed computing platform, featuring smart contract functionality. It provides a decentralized virtual machine, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), that can execute peer-to-peer contracts using a token called Ether.

Social impact:

Life changing: self-actualization, affiliation/belonging, provides hope

Emotional: rewards me, reduces anxiety, badge value, provides access

Functional: simplifies, integrates, organizes, makes money, connects, avoids hassles, reduces cost, quality

Aikido:

The aikido business model is often characterized as using a competitor's strength to get an edge over them. This is accomplished through finding weaknesses in a competitor's strategic position. In addition, it adds to marketing sustainability by exposing rivals' flaws, finding internal and external areas for development, and attracting consumers via specific product offers that deviate from the norm.

Alternative currencies and banking:

Alternative currencies (also known as private currencies) are units of value issued by a private entity, such as a business or a non-profit organization. A private company or organization usually produces a private currency to serve as an alternative to a national or fiat currency, usually the country's standard unit of value. For example, mutual credit is a kind of alternative currency, and therefore any loan that does not go via the banking system qualifies as an alternative currency.

Blue ocean strategy:

The blue ocean approach is predicated on the premise that market limits and industry structure are not predetermined and may be reconfigured via the actions and attitudes of industry participants. This is referred to as the reconstructionist perspective by the writers. Assuming that structure and market boundaries exist solely in managers' thoughts, practitioners who subscribe to this perspective avoid being constrained by actual market structures. To them, more demand exists, primarily untapped. The core of the issue is determining how to produce it.

Collaborative production:

Producing goods in collaboration with customers based on their input, comments, naming, and price. It represents a new form of the socioeconomic output in which enormous individuals collaborate (usually over the internet). In general, initiatives based on the commons have less rigid hierarchical structures than those found on more conventional commercial models. However, sometimes not always?commons-based enterprises are structured so that contributors are not compensated financially.

Community-funded:

The critical resource in this business strategy is a community's intellect. Three distinct consumer groups comprise this multifaceted business model: believers, suppliers, and purchasers. First, believers join the online community platform and contribute to the production of goods by vendors. Second, buyers purchase these goods, which may be visual, aural, or literary in nature. Finally, believers may be purchasers or providers, and vice versa.

Crowdfunding:

Crowdfunding is the technique by which a large number of people contribute to a project. Contribute modest sums of money to support a new business endeavor. Crowdfunding leverages the ease of accessing vast networks of people, connecting investors and entrepreneurs through social media and crowdfunding websites. It can increase entrepreneurialism by widening the pool of investors further than the traditional ring of owners, relatives, and venture capitalists.

Digitization:

This pattern is based on the capacity to convert current goods or services into digital versions, which have several benefits over intangible products, including increased accessibility and speed of distribution. In an ideal world, the digitalization of a product or service would occur without compromising the consumer value proposition. In other words, efficiency and multiplication achieved via digitalization do not detract from the consumer's perceived value. Being digitally sustainable encompasses all aspects of sustaining the institutional framework for developing and maintaining digital objects and resources and ensuring their long-term survival.

Disintermediation:

Keeping the purchase price low by avoiding mediators and maximizing supply margins is a win-win situation. In finance, disintermediation refers to how money is removed from intermediate financial organizations such as banks and savings and loan associations and invested directly. Disintermediation, in general, refers to the process of eliminating the middleman or intermediary from future transactions. Disintermediation is often used to invest in higher-yielding securities.

Disruptive banking:

The banking industry's disruptors are changing the norms that have been in place for decades. These new regulations, however, will only be effective until the next round of disruption occurs. Banks and credit unions must thus be nimble and responsive. We need audacious tactics. 'Disruptive Innovation' is a term that refers to the process whereby a product or service establishes a foothold at the bottom of a market and then persistently climbs up the value chain, ultimately replacing existing rivals.

Disruptive trends:

A disruptive technology supplants an existing technology and fundamentally alters an industry or a game-changing innovation that establishes an altogether new industry. Disruptive innovation is defined as an invention that shows a new market and value network and ultimately disrupts an established market and value network, replacing incumbent market-leading companies, products, and alliances.

Distributed Autonomous Company (DAC):

A decentralized autonomous company (DAC) is an organization represented by rules stored in a computer program that is transparent, shareholder-controlled, and immune to central government interference. The financial transactions and software rules of a DAO are stored on a blockchain.

Dynamic pricing:

This pattern allows the business to adjust its rates in response to national or regional trends. Dynamic pricing is a pricing technique known as surge pricing, demand pricing, or time-based pricing. In which companies establish variable prices for their goods or services in response to changing market conditions. Companies may adjust their rates based on algorithms that consider rival pricing, supply and demand, and other market variables. Dynamic pricing is widely used in various sectors, including hospitality, travel, entertainment, retail, energy, and public transportation.

Easy and low cost money transfer and payment:

This business model makes cheaper and more accessible for users to transfer money and make and collect payments. Sending or receiving money for either payment of salaries, settlement of business transactions, payment of school fees, or for family support is common both for businesses and individuals. It requires efficient, reliable and affordable money transfer services whereby money can be deposited in one location and withdrawn in another in both urban and rural areas.

Layer player:

Companies that add value across many markets and sectors are referred to be layer players. Occasionally, specialist companies achieve dominance in a specific niche market. The effectiveness of their operations, along with their economies of size and footprint, establish the business as a market leader.

Microfinance:

Microfinance provides financial services to entrepreneurs and small companies who may not access traditional banking and financial services. The two primary delivery methods for financial services to such customers are (1) relationship-based banking for individuals and small companies and (2) group-based models, in which many entrepreneurs pool their resources to apply for loans and other services together.

Micropayment:

Micropayments are financial transactions involving a tiny amount of money that is frequently conducted online. While micropayments were initially intended to apply minimal amounts of money, practical systems allowing less than one dollar transactions have met with little success. One impediment to the development of micropayment systems has been the need to keep transaction costs low, which is impracticable when transferring such tiny amounts, even if the transaction charge is just a few cents.

Online marketplace:

An online marketplace (or online e-commerce marketplace) is a kind of e-commerce website in which product or service information is supplied by various third parties or, in some instances, the brand itself, while the marketplace operator handles transactions. Additionally, this pattern encompasses peer-to-peer (P2P) e-commerce between businesses or people. By and large, since marketplaces aggregate goods from a diverse range of suppliers, the variety and availability are typically greater than in vendor-specific online retail shops. Additionally, pricing might be more competitive.

Open-source:

Compared to more centralized development methods, such as those usually employed by commercial software firms, the open-source model is more decentralized. Scientists see the open-source approach as an example of collaborative openness. Peer production is a fundamental concept of open-source software development, with deliverables such as source code, blueprints, and documentation made freely accessible to the public. The open-source software movement started as a reaction to the constraints imposed by proprietary programming. Since then, its ideas have extended to other areas, resulting in what is known as open cooperation. Typically, money is generated via services that complement the product, such as advising and maintenance.

Peer to Peer (P2P):

A peer-to-peer, or P2P, service is a decentralized platform that enables two people to communicate directly, without the need for a third-party intermediary or the usage of a corporation providing a product or service. For example, the buyer and seller do business now via the P2P service. Certain peer-to-peer (P2P) services do not include economic transactions such as buying and selling but instead connect people to collaborate on projects, exchange information, and communicate without the need for an intermediary. The organizing business provides a point of contact for these people, often an online database and communication service. The renting of personal goods, the supply of particular products or services, or the exchange of knowledge and experiences are all examples of transactions.

Power on:

This method allows the modification of current structures via the use of cutting-edge technology, as shown by growing political unrest, a crisis in representation and governance, and upstart companies upending established sectors. Nevertheless, the nature of this transition is often exaggerated or severely underestimated. As a result, some cling to delirious fantasies of a new techno-utopia in which greater connection results in direct democracy and wealth.

Radical transparency:

The concept of radical transparency, or everyone knowing everything, has the potential to be a significant driver of improved organizational performance. This is especially true for new, fast-growing businesses that are under pressure to achieve aggressive sales targets and keep their investors pleased. In governance, politics, software design, and business, radical transparency refers to activities and methods that significantly enhance organizational processes and data openness.

Self-service:

A retail business model in which consumers self-serve the goods they want to buy. Self-service business concepts include self-service food buffets, self-service petrol stations, and self-service markets. Self-service is available through phone, online, and email to automate customer support interactions. Self-service Software and self-service applications (for example, online banking apps, shopping portals, and self-service check-in at airports) are becoming more prevalent.

Skunkworks project:

A skunkworks project is one that is created by a small, loosely organized group of individuals who study and develop a project with the primary goal of radical innovation. The terminology arose during World War II with Lockheed's Skunk Works project. However, since its inception with Skunk Works, the phrase has been used to refer to comparable high-priority research and development initiatives at other big companies that include a small team operating outside of their regular working environment and free of managerial restrictions. Typically, the phrase alludes to semi-secretive technological initiatives, such as Google X Lab.

Software value token:

Another kind of crowdsourcing is to raise money for a project in exchange for a digital or software-based value token. Value tokens are generated endogenously by specific open, decentralized networks and are used to encourage network client computers to spend limited computer resources on network maintenance. These value tokens may or may not exist at the time of the crowd sale, and they may need significant development work and ultimate software release before becoming life and establishing a market value. While funds may be collected only for the value token, money obtained via blockchain-based crowdfunding can also represent stock, bonds, or even market-maker seats of governance for the company being financed.

Tradeable currency:

This pattern involves the creation of a digital asset and the establishment of a payment mechanism. Through this, the user earns points that may be used for other services.

Transaction facilitator:

The business acts as an acquirer, processing payments on behalf of online merchants, auction sites, and other commercial users for a fee. This encompasses all elements of purchasing, selling, and exchanging currencies at current or predetermined exchange rates. By far the biggest market in the world in terms of trade volume. The largest multinational banks are the leading players in this industry. Around the globe, financial hubs serve as anchors for trade between a diverse range of various kinds of buyers and sellers 24 hours a day, save on weekends.