Crypto Assets and Markets

The article “Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system” that was published 2009 under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakomto and whose author is unknown to this day was the starting point for the development and distribution of the Distributed Ledger Technology, widely known as blockchain. “Blockchains” can be described as “unforgeable, averaged Data structures, in which transactions can be protocoled in chronological order and displayed comprehensibly and without central authority (BaFin, 2017). The first and most famous blockchain is the blockchain that is based upon the digital currency Bitcoin. Today, numerous other “Blockchains” as well as digital currencies, which are tradable on the digital stock market, exist. The advantages of Blockchains are high forgery-proof and decentralized organized decision processes that are in no need of examination or approval by a central instance which makes already known procedures more efficient. Because of these characteristics this technology meets a growing interest in the Finance industry. The research focus is therefore the impact of the blockchain technology on finance and capital markets. Focal point of this research are crypto currencies, the market micro structure of digital market places and the usage of blockchain for corporate finance.