Blockchain Papers

Dejian Yu, Tianxing Pan

No abstract is available for this record.

Michael Polemis, Efthymios G. Tsionas

Abstract In recent years, there is a widespread belief among researchers and academicians that Bitcoin usage is imposing an additional burden on the environment inducing climate change. Although several studies have focussed on issues related to the energy consumption of the basic cryptocurrencies, an open question remains regarding the environmental depiction of Bitcoin. By resorting to Bayesian analysis and quantile cointegrated vector autoregression (CQVAR), this study seeks to disentangle the driving forces that shape the carbon footprint of Bitcoin. The sample used in the empirical analysis consists of a daily panel dataset covering 50 countries over the period 2016–2018. The empirical findings corroborate a causal effect between the use of Bitcoin and its underlying carbon dioxide emissions generated by the increasing energy load. The CQVAR is associated with positive marginal posterior means for most of the covariates of the model across all the estimated quantiles. In contrast, there is a negative and statistically significant relationship between Bitcoin miner's revenue and carbon emissions, uncovering a multimodal distribution pattern of the marginal posterior densities which is stronger at higher than in lower quantiles. This finding suggests that the lower (higher) miner's Bitcoin revenues, the more abrupt (gradual) the effect on environmental degradation. Therefore, a sustainable energy strategy focussing on the penetration of renewable energy sources along with the use of energy‐efficient mining hardware will alleviate the carbon footprint of Bitcoin.

Dejian Yu, Tianxing Pan

In the past few years, blockchain technology has attracted more and more attention, and it has been widely used in various fields. But there is still a lack of relevant research reports on the innovation path identification of blockchain technology from a patent perspective. By downloading a total of 14,560 patents from Derwent Innovations Index and conducting main path analysis, this paper illuminates the overall picture of the development of blockchain for experts in this domain from a technology perspective. As an objective and quantitative network-based method, main path analysis identifies important patent, structural backbone and development trajectories in the blockchain development. This provides a reference for the scientific communities to understand the current state of blockchain technology, thereby illuminating future research.

Haoyang Tan, Qiang Zhang

In order to realize the application research of blockchain technology in the field of green credit investigation, the current paper adopts the method of a blockchain hierarchical model to study the rural green credit. With regard to the realm of rural green credit investigation, this paper sorts out the characteristics of credit data in China’s countryside by countryside credit investigation and determines the major problems and in rural green credit investigation of financial inclusion. Subsequently, the authors put forward a blockchain hierarchical model, which not only has reinforced the advantages in original blockchain dedicated to agriculture, rural areas and rural residents, such as traceability and immutability, but also has transformed the decentralization into disintermediation and changed the single-layered P2P network into a multilayered structure based on China’s rural financial environment. Finally, the authors collect and extract the proper credit investigation data on the rural internet to assess the application value of the model by investigating its practical applicability in reality and problems that may occur during the application of the model. Results show that private credit information has an important impact on the prediction accuracy, and the blockchain hierarchical model is helpful to ensure the reliability and security of rural green credit data.

Νikolaos Kyriazis

This paper conducts a review on theoretical and empirical findings on the increasingly popular measure of trade policy uncertainty (TPU) in economics and finance. Moreover, an empirical investigation takes place in order to find the impact that TPU exerts on Bitcoin market values by employing a spectrum of Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) specifications. Existing studies support that trade policy uncertainty leads to lower-quality and more expensive products and weak participation in international trade. Moreover, it contributes to lower democratic sentiment, hesitant internal migration and lesser socio-economic mobility and higher fluctuations in profitable assets. Moreover, our econometric findings reveal that TPU positively affects Bitcoin prices while crude oil values negatively influence this major cryptocurrency. Thereby, higher trade policy uncertainty is found to increase demand and favorite investments into risky assets in order to ameliorate the risk-return trade-off in investors’ portfolios. This study provides a compass for investing during turmoil due to trade wars and tariffs.

Rubaiyat Ahsan Bhuiyan, Afzol Husain, Ch. Zhang

No abstract is available for this record.

Juan Liu, Jun Lv, Hasan Dınçer, Serhat Yüksel · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Yudi Fernando, Nor Hazwani Mohd Rozuar, Fineke Mergeresa

No abstract is available for this record.

R. Sivarethinamohan, S. Sujatha

No abstract is available for this record.

Azza Béjaoui, Nidhal Mgadmi, Wajdi Moussa

No abstract is available for this record.

Jing Zhang, Qizhi He

This paper examines the spillover effect between bitcoin, gold, crude oil, and major stock markets by using the MSV model with dynamic correlation and Granger causality. The empirical results of the DC‐GC‐MSV model are logically correct and convergent. The DIC test result has proved that the DC‐GC‐MSV model is better and more accurate. Bitcoin has no significant Granger causality spillover effect than other assets. As a safe haven product for stock assets, gold price has one‐way spillover effect from stock market volatility. Moreover, crude oil has the highest correlation with the stock market. In the recent COVID‐19 epidemic and the sluggish economic environment, investors need to consider a balanced asset allocation among low‐correlation assets, medium‐correlation assets, and high‐correlation assets to reduce risks.

Lu Yang, Haifeng Xu

The economic risk of the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin network remains unexplored. We develop the real-time artificial price for the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin network and thereby extend the climate value at risk (VaR) into the climate expected shortfall (ES) by employing both parametric and semiparametric models. On the basis of the best-fitted climate VaR and ES estimations, we find that the 95th percentiles (upper bound) of the climate VaR and ES are 8.04 and 10.37 billion euros, respectively, and the 99th percentiles (upper bound) of climate VaR and ES are 11.33 and 14.15 billion euros, respectively. Moreover, given the climate VaR and ES estimations on the basis of similar carbon footprint, the negative environmental externality of the Bitcoin network based on the current carbon price is not sufficient to reflect the environmental cost. Overall, our research provides new insight into the linkage between the Bitcoin network and the environment, which will provide meaningful information for both investors and policymakers.

Ahmed H. Elsayed, Ricardo M. Sousa

Using daily data over the period August 5, 2013 – September 27, 2019, this study investigates the dynamic spillovers between international monetary policies across four major economies (i.e. Eurozone, Japan, UK and US) and three key cryptocurrencies (i.e. Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ripple). In doing so, we apply a Time-Varying Parameter Vector Auto-Regression (TVP-VAR) model, a dynamic connectedness approach and network analysis. The empirical results indicate that cryptocurrency returns and monetary policy spillovers were particularly large when shadow policy rates became negative, moderated during the Fed's ‘tapering process’, and sharpened again more recently as cryptocurrency buoyancy returned. Gross directional spillovers suggest that shadow policy rates have more ‘to give than to receive’, while those from and to cryptocurrency returns are naturally volatile. There is also strong interconnectedness between monetary policy in either the US or the Eurozone and the UK, and between Bitcoin and Litecoin. However, the spillovers across monetary policy and cryptocurrencies tend to be muted. Finally, spillovers were only slightly larger during the Fed's ‘unconventional’ policy compared to the ‘standard’ era, but their composition qualitatively changed over time.

Ahmed H. Elsayed, Giray Gözgör, Larisa Yarovaya

This paper examines the dynamic connectedness of return- and volatility spillovers among cryptocurrency index (CRIX), Gold, and uncertainty measures. Apart from traditional uncertainty measures, we also consider two novel uncertainty measures: Cryptocurrency Policy Uncertainty and Cryptocurrency Price Uncertainty indices. We observe that cryptocurrency policy uncertainty is the main transmitter of the return spillovers to other variables. In addition, Gold is a net receiver of both the return and the volatility spillovers. These results are valid under bearish, bullish, and normal market conditions. Our findings contribute to the literature considering the spillover effect between cryptocurrencies and other assets and their determinants.

Boru Ren, Brian M. Lucey

Is clean energy a safe haven for cryptocurrencies, or vice versa? In this paper, we investigate the hedge and safe haven property of a wide range of clean energy indices against two distinct types of cryptocurrencies based on their energy consumption levels, termed “dirty” and “clean”. Statistical evidence shows that clean energy is not a direct hedge for either of types. However, it serves as at least a weak safe haven for both in extreme bearish markets. Moreover, clean energy is more likely to be a safe haven for dirty cryptocurrencies than clean cryptocurrencies during increased uncertainty. We further study the spillover patterns among clean energy, cryptocurrency, stock, and gold markets. Weak connectedness is found between clean energy and cryptocurrencies which implies the potential use of clean energy as a hedge and diversification tool for cryptocurrencies in the future.

Yizhi Wang, Brian M. Lucey, Samuel A. Vigne, Larisa Yarovaya

Purpose (1) A concern often expressed in relation to cryptocurrencies is the environmental impact associated with increasing energy consumption and mining pollution. Controversy remains regarding how environmental attention and public concerns adversely affect cryptocurrency prices. Therefore, the paper aims to introduce the index of cryptocurrency environmental attention (ICEA), which aims to capture the relative extent of media discussions surrounding the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies. (2) The impacts of cryptocurrency environmental attention on long-term macro-financial markets and economic development remain part of undeveloped research fields. Based on these factors, the paper will further examine the effects of the ICEA on financial markets or economic developments. Design/methodology/approach (1) The paper introduces a new index to capture cryptocurrency environmental attention in terms of the cryptocurrency response to major related events through gathering a large amount of news stories around cryptocurrency environmental concerns – i.e. >778.2 million news items from the LexisNexis News & Business database, which can be considered as Big Data – and analysing that rich dataset using variety of quantitative techniques. (2) The vector error correction model (VECM) and structural VECM (SVECM) [impulse response function (IRF), forecast error variance decomposition (FEVD) and historical decomposition (HD)] are useful for characterising the dynamic relationships between ICEA and aggregate economic activities. Findings (1) The paper has developed a new measure of attention to sustainability concerns of cryptocurrency markets' growth, ICEA. (2) ICEA has a significantly positive relationship with the UCRY indices, volatility index (VIX), Brent crude oil (BCO) and Bitcoin. (3) ICEA has a significantly negative relationship with the global economic policy uncertainty (GlobalEPU) and global temperature uncertainty (GTU). Moreover, ICEA has a significantly positive relationship with the industrial production (IP) in the short term, whilst having a significantly negative relationship in the long term. (4) The HD of the ICEA displays higher linkages between environmental attention, Bitcoin and UCRY indices around key events that significantly change the prices of digital assets. Research limitations/implications The ICEA is significant in the analysis of whether cryptocurrency markets are sustainable regarding energy consumption requirements and negative contributions to climate change. Understanding of the broader impacts of cryptocurrency environmental concerns on cryptocurrency market volatility, uncertainty and environmental sustainability should be considered and developed. Moreover, the paper aims to point out future research and policy legislation directions. Notably, the paper poses the question of how cryptocurrency can be made more sustainable and environmentally friendly and how governments' cryptocurrency policies can address the cryptocurrency markets. Practical implications (1) The paper develops a cryptocurrency environmental attention index based on news coverage that captures the extent to which environmental sustainability concerns are discussed in conjunction with cryptocurrencies. (2) The paper empirically investigates the impacts of cryptocurrency environmental attention on other financial or economic variables [cryptocurrency uncertainty (UCRY) indices, Bitcoin, VIX, GlobalEPU, BCO, GTU index and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development IP index]. (3) The paper provides insights into making the most effective use of online databases in the development of new indices for financial research. Social implications Whilst blockchain technology has a number of useful implications and has great potential to transform several industries, issues of high-energy consumption and CO2 pollution regarding cryptocurrency have become some of the main areas of criticism, raising questions about the sustainability of cryptocurrencies. These results are essential for both policy-makers and for academics, since the results highlight an urgent need for research addressing the key issues, such as the growth of carbon produced in the creation of this new digital currency. The results also are important for investors concerned with the ethical implications and environmental impacts of their investment choices. Originality/value (1) The paper provides an efficient new proxy for cryptocurrency and robust empirical evidence for future research concerning the impact of environmental issues on cryptocurrency markets. (2) The study successfully links cryptocurrency environmental attention to the financial markets, economic developments and other volatility and uncertainty measures, which has certain novel implications for the cryptocurrency literature. (3) The empirical findings of the paper offer useful and up-to-date insights for investors, guiding policy-makers, regulators and media, enabling the ICEA to evolve into a barometer in the cryptocurrency era and play a role in, for example, environmental policy development and investment portfolio optimisation.

Ahmed H. Elsayed, Giray Gözgör, Chi Keung Marco Lau

This paper examines return and volatility connectedness between Bitcoin, traditional financial assets (Crude Oil, Gold, Stocks, Bonds, and the United States Dollar-USD), and major global uncertainty measures (the Economic Policy Uncertainty-EPU, the Twitter-based Economic Uncertainty-TEU, and the Volatility Index-VIX) from April 29, 2013, to June 30, 2020. To this end, the Time-Varying Parameter Vector Autoregression (TVP-VAR) model, dynamic connectedness approaches, and network analyses are used. The results indicate that total spillover indices reached unprecedented levels during COVID-19 and have remained high since then. The evidence also confirms the high return and volatility spillovers across markets during the COVID-19 era. Regarding the return spillovers, Gold is the centre of the system and demonstrates the safe heaven properties. Bitcoin is a net transmitter of volatility spillovers to other markets, particularly during the COVID-19 period. Furthermore, the causality-in-variance Lagrange Multiplier (LM) and the Fourier LM tests' results confirm a unidirectional volatility transmission from Bitcoin to Gold, Stocks, Bonds, the VIX and Crude Oil. Interestingly the EPU is the only global factor that causes higher volatility in Bitcoin. Several potential implications of the results are also discussed.

Liana Badea, Mariana Claudia Mungiu-Pupăzan

The controversies surrounding Bitcoin, one of the most frequently used and advertised cryptocurrency, are focused on identifying its qualities, the advantages and disadvantages of using it and, last but not least, its ability to survive over time and become a viable alternative to the traditional currency, taking into account the effects on the environment of the technology used to extract and trade it. Based on such considerations, this article aims to provide an overview of this cryptocurrency, from the perspective of conducting a systematic review of the literature dedicated to the economic and environmental impact of Bitcoin. Using peer-reviewed articles collected from academic databases, we aimed at synthesizing and critically evaluating the points of view in the scientific literature regarding the doctrinal source of the emergence of Bitcoin, the identity of this cryptocurrency from an economic point of view, following its implications on the economic and social environment. Subsequently, this research offers the opportunity of evaluating the level of knowledge considering the impact of Bitcoin mining process on the environment from the perspective of the energy consumption and CO2emissions, in order to finally analyze Bitcoin regulation and identify possible solutions to reduce the negative impact on the environment and beyond. The findings suggest that, despite high energy consumption and adverse environmental impact, Bitcoin continues to be an instrument used in the economic environment for a variety of purposes. Moreover, the trend of regulating it in various countries shows that the use of Bitcoin is beginning to gain some legitimacy, despite criticism against this cryptocurrency.

Stephanos Papadamou, Νikolaos Kyriazis, Panayiotis Tzeremes

No abstract is available for this record.

Maurice Omane‐Adjepong, Paul Alagidede

No abstract is available for this record.

Md. Nur Alam Siddik, Sajal Kabiraj, Md. Emran Hosen, Md. Firoze Miah

Blockchain technology, a distributed and decentralized ledger, has gained significant prominence in the sphere of information technology for introducing new innovations in international trade. It ensures safety and can reduce trade costs by removing the middleman from the trade process. Studies examining the effects of blockchain on international trade are scarce. This research aims to fill this research gap. By using time series world data for the period 2009–2018, this study empirically examines the link between blockchain and international trade. It uses a cointegration test and a generalized linear model (GLM) test to analyse the data. The robust findings of this research reveal that blockchain has positive effects on international trade. The findings further displays that blockchain accelerates and facilitates international trade and that there exists a unidirectional causality from blockchain to international trade. The research findings are of great significance for policymakers in developing policies to foster the use of blockchain applications as a facilitator of international trade.

Md. Jamal Hossain, Mohd Tahir Ismail, Sadia Akter, Mohammad Raquibul Hossain

Gold is the most attractive precious metal and thus for the investor's first choice of an alternative investment. After the establishment of Bitcoin becomes one of the alternative choices of investment. Both Gold and Bitcoin have attractive features of risk management and portfolio risk. In this paper, we compared Gold and Bitcoin performances as hedge or diversifiers and tried to isolate the best one. For comparison purposes, we used the same methodology, which is the asymmetric GARCH model considering three different markets, such as the energy market, currency market, and stock market. We found Gold serves as a diversifier against crude oil WTI and hedge against S&P500, which is short-run. Bitcoin only offers diversifier benefits against crude oil WTI. For portfolio analysis, Gold is better than Bitcoin; therefore, it must be the first choice for investors.

Raja Nabeel‐Ud‐Din Jalal, Massimo SARGIACOMO, Najam Us Sahar

The study investigates the role of commodity prices and tax purpose recognition on bitcoin prices. Since the introduction of bitcoin in 2008, emphasis has focused on economists, policy-makers and analysts drastically increasing bitcoin's accessibility and commodity values (Dumitrescu & Firică, 2014). This study employs GARCH and EGARCH from ARCH/GARCH family on daily nature data. We measure the volatile behavior of bitcoin by employing auto-regressive conditional heteroscedasticity model with the aim to explore the relationship between major commodities and bitcoin volatility. We focus on major commodities like gold, silver, platinum, and crude oil to be regressed with bitcoin. The daily prices of commodities were retrieved from www.investing.com and bitcoin prices from www.coindesk.com for the period from 29April 2013 to 16 October 2018. Results confirmed the currency's long-term volatile behavior, which is due to its composition and market dynamics, whereas the existence of asymmetric information effect is not confirmed. Tax recognition by other countries may in future help in controlling the volatility as bitcoin is not a country-specific security. But, only silver impacts on volatility in comparison to oil prices and platinum, which is due to its similar features with gold. Eventually, bitcoin can be used for risk diversification and money making.

Marija Jović, Edvard Tijan, Dražen Žgaljić, Saša Aksentijević

In this paper, the authors perform a comprehensive literature review of the positive impacts of blockchain-based information exchange in the maritime transport sector, as well as the challenges and barriers for successful blockchain-based information exchange, considering all three aspects of the sustainability (economic, environmental, and social). The papers from relevant databases (Web of Science and Scopus) and selected studies have been used. The literature coverage was expanded by using backward snowball sampling. In total, 20 positive impacts and 20 challenges/barriers were singled out. Despite the identified barriers and challenges (such as the slow acceptance of blockchain technology in the maritime transport sector or the high implementation cost), blockchain technology possesses a definite potential to improve the information exchange between all involved stakeholders (for example, by improving the visibility across transport routes and by reducing the paper-based processes), positively affecting all three aspects of sustainability. The authors contribute to the existing research of the economic aspect of maritime transport sustainability by blockchain-based information exchange by expanding it and by researching the environmental and social aspects of sustainability.