IT Strategic alignment in the decentralized finance (DeFi): CBDC and digital currencies

TL;DR

This paper investigates how IT elements enable strategic alignment in DeFi, focusing on interactions among cryptocurrencies, CBDCs, and digital currencies, through a systematic review of existing literature.

Contribution

It applies established strategic alignment models to DeFi, highlighting gaps in understanding the connection between IT elements and strategic alignment in decentralized financial networks.

Findings

Many IT elements are identified in DeFi literature.

Lack of research on connecting IT elements with strategic alignment in DeFi.

Future research directions are proposed.

Abstract

Cryptocurrency can be understood as a digital asset transacted among participants in the crypto economy. Every cryptocurrency must have an associated Blockchain. Blockchain is a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) which supports cryptocurrencies, this may be considered as the most promising disruptive technology in the industry 4.0 context. Decentralized finance (DeFi) is a Blockchain-based financial infrastructure, the term generally refers to an open, permissionless, and highly interoperable protocol stack built on public smart contract platforms, such as the Ethereum Blockchain. It replicates existing financial services in a more open and transparent way. DeFi does not rely on intermediaries and centralized institutions. Instead, it is based on open protocols and decentralized applications (Dapps). Considering that there are many digital coins, stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), these currencies should interact among each other sometime. For this interaction the Information Technology elements play an important whole as enablers and IT strategic alignment. This paper considers the strategic alignment model proposed by Henderson and Venkatraman (1993) and Luftman (1996). This paper seeks to answer two main questions 1) What are the common IT elements in the DeFi? And 2) How the elements connect to the IT strategic alignment in DeFi? Through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Results point out that there are many IT elements already mentioned by literature, however there is a lack in the literature about the connection between IT elements and IT strategic alignment in a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) architectural network. After final considerations, limitations and future research agenda are presented. Keywords: IT Strategic alignment, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Cryptocurrency, Digital Economy.