Blockchain Papers

jj oerlemans, Bart Custers, Ronald Pool, R. Cornelisse

No abstract is available for this record.

Schöps (Thiel), Isabel, Schöps (Thiel), Isabel, Schöps geb. Thiel, Isabel

No abstract is available for this record.

Jim Mignano

Bitcoin is the first digital medium to allow global, "purely peer-to-peer" exchange. At the height of the Great Recession, Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator introduced the electronic cash to sidestep political and economic institutions. Today, it is praised as an opportunity for the unbanked, a liberating force, and a pioneering technology. It is also infamously associated with volatility, illicit activities, and profligate energy consumption. Bitcoin has also flown under the radar of political science, whereas computer scientists, economists, and legal scholars have written extensively about it. To address the gap in the literature, I describe Bitcoin as an actor in global affairs, explain how Bitcoin and blockchain technology work, and discuss why Bitcoin is relevant to political science as the archetypal case of blockchain technology. I argue that Bitcoin is a form of contentious politics uniquely suited to the twenty-first century. Examining Bitcoin as a form of contentious politics sheds light on how a purportedly borderless technology has actually fared in subverting state authority: not entirely well. Nonetheless, Bitcoin has succeeded in at least two respects: it is an unprecedented form of untraceable electronic cash that coordinates unrivaled levels of computing resources from voluntary contributors and it has become a resilient, global social movement. As an archetype of blockchain technology, Bitcoin inspires research of blockchain's capacity to facilitate collective action, uses in international cooperation and competition, and prospects for human development. The thesis concludes with a set of implications for blockchain research and policy.

K. W. Rumpf, Ruud Albers, F. Scheler

No abstract is available for this record.

Jiarun Hu, Qian Luo, Jiaen Zhang

Security breaches of the cryptocurrency exchanges usually cause the price fluctuation in the market. Approximately one hundred cryptocurrency thefts, including hacks and scams, has occurred since 2012 to 2018, half of which are hacks of Bitcoins. Based on the thirty Bitcoin hacks, this study portrays the general price pattern during the hack. And it illustrates the link between the size of the hack and the subsequent price change of Bitcoin. The tests reveal that the larger the volume of the hack, the stronger the price drop. However, a similar obvious relationship does not exist for the recovery of the price. The study might be the first piece of research focus on the hacks and the price pattern in a short time period.

Vasilis Kostakis, Chris Giotitsas

The still raging financial crisis of 2007–2008 has enabled the emergence of several alternative practices concerning the production, circulation, and use of money. This essay explores the political economy of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Specifically, we examine the context in which this digital currency is emerging as well as its nature, dynamics, advantages, and disadvantages. We conclude that Bitcoin, a truly interesting experiment, exemplifies “distributed capitalism” and should be mostly seen as a technological innovation. Rather than providing pragmatic answers and solutions to the current views on the financial crisis, Bitcoin provides some useful and timely questions about the principles and bases of the dominant political economy. A ECONOMIA POLÍTICA DO BITCOINResumoO aquecimento da crise financeira de 2007-2008 permitiu o surgimento de várias práticas alternativas em matéria de produção, circulação e uso do dinheiro. Este ensaio explora a economia política do ecossistema Bitcoin. Especificamente, vamos examinar o contexto em que essa moeda digital está emergindo, bem como a sua natureza, dinâmica, vantagens e desvantagens. Concluímos que Bitcoin, uma experiência verdadeiramente interessante, exemplifica "capitalismo distribuído" e deve ser visto principalmente como uma inovação tecnológica. Em vez de fornecer respostas e soluções pragmáticas para os pontos de vista atuais sobre a crise financeira, Bitcoin fornece algumas perguntas úteis e oportunas sobre os princípios e as bases da economia política dominante.