比特幣是一種去中心化的電子虛擬貨幣，由化名為「中本聰」的未知個人或團體所創造。其發明無疑地將一般認知的貨幣和價值概念所推翻。自2009年上線啟用開始，短短數年間它就發展為價值數十億美元的產業，並且引領其他加密貨幣的開發。目前以商業生態系統概念出發，研究和分析比特幣活躍性的論文尚為數不多，這個概念從比特幣本身包含到它核心周遭的社群和網路。本論文目的即在探究並描述比特幣商業生態系統的生成、發展脈絡、和驅動演化的各項特徵。開展研究範疇之前，本文首先將重述比特幣的概念和性質，和讀者建立加密貨幣的基本理解。接著，透過當前的文獻回顧，本文嘗試梳理並回應以下問題：如何以商業生態系統描述比特幣產業，比特幣其他加密貨幣在此生態系的演化軌跡、回歸到當前加密貨幣研究的斷層。本研究的核心在探討比特幣作為一個商業生態系統的發生和演化。論文採用的研究方法，將觸及超過500名曾經或現今正在使用比特比交易系統的實體，應用市場理論切分為數個框架群體，建立量化資料庫並加以分析。採用的資料時間範疇在2010-2015之間，加以圖像化並呈現其系統結構。在此區間，比特幣這個生態系統成長的趨勢、交易量和群體增減的時間點得以呈現，並呼應結論。最後，將探討這些發現如何與現有的研究連結，提出新的洞見以及未來可應用的研究方向。

Bitcoin is a decentralised digital currency system conceived by a mysterious individual or group using going by the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto”. The concept will most certainly revolutionise our conception of money and of value transfer in general. Despite a discreet launch in 2009, it developed itself into a multi-billion dollar industry in a few years, and was followed by the emergence of many other cryptocurrencies. Little research was conducted so far to analyse the dynamic ecosystems that were created around these networks. The purpose of this project is therefore to study the inception of the Bitcoin industry, its development, and to put a name on the factors driving its development. To that extend, an explanation of the Bitcoin concept and its feature is presented with the aim of helping the reader to understand the cryptocurrency system. Then, the review of the existing literature explores the key concepts of business ecosystems, their evolution trajectories, and Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, and presents the research gap that this paper aims at answering. The boundaries of the study are set, and will focus on the business sector itself. Then, a theoretical market segmentation framework was created and applied to a dataset of more than 500 entities that are part of this ecosystem and that are or were dealing with Bitcoin at some point of their lives. For being able to visually explore the development of the industry’s structure, network graphs were created over a time frame from 2010-2015. The key findings are displayed, and several driving factors of evolution are presented. Finally, the findings are discussed and linked to the existing research, and exiting new ideas of future research are proposed.

Thesis Validation Letter………………………………………………………………..i
摘要……………………………………………………………………………………...ii
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………iii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 2: BITCOIN 3
1. Concept 3
2. Mechanics 3
a) Bitcoin transactions 3
b) Bitcoin mining 4
c) Proof of work 4
d) Digital wallet 5
CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW 6
1. Business ecosystems 6
2. Ecosystem’s development trajectories 8
3. Cryptocurrencies & Bitcoin 9
4. Research gap 11
CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY 13
1. Theoretical underpinnings 13
2. The Bitcoin Ecosystem & Boundaries of the Study 13
3. The Bitcoin Business Ecosystem 15
4. Data Collection 16
a) Ad rem entities identification & data sources 16
b) Type of data collected 17
c) Dataset 17
5. Ecosystem Segmentation Framework 18
6. Research Design 21
a) Visualisation approach 21
b) Data processing & graphs creation 21
CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS 24
1. Findings Overview 24
2. Network Graphs 25
a) 2010 25
b) 2011 27
c) 2012 30
d) 2013 32
e) 2014 34
f) 2015 37
3. Key Findings 38
a) Diversity 38
b) Diversification 39
c) Entries & exits 41
d) Mergers & Acquisitions 42
CHAPTER 6: ANALYSIS 43
1. Factors of birth and development of market segments 43
a) Evolution of the market needs 43
b) Regulations 44
c) Value proposition evolution 45
d) Low entry barriers 45
2. Factors influencing the whole ecosystem 47
a) Regulation ambiguity 47
b) General perception 47
c) Entities’ structure evolution 48
3. Macro-economic Factors 48
CHAPTER 7: DISCUSSION 49
CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION 52
1. Summary 52
2. Limitations of the Study 54
3. Future research 54
Bibliography 56
Ethics Form 60

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