Dr. Florian Spychiger

Work at ZHAW

Position

Senior Researcher & Lecturer Decentralized Autonomous Organizations & Blockchain

Focus

• Decentralized Autonomous Organizations
• Incentive Systems in Blockchains
• Blockchain Governance
• Agent-based Modelling

Teaching

• BSc Elective Module "Business Value of Blockchain"
• WBK Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) & Metaverse

Experience

• Research Associate Decentralized Autonomous Organizations & Blockchain
  ZHAW
  02 / 2019 - 02 / 2025
• Management Associate
  UZH Blockchain Center
  08 / 2020 - 08 / 2023
• Scientific Assistant SCM & Blockchain
  ZHAW
  02 / 2018 - 01 / 2019
• Working Student Process Automation
  Vontobel
  09 / 2015 - 07 / 2017
• Internship Investment Research
  SG Analytics, Poona, India
  01 / 2015 - 07 / 2015

Education and Continuing education

Education

• PhD Management & Economics / Management & Economics
  University of Zurich
  02 / 2019 - 09 / 2023
• MSc UZH ETH in Quantitative Finance / Finance
  ETH Zurich / University of Zurich
  09 / 2015 - 04 / 2019
• BSc Economics / Economics
  University of Berne
  09 / 2010 - 09 / 2014

Continuing Education

• CAS in Higher & Professional Education
  ZHAW School of Management and Law
  08 / 2023
• Funding for Science and Innovation Projects and Fellowships
  University of Zurich
  05 / 2020
• Project design and grant proposal writing
  University of Zurich
  03 / 2020
• Design thinking
  University of Zurich
  10 / 2019
• Project Management for Researchers
  ZHAW School of Management and Law
  07 / 2019
• Cambridge Proficiency C2
  University of Cambridge
  11 / 2011

Network

Membership of networks

• DAO Suisse
• DIZH Fellows
• UZH Blockchain Center
• ZHAW Digital Futures Lab
• UZH Digital Society Initiative
• Data Innovation Alliance

ORCID digital identifier

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6602-8450

Social media

• LinkedIn
• Personal Webpage

Media presence

• SRF Podcast: Das Haus, das sich selbst verwaltet
• Fokus Swiss: Blockchain als Grundlage des Informationsaustausches

Projects

• Collaborative networks: The evolution of project work in a digital world with DAOs / Deputy project leader / ongoing
• Decentralised Decision-Making in DAOs: Learnings for Digital Democracy / Co-project leader / ongoing
• Data Center at Home / Deputy project leader / completed
• Inno Booster Blockchain Breezing / Project leader / completed
• Self-organization as a driver of e-participation: DAOs and their potential for social participation / Deputy project leader / completed
• Tokenomics framework for the governance of decentralised autonomous organisations / Project leader / completed
• Inno Booster Blockchain FTWinnerdApp / Project leader / completed
• Inno Booster Blockchain DMRV Biogas / Deputy project leader / completed
• DAO Radar Switzerland / Project leader / completed
• DAOify - Decentralized Autonomous Organizations / Deputy project leader / completed
• MetaRoom / Project leader / completed
• RightFootForward – Innovative business model with the possibility to donate based on blockchain technology / Co-project leader / completed
• Build-Your-Own DAO – Designing and Implementing a Decentralized Autonomous Organization / Co-project leader / completed
• Blockchain Technology in Interorganizational Collaboration / Deputy project leader / completed
• A Governance Framework for the Swiss Blockchain Ecosystem / Co-project leader / completed
• no1s1 - A house owned by no one but itself / Project leader / completed
• Supernodes in the dHealth Network / Team member / completed
• Decentralized Registration and Trading Platform for Emission Certificates / Co-project leader / completed
• Expert Group of the Swiss Alliance for Data-intensive (NTN-Network) / Deputy project leader / completed

Publications

• Lustenberger, Michael; Spychiger, Florian; Küng, Lukas; Bassi, Eleonora; Wollenschläger, Sabrina,

  2025.

  DAO research trends : reflections and learnings from the first European DAO workshop (DAWO).

  Applied Sciences.

  15(7), pp. 3491.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/app15073491

• Lustenberger, Michael; Küng, Lukas; Spychiger, Florian,

  2025.

  Designing community governance : learnings from DAOs.

  The journal of the British Blockchain Association.

  8(1).

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.31585/jbba-8-1-(4)2025

• Lustenberger, Michael; Spychiger, Florian; Küng, Lukas; Martignoni, Jens,

  2025.

  DAOs as property owners : a conceptual exploration from the perspective of organizational system theory.

  Journal of Organization Design.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41469-025-00186-4

• Lustenberger, Michael; Spychiger, Florian,

  2025.

  Blockchain in supply chains : an unfulfilled promise.

  Supply Chain Management.

  30(2), pp. 178-194.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-03-2024-0192

• Spychiger, Florian; Lustenberger, Michael; Martignoni, Jens; Schädler, Lukas; Lehner, Patrick,

  2023.

  Organizing projects with blockchain through a decentralized autonomous organization.

  Project Leadership and Society.

  4(100102).

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2023.100102

• Schädler, Lukas; Lustenberger, Michael; Spychiger, Florian,

  2023.

  Analyzing decision-making in blockchain governance.

  Frontiers in Blockchain.

  23(6).

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2023.1256651

• Li, Chuanyun; Spychiger, Florian; Tessone, Claudio J.,

  2022.

  The miner’s dilemma with migration : the control effect of solo-mining.

  IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management.

  20(3), pp. 2760-2770.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSM.2022.3232183

• Spychiger, Florian; Tessone, Claudio J.; Zavolokina, Liudmila; Schwabe, Gerhard,

  2022.

  Incentivizing data quality in blockchain-based systems : the case of the digital cardossier.

  Distributed Ledger Technologies.

  1(1).

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1145/3538228

• Lustenberger, Michael; Malešević , Saša; Spychiger, Florian,

  2021.

  Ecosystem readiness : blockchain adoption is driven externally.

  Frontiers in Blockchain.

  4(720454).

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2021.720454

• Spychiger, Florian; Tasca, Paolo; Tessone, Claudio J.,

  2021.

  Unveiling the importance and evolution of design components through the “tree of blockchain”.

  Frontiers in Blockchain.

  3(613476).

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2020.613476

• Malešević, Saša; Lustenberger, Michael; Spychiger, Florian,

  2020.

  Applying distributed ledger concepts to a Swiss regional label ecosystem.

  Logistics.

  4(32).

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/logistics4040032

• Spychiger, Florian; Lustenberger, Michael; Küng, Lukas,

  2025.

  Decision-making in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

  In:

  Themistocleous, Marinos, ed.,

  Handbook of blockchain technology.

  Edward Elgar Publishing.

  pp. 142-163.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803922805.00020

• Lustenberger, Michael; Spychiger, Florian; Taylor, Michael,

  2019.

  Optimierung des Supply Chain Informationsaustauschs mit Blockchain-Startups.

  In:

  Digitalisierung in der Praxis : so schaffen KMU den Weg in die Zukunft.

  Wiesbaden:

  Springer.

  pp. 209-221.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26137-5_14

• Spychiger, Florian; Makode, Parminder Kaur; Küng, Lukas; Tessone, Claudio Juan,

  2024.

  Governance and maintenance for a DAO with physical assets : an agent-based model[paper].

  In:

  2024 IEEE International Conference on Omni-layer Intelligent Systems (COINS).

  International Conference on Omni-layer Intelligent Systems (COINS), London, United Kingdom, 29-31 July 2024.

  IEEE.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/COINS61597.2024.10622115

• Lustenberger, Michael; Spychiger, Florian; Küng, Lukas,

  2024.

  Designing a decentralized autonomous organization[paper].

  In:

  ECIS 2024 Proceedings.

  32nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Paphos, Cyprus, 13-19 June 2024.

  Association for Information Systems.

  Available from: https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2024/track16_fintech/track16_fintech/6/

• Caviezel, Moë; Spychiger, Florian; Stallone, Valerio,

  2024.

  Aspects for implementations of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) in Switzerland[paper].

  In:

  Rocha, Alvaro; Adeli, Hojjat; Dzemyda, Gintautas; Moreira, Fernando; Colla, Valentina, eds.,

  Information Systems and Technologies.

  11th World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCIST), Pisa, Italy, 4-6 April 2023.

  Cham:

  Springer.

  pp. 366-376.

  Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ; 801.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45648-0_36

• Martignoni, Jens; Spychiger, Florian; Lustenberger, Michael; Lehner, Patrick,

  2023.

  Decentralizing project management by a DAO : a first attempt[paper].

  In:

  23rd EURAM Annual Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 14-16 June 2023.

• Spychiger, Florian; Lustenberger, Michael,

  2022.

  Decision-making in blockchains[paper].

  In:

  22nd EURAM Annual Conference, Winterthur, Switzerland, 15-17 June 2022.

  ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-25564

• Li, Chuanyun; Spychiger, Florian; Tessone, Claudio J.,

  2021.

  The miner's dilemma with migration[paper].

  In:

  Proceedings 2021 of the 3rd Conference on Blockchain Research & Applications for Innovative Networks and Services.

  3rd Conference on Blockchain Research & Applications for Innovative Networks and Services (BRAINS), Paris, France, 27-30 September 2021.

  IEEE.

  pp. 97-104.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/BRAINS52497.2021.9569793

• Lustenberger, Michael; Spychiger, Florian; Malešević, Saša,

  2020.

  Towards a better understanding of the value of blockchains in supply chain management[paper].

  In:

  Information Systems : 16th European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern Conference, Proceedings.

  16th European Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 9-10 December 2019.

  Cham:

  Springer.

  pp. 101-112.

  Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ; 381.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44322-1_8

• Zavolokina, Liudmila; Spychiger, Florian; Tessone, Claudio; Schwabe, Gerhard,

  2018.

  Incentivizing data quality in blockchains for inter-organizational networks : learning from the digital car dossier[paper].

  In:

  ICIS 2018 Proceedings.

  39th International Conference of Information Systems 2018, San Francisco, USA, 13-16 December 2018.

  Association for Information Systems.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-157909

• Lustenberger, Michael; Spychiger, Florian; Küng, Lukas; Cuadra, Pedro,

  2024.

  Mastering DAOs : a practical guidebook for building and managing decentralized autonomous organizations.

  2nd revised edition.

  Winterthur:

  ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-2543

• Lustenberger, Michael; Spychiger, Florian; Küng, Lukas; Bassi, Eleonóra; Wollenschläger, Sabrina,

  2024.

  DAO research trends : reflections and learnings from the first European DAO Workshop (DAWO).

  SSRN.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4944742

• Zavolokina, Liudmila; Spychiger, Florian; Schwabe, Gerhard,

  2021.

  Leitfaden Blockchain in der kantonalen Verwaltung Zürich.

  Kanton Zürich Staatskanzlei digitale Verwaltung und E-Government.

  Available from: https://www.zh.ch/content/dam/zhweb/bilder-dokumente/themen/politik-staat/kanton/digitale-verwaltung-und-e-government/projekte_digitale_transformation/blockchain_leitfaden_final.pdf

• Spychiger, Florian; Tasca, Paolo; Tessone, Claudio,

  2020.

  The tree of blockchain.

  Rochester:

  SSRN.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3707260

• Lustenberger, Michael; Spychiger, Florian,

  2019.

  Blockchain als Grundlage des Informationsaustausches.

  Fokus Swiss.

  Available from: https://fokus.swiss/2019/07/03/blockchain-als-grundlage-des-informationsaustausches/

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