Με τις πρόσφατες εξελίξεις στις τεχνολογίες της πληροφορίας και της επικοινωνίας και την διαδεδομένη δημοτικότητα των κινητών τηλεφώνων (π.χ. συσκευών Android και iOS), οι ψηφιακές πληρωμές και τα κρυπτονομίσματα όπως το Bitcoin, το Litecoin, το Ethereum και άλλα, γίνονται ολοένα και πιο δημοφιλή στο ηλεκτρονικό εμπόριο. \nΟι εγκληματίες - συχνά πρωτοπόροι των νέων τεχνολογιών - εκτίμησαν γρήγορα ότι το Bitcoin ως πρωτοπόρο, αλλά και τα λοιπά κρυπτονομίσματα στη συνέχεια, έχουν μοναδικές ιδιότητες που θα μπορούσαν ενδεχομένως να εξυπηρετήσουν το ενδιαφέρον τους για αποφυγή της επιβολής του νόμου. \nΤο Bitcoin εισάγει μια σειρά προκλήσεων στις ψηφιακές έρευνες που οφείλονται κυρίως στα στοιχεία της ψευδωνυμίας που παρέχει σε ένα χρήστη και το αποκεντρωμένο δίκτυο μέσα στο οποίο λειτουργεί, όπου με τη χρήση του μπορεί να μεταφερθεί χωρίς μεσάζοντες ακόμη και σε διεθνή σύνορα τόσο εύκολα όσο και η αποστολή ενός μηνύματος ηλεκτρονικού ταχυδρομείου. \nΑυτά τα χαρακτηριστικά το έχουν καταστήσει ελκυστικό μέσο ανταλλαγής για όσους ασχολούνται με εγκληματικές δραστηριότητες στο διαδίκτυο. Κατά το παρελθόν έχει χρησιμοποιηθεί για τη νομιμοποίηση εσόδων από παράνομες δραστηριότητες και για φοροαποφυγή, ενώ έχει χρησιμοποιηθεί εκτεταμένα για την αγορά παράνομων προϊόντων, αγαθών και υπηρεσιών μέσω διαδικτυακών αγορών, όπως το Silk Road στο Dark Web. \nΧρησιμοποιήθηκε και χρησιμοποιείται επιπλέον από επίδοξους χάκερ ως τρόπος πληρωμής για επιθέσεις ransomware που έχουν σημειώσει τεράστια ανάπτυξη κατά τη διάρκεια των τελευταίων χρόνων από την δημιουργία του. \nΠαρά το γεγονός ότι το Bitcoin αλλά και τα άλλα εικονικά νομίσματα (κρυπτονομίσματα) αποτελούν πηγή αποδεικτικών στοιχείων, έχει υπάρξει περιορισμένη έρευνα στην εγκληματολογική εξέταση τους. Η υπάρχουσα εγκληματολογική έρευνα σχετικά με το Bitcoin επικεντρώνεται κυρίως στο Blockchain (το καθολικό ledger στο οποίο καταγράφονται οι συναλλαγές) και όχι στο Bitcoin, ως λογισμικό του χρήστη (π.χ. την εφαρμογή πορτοφολιού για κινητά τηλέφωνα) προκειμένου να βρεθούν και να ανακτηθούν δεδομένα σχετικά με τις συναλλαγές που έχει πραγματοποιήσει ένας χρήστης χρησιμοποιώντας την συγκεκριμένη εφαρμογή ή και άλλα στοιχεία που σχετίζονται με την συμπεριφορά του χρήστη κατά την χρήση της εφαρμογής πορτοφολιού Bitcoin. Αυτό είναι το κενό που επιδιώκουμε να αντιμετωπίσουμε σε αυτή την εργασία.
Genomgår pengar en revolution? Ett mycket centralt ämne i ekonomi är pengar, pengar har genomgått många utvecklingar och därmed har även synen på pengar förändrats över tid. Vi har använt varor och råvaror som pengar. En bytesekonomi där snäckor, stenar och fjädrar ansågs vara värdefulla att handla med, för att sedan övergå till dyrbara metaller som guld och silver. Denna övergång utvecklades och vi fick våra första sedlar som tillverkade i Kina, därefter tillkom papperssedlar, kreditkort och digitala pengar. Nu har det uppkommit en ny typ av valuta på marknaden som kan innebära nästa steg i utvecklingen. Nämligen kryptovalutan, som är omfattande för alla digitaliserade valutor, men valutan kan också vara decentraliserad. Den virtuella valutan har många kritiker, men användningen av valutan fortsätter att expandera. Bitcoin är den första och mest använda kryptovalutan (Bitcoin, 2018). Syftet med denna studie är att genom intervjuer med fem Bitcoin investerare förstå vad som är värdeskapande och att dessutom förstå vilka fördelar och nackdelar den virtuella valutan Bitcoin har för sina investerare. Värdeskapande är subjektivt och sker i samband med att investerare interagerar med varandra. Investerare i Bitcoin menar att det som är värdeskapande är sex faktorer: lönsamhet, risk, tillit, överförbarhet och transparens, säkert och kontroll samt kontroverser.
With increasing popularity, the scalability of blockchain-based crypto-currencies becomes an urgent concern. Bitcoin, among other crypto-currencies, have known limitations in transaction throughput and speedbut no agreed upon solution. Many of the proposals increasing throughput also increase the load on the Bitcoin network. Lightning is a proposal enabling payments to be conducted without affecting the Bitcoin network. Lightning is a protocol using payment channels to enable instant and cheap payments using the blockchain for security. With Lightning, payments can be sent through a network of nodes connected by payment channels. In this thesis, the current state of Lightning is explored and an evaluation for use on Bitcoin exchanges is performed. The usability, privacy and security of Lightning are the topics evaluated. In order to evaluate the usability, an exchange interface application was built allowing deposits and withdrawals using Lightning. The protocol specification and relevant literature are examined in order to evaluate the security and privacy of Lightning. The exchange interface showed that Lightning can be integrated into an exchange and provide a fast and cheap way to deposit and withdraw money for clients. In this paper some integration designs are proposed and ways to improve the client user experience are discussed. The Lightning node implementations need to mature a bit before real usage and there are some security issues that also need to be considered. With monitoring and network analysis the privacy can be compromised.
Bitcoin, first introduced in 2008, and other virtual currencies (litecoin, ripple, ethereum, dash, etc. – known as “altcoins”) are a phenomenon of the 21st century. When speaking about bitcoins, views on cryptocurrency-related risks and benefits vary significantly. However, in this article, we will not focus on bitcoin here to illustrate how virtual currencies work. The aim of this article is to show how the borrowed Anglicism bitcoin is used in the Czech and the French languages. The purpose of the theoretical framework is to clarify concepts of neologism, Anglicism and internationalism and propose relationships among the concepts in a study. In the practical section, using the word bitcoin, we show how the loanword is used in both languages and how its integration into the language is similar. The main result of the analysis is a list of derived and compound words from the word bitcoin in Czech and French. The article deals with derived and compound words from the point of view of their quantitative evaluation using Aranea web corpora. In this article, we have shown the possibilities of their derivatives and adaptation to the given system of the language.
Bitcoin, but there are other serious players in the game such as Ethereum, NEO, and Ripple, to name just a few. 2 Cryptocurrencies extend beyond the pre-established limits, and thus do not fit easily into the existing paradigm. 3 In fact, their scope is so vast, it is almost impossible to predict their future impact. 4 It is a bit like attempting to estimate the possible size and magnitude of an unknown type of fully mature tree from its tiny infant seed.*So, perhaps we should not limit our imaginations too much with rapidly redundant frameworks and limiting definitions.*The objective of this article is to widen and expose the field of interpretations and understanding of cryptocurrencies while providing some stimulating, inspirational thoughts regarding the unprecedented opportunities and dilemmas cryptocurrencies face.*This mini-thesis has been written almost like a stream of thought, rather than a concisely researched document.*This is because it does not attempt to meet all the criteria of empirically proven research.*As such, some of its statements are unproven, unquantifiable, and unquoted.*Currently, complete examination is impossible because cryptocurrency, and the blockchain technology supporting it behind the scenes, is a rapidly evolving organic phenomenon-it is swirling, moving, and adapting. 5 At this stage, it is impossible to predict accurately what will global simulations.He is a regular contributor to the World Bank doing business reports from 2015 through 2018.
Bitcoin is a digital currency raised by Satosghi Nakamoto, which is Completely decentralized, Highly anonymous, cross-border. Nowadays it has became one of the most widely used currency. Recently, as the used capacity has approached the capacity limitation of each block, the time needed to confirm a transaction increase dramatically. As a result, bitcoin cannot satisfy the need of a large number of bitcoin transactions. This paper aims to apply merged mining technology to bitcoin blockchain scaling, which builds another blockchain called auxiliary blockchain based on bitcoin blockchain and stores some of small rapid transactions in auxiliary blockchain. This paper also proves the merged mining technology can concentrate computing power and design a special miner reward program.
This thesis introduces blockchain, the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and discusses how best to conceptualize it relative to other technologies. Following an explanation of the fundamentals of blockchain, also known as the distributed ledger, I identify the characteristics of the technology. Building upon blockchain’s inherent strengths and limitations, I explore potential business applications of blockchain. Finally, I recommend that leaders continue to track the development and adoption of blockchain technology, even if they decide that implementing it does not align with their organization’s strategy at present.
Cecilia Anthony Das, Krishna Prasad, Shibley Sadique
This paper seeks to review the current regulatory regime governing cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, in United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore, and traces the regulatory trend in those identified countries. These developments are compared to the Australian context. From the comparative analysis conducted be-tween regimes available in other jurisdictions and those in Australia, the authors conclude that the Australian regulatory regime in relation to cryptocurrency, in particular Bitcoin, are comparable in some respects and in others are much progressive. This is specifically in light of the 2017 amendments relating to anti-money laundering legislation which places Australia as a strong forerunner to legislate on Bitcoin and anti-money laundering legislation. However, to successfully achieve this, Australia must address its lag in relation to the classification of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency respectively. As such, it is concluded that the regulatory regime of cryptocurrency both internationally and at the Australian level is far from satisfactory.
In this research, the returns of four cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple and Ethereum) were analyzed in order to answer the following research question: “How do the returns of Bitcoin and other altcoins behave over time, and what can we say about extreme values for losses and profits?” With respect to volatility, cryptocurrencies can still be considered extremely volatile. For Bitcoin, the least volatile of the four, we found an annual volatility of approximately 70% based on daily exchange rates. For Ethereum, the most volatile of all four, this percentage was closer to 130%. Also, several distributions were fitted on the returns. It is shown that the Generalized Hyperbolic Distribution is the best fit for all four cryptocurrencies, apart from the tails in some cases.<br/>The tails were investigated seperately by using Extreme Value Analysis and by looking into both empirical and theoretical risk quantities (the Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall). Bitcoin appears to be the least risky of all four cryptocurrencies, but also the least profitable, whereas Ripple appears to be the most risky and also the most profitable.<br/>Compared to previous research, Bitcoin has also become less risky, showing a less fat tail for the losses than before. For Litecoin and Ripple, the reverse is true, as they appear to have become riskier. For Ethereum, no comparisons could be made, as this is a relatively new cryptocurrency that has not been investigated much yet. When tested for Paretianity, the left tails of Litecoin and Ripple appear to Pareto distributed: the losses seem to exhibit heavy tail behavior. For the profits, the tails turned out to be even heavier and can therefore also be considered Paretian. These results were confirmed by Maximum to Sum ratio plots, indicating infinite third and fourth moments for the losses and profits of Litecoin and Ripple, but not for Bitcoin and Ethereum. The results have implications for investment and risk management purposes.
W spoÅeczeÅstwie informacyjnym dochodzi do przesuwania znaczeÅ takich pojÄÄ jak informacja oraz mienie, które sÄ dobrami chronionymi przez prawo. Już sam zapis danych może mieÄ kluczowe znaczenie z perspektywy naszej sytuacji majÄ tkowej. Elektroniczny system pieniÄżny, w którym to podmioty dokonujÄ zapÅat miÄdzy sobÄ â bez udziaÅu banków ani żadnego poÅrednika, ani nawet bez paÅstwowych pieniÄdzy […]
Natália Diniz Maganini, Antônio Carlos da Silva Filho, Eduardo Fonseca de Almeida
O surgimento e crescimento do uso de criptomoedas baseadas na tecnologia Blockchain, em tempos recentes, aumenta o interesse pelo estudo da sua dinâmica econômica e características financeiras.O Bitcoin é, atualmente, a criptomoeda mais conhecida e disseminada, com maior volume de transações, valor de mercado e aceitação em serviços de câmbio.Com o objetivo de contribuir para a análise do comportamento de preços do mercado do Bitcoin, este estudo analisa se a série histórica dos preços desta moeda, cotadas de 12 em 12 horas no período de 14 de setembro de 2011 a 20 de novembro de 2017, possui características multifractais.Os resultados da pesquisa foram positivos.Além disso, percebe-se que tanto correlações de longo alcance como a distribuição das caudas gordas, contribuem para o comportamento multifractal do Bitcoin.
The blockchain is one of the main mechanisms enabling Bitcoin to be a decentralized electronicpayment system. It provides the system with a shared transaction history, which can be verified byevery participant. With increased use, it has become apparent that there is limited possibility forscaling this to handle more transactions. Payment channel networks are one proposed solution tothis problem. They allow for more transactions to be done by moving some transactions to a sepa-rate network. The Lightning Network is one such network, which uses Bitcoin and the blockchain tooperate. While the transactions in this network will not be included in the blockchain, there will bedata there related to the network. This is because it needs the blockchain to manage the paymentchannels which the network consists of.In this project we have explored the blockchain with the goal of identifying transactions relatedto the Lightning Network, and by doing so, determine what information about it is available in theblockchain. We have created different methods for identifying these transactions. The methods usedifferent transaction characteristics differing in uniqueness, making some methods more precise,but having fewer results, and vice versa. We created software implementing the methods, whichwere used to parse the blockchain. The effectiveness of these methods have been quantified bycomparing the data we found when parsing the blockchain, to data we collected directly fromthe Lightning Network. The results shows that the methods are viable for identifying a subset oftransactions, and that precision can be sacrificed for finding more. By identifying these transactionswe were able to determine what information about the Lightning Network we can see from theblockchain perspective, and also some aspects where we are limited.We have also adapted heuristics from previous work doing blockchain analysis to our scenario.These were used to link related information we had found when parsing the blockchain, whichenabled us to create network graphs showing the relations between the Lightning Network channelsidentified on the blockchain. While the relations in this network graph were limited, comparedto the actual relations found within the lightning network, they show how the blockchain canbe used to infer non-explicit information about the lightning network. We have also identifiedseveral methods for potentially inferring or locating more information using what is available inthe blockchain.
Intelligent space is an environmental robot system where many intelligent sensor nodes are distributed for supporting humans and mobile robots. This paper introduces a blockchain-based sensor network system for the intelligent space. Blockchain is a system for distributed ledgers of crypto currencies such as bitcoin. Recently, blockchain is considered to be effective for construction of distributed sensor network systems without central servers. In this paper, a prototype sensor system with blockchain based on Ethereum is introduced for intelligent space.
Open access
Innovation in Digital Healthcare Systems
Robotics and Automated Systems
Internet of Things and Social Network Interactions
Abstract In the last decades, modern democracies have been witnessing a low rate of political participation and civic engagement with existing governmental institutions. Civic participation is not dead, however, it is only shifting to a new space. In the shadow corners of the internet, people are looking at blockchain technology as a means to replace many of our traditional institutions. While most of the attention was put, initially, on Bitcoin disrupting banks and other financial operators, as people understood the full potential of blockchain technology they saw it a means to implement new governance structures that could potentially replace some of our existing systems of governance. At the extreme end of this spectrum are those who envision the creation of new blockchain-based virtual nations, with a view to ultimately replace the nation state, or at least experiment with new and allegedly apolitical governance systems, which nevertheless play a crucial political function.
Thiago Bottino do Amaral, Christiana Mariani da Silva Telles
EnglishThe purpose of this article is to study bitcoins in order to verify (i) whether it serves as an instrument for the practice of money laundering; (ii) how national and international regulators are positioning themselves on the issue; and (iii) propose regulatory alternatives. The paper is divided into five parts, which demonstrate how Bitcoin System works and discusses whether, in the context of money laundering crime, bitcoins differ from traditional assets such as electronic money, cash, artwork and precious metals. Aspects related to the pricing of bitcoins and their anonymity are also discussed. Regulation is analyzed through the examination of the measures adopted in Brazil, in the United States and in the framework of the Financial Action Task Force (Gafi/FATF). Finally, alternatives are presented with the purpose of contributing to the improvement of regulation. portuguesO presente artigo tem por objetivo estudar os bitcoins com o fim de verificar (i) se a citada criptomoeda pode servir como instrumento para a pratica do crime de lavagem dinheiro; (ii) como os reguladores nacionais e internacionais estao se posicionando sobre o tema; e (iii) propor alternativas regulatorias. O artigo e dividido em cinco partes nas quais se demonstra como funciona o Sistema Bitcoin e se discute se, no contexto do crime de lavagem de dinheiro, a citada criptomoeda se diferencia de ativos tradicionais como moedas eletronicas, dinheiro em especie, obras de arte e metais preciosos. Sao tambem discutidos aspectos relacionados com a fixacao do preco dos bitcoins e com o seu anonimato. A regulacao da materia e analisada por meio do exame das medidas adotadas no Brasil, nos Estados Unidos e no âmbito do Grupo de Acao Financeira Internacional/Financial Action Task Force (Gafi/FATF). Por ultimo, sao apresentadas alternativas com o proposito de contribuir para o aprimoramento da regulacao.
In the past year cryptocurrencies have gained a lot of attention because of the increase in price. This attention has increased the number of people trading and investing in different cryptocurrencies which has lead to an increased number of transactions flowing through the different networks. This has revealed scalability issues in some of them, especially in the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. Many people are working on solutions to this problem. One proposed solution replaces the blockchain with a DAG structure. In this report the scalability of Bitcoin’s protocol will be compared to the scalability of the protocol used in the newer cryptocurrency, Nano. The comparison is conducted in terms of throughput and latency. To perform this comparison, an experiment was conducted where tests were run with an increasing number of nodes and each test sent different number of transactions per second from every node. Our results show that Nano’s protocol scales better regarding both throughput and latency, and we argue that the reason for this is that the Bitcoin protocol uses a blockchain as a global data-structure unlike Nano that uses a block-lattice structure where each node has their own local blockchain.
Foteini Baldimtsi, Stefan Katzenbeisser, Volkmar Lotz, Edgar Weippl
This report documents the Dagstuhl seminar 18152 "Blockchains, Smart Contracts & Future Applications". While Bitcoin currently works well in practice, there are many open questions regarding the long-term perspective of blockchain technologies, for both public and private/permissioned blockchains. It is yet unclear how processes can be designed to work in predictive ways and how to embed security in the lifecycle of smart contract development and deployment. Furthermore, the distributed nature of the system needs to be considered when thinking about which groups or individuals can influence future developments. Similar to 'real-world' societies, blockchains are based on mutual recognition of conventions. Diverse academic disciplines as well as industry can and need to collaborate to advance research in blockchain and to fully understand how the technology might impact our future lives.
The growing literature on Bitcoin can be divided in two groups. One performs an economic analysis of Bitcoin focusing on its monetary characteristics. The other one looks takes a financial look at the price of Bitcoin. Interestingly, both of these groups have not given much more than passing comments to the problem whether or not Bitcoin has the right monetary rule. This paper argues that Bitcoin in particular, and cryptocurrencies in general, do not have a good monetary rule, and that this shortcoming seriously limits its prospect of becoming a well-established currency.
Apparently, a few people have become rich over Bitcoin. But there is no way to verify that claim and no one will really ever know if it is anything less than hype. But hype or no hype, the Bitcoin saga appears to have convinced thousands of people to “invest” or make purchases using this currency alternative through cyberspace. Financial technology (FinTech) engulfs modernity. FinTech is found in global financial hubs, institutions, markets and government agencies, FinTech is required to provide a wide range of services from mobile apps and ATM cash dispensers to stock markets and hedge funds in London, New York and Paris. Uncertainly is removed and reliability and predictability are enhanced when FinTech is adroitly applied. In Singapore the central bank also known as the Monetary Authority of Singapore encourages innovation and experimentation using FinTech under a controlled and restricted environment. The direct government regulation of FinTech in the financial industry proves that the political authorities are keen to ensure that the use of FinTech does not destabilize or weaken financial norms or encourage overt risk as seen in the Bitcoin saga.Bitcoin are digital coins that can be sent directly from one person to another without going through a central regulatory agency or state political apparatus. There is no need to go through a bank and hence it reduces the cost of bank fees or companies like PayPal to zero. The issues that one might have with PayPal or credit cards from banks evaporate. More importantly, almost every country has Bitcoin machines and accounts cannot be frozen. Anyone can open a bit without showing proof of identity or any other condition that a bank might impose. Therefore, Bitcoin is changing the financial landscape in a way that digital watches changes the price and cost as well as consumer tastes that were monopolized by Swiss watches [1]. The radicalization of the wristwatch market forced Swiss watchmakers to rethink, reduce and innovate in order to survive. How does Bitcoin work? Bitcoin uses miners to verify financial transactions without the controls imposed by a central authority or a private or commercial bank. Bitcoin uses open source FinTech so that in the end no one really owns or controls Bitcoin or written another way, everyone owns and controls Bitcoin. Bitcoin is therefore taking the world by storm because it provides an alternative to the currency system that is controlled by a few countries (that made use of political violence and force to ensure the survival of their political economies) [2]. There are also other advantages to the use of Bitcoin because unlike currencies which are subjected to inflation, devaluation, or even counterfeiting. Because Bitcoin is a crypto currency and hence virtual, it does not take on a physical form and cannot be physically carried around. Immigration and customs officials cannot inspect how much Bitcoin you have in your virtual wallet. This can be avoided if one uses Tor or other apps that are accessible through the Dark Web People should be aware of the serious drawbacks to Bitcoin. No one knows if Bitcoin has or is or will be used for terrorist financing [3]. Everyone knows how much a given account number has, the level of transactions and volume as well as the amounts paid and received. Bitcoin is not completely independent of the banking and currency system. Bitcoin is based on mutual trust and hence payments made cannot be refunded. You cannot get cash from Bitcoin “dispensing” machines but you can buy and sell Bitcoin as well as other products on such machines. You need to pay in cash for Bitcoin and that involves interfacing with a bank. So it isn’t that great an invention. In Singapore, the state police and regulatory authorities have a tight control over the people because of the small size of the population as well as the small size of the entire country. For example, in late 2017 fraudulent Bitcoin dispensing machines in Singapore were shut down. The price of Bitcoin was valued at US$0.39 in 2010 but is now worth US$12,000 as of January 2018 [4]. Bitcoin and Block Chain Block chain is the main innovation of Bitcoin. Block chain is a digital database of every transaction, address and wallet since Satoshi Nakamoto invented it. Satoshi Nakamoto is a fake name that is used to mask the authentic owner(s) of Bitcoin. The smallest amount of a Bitcoin is known as a Satoshi and is one-millionth of a Bitcoin. Bitcoin uses a simple node to propagate the blocks of transactions and automatically looks up relevant IP addresses to add to its database. Each block is connected together to form a ledger of all the transactions that occur at the precise date and time. Bitcoin miners are paid a small fee for notarizing a given transaction and for maintaining the Bitcoin ledgers. If anyone miner does not authenticate a transaction, then the transaction is not approved. Bitcoin is made up of mathematically complex algorithms and protocols. It should not be used without carefully studying its impact on. your money [5]. Bitcoin and its main innovative feature, Block Chain, is not merely a kind of crypto currency but may represent other common objects in the Internet of Things. A Bitcoin for example may represent or symbolize 10 million barrels of oil, the face used in a cosmetic product, 88GB of RAM or a basket of fruit. Bitcoin can be programmed, it is “programmable currency”, and hence can be controlled by the programmer. The representation can be verified through its history of its transactions that have been notarized by the Bitcoin miners. This is why many think that Bitcoin appears to provide transparency, reliability and efficiency by removing the middleman. An expert on financial matters Ravi Menon, who happens to be the chairman of the MAS, warned people of the hype over Bitcoin. In my own view, Bitcoin is indeed the flavor of the month and the hype will evaporate at some point. Also, Bitcoin miners cannot keep increasing the number of coins in circulation as it has been capped at a specific amount. This amount can be seen at the official website that claims to be, the official Bitcoin website. Bitcoin can be accessed from any part of the world that has access to such technology. Having explored the limits of the physical world and the limits of the human body to go beyond our planet, human beings are now looking deeper into virtual space and exploring and expanding those frontiers [6]. Conclusion: The Politics of Finance in Cryptocurrency There is a politics of finance in Cryptocurrency because of the imbalance of power across the Internet. There are many different Cryptocurrencies that compete for customers with different virtual financial goods and products. Some experts believe that it is a clever technological scam that makes use of fancy mathematical logic and algorithms to perhaps delude and mislead people into parting with their money. While there are many people who claim to have made unproblematic transactions, there does not appear to be any reliable evidence of people actually making physically convertible profits from transacting in Bitcoin. The fact that the governments and their agencies cannot or have not interfered in a big way to prevent Bitcoin or other currencies from setting up shop does not mean that there will be no political intervention in the future. The levels of uncertainty and risk in purchasing and selling Bitcoin appear to be about the same as one might have buying the state lottery or making a 4D bet on the Singapore governmentowned betting company named Singapore Pools. But there is also a politics of Bitcoin because it adds to the financial hype that has engulfed academics teaching FinTech in their undergraduate classrooms. FinTech is just a catchall phrase for technology used for financial products and services. It is not something really new or fancy. Bitcoin and Block Chain however are original innovations that are different from FinTech because the former is both new and innovative like a “strawberry” while the latter is just a category like “fruit”. The future of Bitcoin is limited and unknown and the bubble will eventually burst if not sooner than later. But what if it doesn’t burst and what if it stabilizes and provides a genuine alternative to immoral and ridiculous credit card interest rates, housing loans
The financial industry has witnessed the so-called “fintech revolution” in recent years. Due to the emergence of information technologies such as cloud computing, big data, blockchain and artificial intelligence, the landscape of the traditional financial industry has been largely transformed. The interplay between finance and technology has resulted in various new forms of financial services and products, like online P2P lending, digital-based banking, insurtech, bitcoin as well as the burgeoning mobile payment sector. Alipay, the mobile payment service arm of the Ant Financial Services Group (hereafter referred to as Ant Financial), is a perfect example to illustrate the ongoing fintech revolution and how it is disrupting the conventional retail banking model and payment industry. This article aims to introduce and analyse the world’s largest mobile payment system as well as some of the regulatory challenges it poses. It attempts to offer some guidance for legal practitioners in banking and finance, in particular, the multi-billion dollar fintech sector.<br/><br/>Key points:<br/>- Backed by the e-commerce giant Alibaba, Alipay has become the world’s largest mobile payment system. Together with Wechat Pay, they dominate China’s $5.7trn mobile payment sector. Alipay has a presence in over 70 countries including the UK, US, Japan, South Korea and Australia.<br/>- Due to the popularisation of mobile payment facilities, many Chinese cities have become a cashless (and cardless) society, as 40% of Chinese people carry almost no cash when going out.<br/>- Alipay relies on the Quick Response code (or QR code) technology, in contrast to the Near Field Communication (NFC) adopted by competitors like Apple Pay.<br/>- Mobile payments and fintech have provoked debate as to legal and regulatory issues such as the regulatory approval regime, data protection, fund security and fintech financing. Most recently, China has set up a unified clearing house for all mobile payment service providers to strengthen the industry supervision.