Development Trajectory of Blockchain Platforms : the Role of Multi-Role

Understanding the development trajectory of digital platforms is central to digital platform management. We propose to consider the multiple roles played by participants of blockchain platforms and demonstrate that adding this dimension significantly improves our understanding of platform growth. Specifically, we develop a parametric model to investigate blockchain platforms' development trajectory. Model dynamics rely on the feedback between blockchains' utility change and people's adoption and abandonment of the platform. We consider a typical blockchain participant simultaneously playing three roles on the platform - user, investor, and laborer - each contributing a unique element to blockchain's multi-facet utility: providing service for transaction/interaction, providing medium for digital investment, and providing workspace for online labor. Model describes a three-phase development trajectory for blockchain platforms that closely resembles real-world situations: a chaotic initial stage of platform launch, an intermediate stage of rapid growth, and a mature stage of stable market cycles. The three roles have different functions in platform's different development stages, and their interactions determine phase transitions. We use the model to match 112 token price series. Model performance is robust across different fitting setups, completely outperforming alternative scalings. Two temporal parameters - time delay in quitting the platform, and holding time of platform token - significantly differentiate blockchains’ development trajectories. Model is adapted to study forking events and useful insights are drawn. Overall, this study demonstrates the importance of considering participants' multiple roles in understanding blockchain platform's development