The effect of bitcoin transactions on human development: Emerging business models

This paper aims to understand the logic and value of business model design as it relates to the effect of bitcoin transactions on human development and offers characteristics of three emerging business models. In this paper a business model is seen to be a social construct of how value is created and human agency is essential in creating value. The use of bitcoins is an example of human agency through which value is being created. The decentralization of financial transactions in a global internet information infrastructure is changing the way some businesses operate. This infrastructure is powering the use of bitcoins as the largest volume of cryptocurrency traded to date. It appears that the effect of bitcoin is in the emerging business models. Yet little is known about how these models emerge and what they mean. This paper offers a theoretical basis upon which the logic and value of business models can be understood as it relates to bitcoin use and human agency. It investigates bitcoin transactions in terms of their effect on human development. The findings illustrate a positive correlation between bitcoin transactions and human development where people have access to the internet. Based on these variables, cluster analysis is carried out to to investigate the logic and value of business model design from the bitcoin effect. Three categories of countries are identified that are classified according to the emerging models they represent. The contribution of this paper is in uncovering the bitcoin effect as identified in the emerging business models it enables. This can be used as a lens to identify at the value created by a bitcoin business model based on the logic of its design.