KEY DETERMINANTS OF ACHIEVING TRUST IN APPLYING BLOCKCHAIN TO EMISSION TRADING IN FINLAND

Abstract

A thesis presented on the critical moment of sustainability transition especially regarding reducing emission of carbon dioxide. The disruption of blockchain application has become one of the innovations that can facilitate this transition. This thesis research focuses on the investigating the most influential trust determinants of applying blockchain to emission trading system (ETS) in the context of Finland. This is exploratory qualitative research which combines grounded theory applied for eight empirical papers and three semi-structured expert interviews. The interviewees include two Finnish ETS experts and two blockchain application experts. Through the qualitative analysis, the author suggested structural assurance trust, knowledge-based familiarity trust and control-based trust to be the most deterministic trust factors in applying blockchain to emission trading. Meanwhile, situational normality trust, peer-based trust and ethnical trust can also be influential. A sequential model and a pyramid model of different trust factors mentioned have been proposed based on the interpretative findings of interviews. Therewith, a consolidated trust model was suggested involving all the relevant trust factors. Finally, the research results can be highly generalisable towards member countries of EU ETS other than Finland.