To Incentivize or Not: Impact of Blockchain-Based Cryptoeconomic Tokens on Human Information Sharing Behavior
Cryptoeconomic incentives in the form of blockchain-based tokens are seen as an enabler of the sharing economy that could shift society towards greater sustainability. Nevertheless, knowledge of the impact of these tokens on human sharing behavior is still limited and this poses a challenge to the d...
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IEEE
2022-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Access |
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| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9825658/ |
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| author | Mark C. Ballandies |
| author_facet | Mark C. Ballandies |
| author_sort | Mark C. Ballandies |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Cryptoeconomic incentives in the form of blockchain-based tokens are seen as an enabler of the sharing economy that could shift society towards greater sustainability. Nevertheless, knowledge of the impact of these tokens on human sharing behavior is still limited and this poses a challenge to the design of effective cryptoeconomic incentives. This study applies the theory of self-determination to investigate the impact of such tokens on human behavior in an information-sharing scenario. By utilizing an experimental methodology in the form of a randomized control trial with a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2 \times 2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> factorial design involving 132 participants, the effects of two token incentives on human information-sharing behavior are analyzed. Individuals obtain these tokens in exchange for their shared information. Based on the collected tokens, individuals receive a monetary payment and build reputation. Besides investigating the effect of these incentives on the quantity of shared information, the study includes quality characteristics of the information, such as <italic>accuracy</italic> and <italic>contextualization</italic>. The focus on quantity while excluding quality has been identified as a limitation in previous work. In addition to confirming previously known effects such as a crowding-out of intrinsic motivation by incentives, which also exists for blockchain-based tokens, the findings of this paper point to a hitherto unreported <italic>interaction effect</italic> between multiple tokens when applied simultaneously. The findings are critically discussed and put into the context of recent work and ethical considerations. The theory-based-empirical study is of interest to those investigating the effect of cryptoeconomic tokens or digital currencies on human behavior and supports the community in the design of effective personalized incentives for sharing economies. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4757907db51b4e798e91377ea3d4cc53 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj-art-4757907db51b4e798e91377ea3d4cc532025-08-20T02:33:50ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362022-01-0110741117413010.1109/ACCESS.2022.31897749825658To Incentivize or Not: Impact of Blockchain-Based Cryptoeconomic Tokens on Human Information Sharing BehaviorMark C. Ballandies0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9350-9823Department of Computational Social Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, SwitzerlandCryptoeconomic incentives in the form of blockchain-based tokens are seen as an enabler of the sharing economy that could shift society towards greater sustainability. Nevertheless, knowledge of the impact of these tokens on human sharing behavior is still limited and this poses a challenge to the design of effective cryptoeconomic incentives. This study applies the theory of self-determination to investigate the impact of such tokens on human behavior in an information-sharing scenario. By utilizing an experimental methodology in the form of a randomized control trial with a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2 \times 2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> factorial design involving 132 participants, the effects of two token incentives on human information-sharing behavior are analyzed. Individuals obtain these tokens in exchange for their shared information. Based on the collected tokens, individuals receive a monetary payment and build reputation. Besides investigating the effect of these incentives on the quantity of shared information, the study includes quality characteristics of the information, such as <italic>accuracy</italic> and <italic>contextualization</italic>. The focus on quantity while excluding quality has been identified as a limitation in previous work. In addition to confirming previously known effects such as a crowding-out of intrinsic motivation by incentives, which also exists for blockchain-based tokens, the findings of this paper point to a hitherto unreported <italic>interaction effect</italic> between multiple tokens when applied simultaneously. The findings are critically discussed and put into the context of recent work and ethical considerations. The theory-based-empirical study is of interest to those investigating the effect of cryptoeconomic tokens or digital currencies on human behavior and supports the community in the design of effective personalized incentives for sharing economies.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9825658/Blockchaincryptoeconomicsdistributed ledger technologyincentivesinformation sharingself-determination theory |
| spellingShingle | Mark C. Ballandies To Incentivize or Not: Impact of Blockchain-Based Cryptoeconomic Tokens on Human Information Sharing Behavior IEEE Access Blockchain cryptoeconomics distributed ledger technology incentives information sharing self-determination theory |
| title | To Incentivize or Not: Impact of Blockchain-Based Cryptoeconomic Tokens on Human Information Sharing Behavior |
| title_full | To Incentivize or Not: Impact of Blockchain-Based Cryptoeconomic Tokens on Human Information Sharing Behavior |
| title_fullStr | To Incentivize or Not: Impact of Blockchain-Based Cryptoeconomic Tokens on Human Information Sharing Behavior |
| title_full_unstemmed | To Incentivize or Not: Impact of Blockchain-Based Cryptoeconomic Tokens on Human Information Sharing Behavior |
| title_short | To Incentivize or Not: Impact of Blockchain-Based Cryptoeconomic Tokens on Human Information Sharing Behavior |
| title_sort | to incentivize or not impact of blockchain based cryptoeconomic tokens on human information sharing behavior |
| topic | Blockchain cryptoeconomics distributed ledger technology incentives information sharing self-determination theory |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9825658/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT markcballandies toincentivizeornotimpactofblockchainbasedcryptoeconomictokensonhumaninformationsharingbehavior |