Dynamics of decentralized finance: The role of user-generated content for blockchain-based fundraising

In the last decades, technology has fundamentally changed our economy. Specifically the Internet has fueled disintermediation and gave birth to new actors that interact directly with their customers. This development can be conceptualized as the emergence of a decentralized economy, which is enabled by technological artifacts such as web protocols or more recently blockchains, cryptocurrencies and smart contracts. Blockchain technology has led to the creation of a new funding mechanism, which has gained significant traction and does not rely on intermediaries. Core innovation that is geared to-wards a decentralized economy has been funded almost exclusively through blockchain-based fundraises in the last years. This project aims to contribute to the emerging research stream on the dynamics of decentralized finance by investigating the mechanics of blockchain-based fundraising.