Pedro Moreno-Sánchez, Muhammad Bilal Zafar, Aniket Kate
Abstract The decentralized I owe you (IOU) transaction network Ripple is gaining prominence as a fast, low-cost and efficient method for performing same and cross-currency payments. Ripple keeps track of IOU credit its users have granted to their business partners or friends, and settles transactions between two connected Ripple wallets by appropriately changing credit values on the connecting paths. Similar to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, while the ownership of the wallets is implicitly pseudonymous in Ripple, IOU credit links and transaction flows between wallets are publicly available in an online ledger. In this paper, we present the first thorough study that analyzes this globally visible log and characterizes the privacy issues with the current Ripple network. In particular, we define two novel heuristics and perform heuristic clustering to group wallets based on observations on the Ripple network graph. We then propose reidentification mechanisms to deanonymize the operators of those clusters and show how to reconstruct the financial activities of deanonymized Ripple wallets. Our analysis motivates the need for better privacy-preserving payment mechanisms for Ripple and characterizes the privacy challenges faced by the emerging credit networks.
The past five years have seen the rise of the Bitcoin digital currency and, as a result, increased discussion of the idea of a digital currency. This paper seeks to address Bitcoin in several contexts, viewing it as representative of the broader state of the digital currency debate. Through an analysis of several of the most important factors shaping Bitcoin’s existence, this essay develops and defends the assertion that Bitcoin will not achieve widespread adoption in the United States, and in all likelihood will fail to do so throughout the rest of the world as well. In light of this hypothesized downfall, this paper discusses the considerably more viable potential for Bitcoin (and its underlying blockchain technology) to drive innovation in the financial sector and other industries.
Problem Explaining: Nowadays the financial system has been affected dramatically by the development in the era of information and communication technology. One of these phenomena, is Crypto Currency Bitcoin is the most famous among them. In the reviews of Crypto Currency and Bitcoin, we can pay special attention to the public opinion, because it can have a significant impact on the future of money. Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify the preferences of people using Bitcoin as a novel product introduced by human into the financial system. For this purpose, the important factors in choosing Bitcoin have been checked. In terms of practical purpose and collecting descriptive information, this research is survey - correlation. Design/methodology/approach: In this study the important factors in the selection of Bitcoin through the investigation of the opinions of experts and consumers, offering model by patterning the technology acceptance and innovation publication models, interviewing with experts using a questionnaire and the analysis of the model through PLS partial least square method using Version 2 SMARTPLS software. Findings: The results show that the variables of infrastructure, structural, individualistic and cultural factors through perceived value have a significant and positive impact on the intention of using people. Meanwhile cultural factor has had the largest share, but innovative, political and environmental factors haven’t had any significant effect. The results of this research indicate the effective factors in the users’ tendency to use Bitcoin. Originality/value: The main question in this research is that: Is there any significant relationship between the values perceived by the consumer from Bitcoin and the intention of using it?
Dominic Wörner, Thomas von Bomhard, Yan-Peter Schreier, Dominik Bilgeri
The Bitcoin ecosystem has grown tremendously in recent years.While the main sectors of growth and venture capital funding have been infrastructure for the Bitcoin ecosystem itself as well as financial services, there is also a more recent evolution in sectors beyond financial services.We classify the venture-capital backed start up ecosystem accordingly and present its evolution over time.Thereby, we identify interesting sectors, i.e. digital assets, marketplaces, and notary services.Each sector is further subdivided, and six representative venture-backed start-up companies are presented in comprehensive case studies.We extract the core innovations and Bitcoin features on which these are based.Finally, we critically discuss their disruptive potential.
The consensus in the finance sector seems to be that the shared ledger technology behind Bitcoin, the ‘blockchain’, will disrupt the sector,1 although many commentators are not at all clear how (or, indeed, why). The blockchain is, however, only one kind of shared ledger and the Bitcoin blockchain works in a very specific way. This may not be the best way to organise shared ledgers for disruptive innovation in financial services. So what is? And why would financial services organisations want to exploit shared ledger technology? This paper sets out a simple shared ledger taxonomy and layered architecture designed to facilitate communication between technologists, businesses and regulators in the financial services world, and explains why the various forms of shared ledgers might be attractive to financial services organisations, borrowing the phrase ‘ambient accountability’ from architecture to suggest a new way to organise a financial sector.
This paper provides insights into practical issues in the deployment of public and private distributed ledger technologies in banking and payment systems and conceptualises a framework for the evaluation of existing solutions and the design of new solutions in terms of practical utility and feasibility. The research approach entails the analytical examination of open questions solved by the decentralised concept of Bitcoin as well as explicit and implicit assumptions made by its underlying blockchain technology. The paper then proceeds to shed light on limitations arising from these assumptions when considering the practical implementation of industry-strength applications in the payments industry as well as in banking in general. Based on this discussion and decades of practical experience in processing billions of transactions in compliance with regulatory and legislative requirements, we identify seven classes of open issues: (1) efficiency concerning production costs and scalability; (2) speed of transaction confirmation; (3) finality or compliance to principles of accounting; (4) link to the ‘real’ world exemplified by settlement in central bank money; (5) resilience and governance model; (6) roll-out in a network industry; and (7) the issue of ‘smart contracts’. The paper thus contributes to theory and practice by providing a framework for the evaluation of existing technologies and for the design of new distributed ledger technologies in terms of its practical utility and feasibility.
The American corporate graveyard is littered with prior darlings of Wall Street and pillars of the New York Stock Exchange, such as Kodak and Polaroid (both photography pioneers). More recently, other businesses and entire industries that were once household names have similarly experienced plummeting demand: pay telephone manufacturers; travel agencies; wrist watch manufacturers; print news media such as newspapers and magazines; and many traditional brick and mortar retailers (replaced by Amazon). The common characteristic is that all of these businesses have become completely or substantially obsolete due to digitized technology.Now, the equivalent disruptive technological revolution in financial services is underway. During recent years, rapid technological advances have resulted in a sea change to the way most of the world conducts and regulates financial services. While the implications are vast and the ultimate ramifications are largely unknown at this time, this article: examines the brief but important history of virtual currencies in general; considers the impact of Bitcoin in particular; and explores the promise for widespread application of Bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technological platform to the financial services industry.This brief article proceeds in five parts, as follows. First, there is a discussion of disruptive changes taking place in financial services. Second, the article briefly explores virtual currencies and the genesis of Bitcoin. Third, there is an explanation of blockchain technology - what it is and why it is important. Fourth, the article discusses recent developments that provide a validation of blockchain application to financial services markets. Finally, there is a brief review of regulatory challenges to the adoption of this new technology. A purpose of this article is to enhance the reader’s understanding of the promises and challenges faced by financial service providers due to these rapid advances in technology.
Bitcoin is the latest addition to the online payment transaction systems. It is a digital currency also known as cryptocurrency. Bitcoin system is the first transaction payment system that deviated from the conventional approach of processing and clearing transactions though the trusted third parties and allowed direct transactions between parties. Thus making the whole system decentralized. It is a pure peer to peer network system which facilitates every party on the network to keep track of all the transactions that are taking place on the network. It uses Cryptography for its implementation and to deal with the internet security threats. This papers aims to explore the need of the decentralized system, technology used for its implementation and also the key features of bitcoin system that makes it so unique as compared to the conventional currency. It also throws the light on the benefits of bitcoin system and its shortcomings.
Blockchain is essentially a set of protocols previously known as a “distributed ledger” system. An Economist article published in March 2016, describes it well: <em>Blockchain is… a database that is maintained not by a single actor, such as a bank, but collaboratively by a number of participants. Their respective computers regularly agree on how to update the database using a “consensus mechanism”, after which the modifications they have settled on are rendered unchangeable with the help of complex cryptography. Once information has been immortalised in this way, it can be used as proof of ownership.</em> The reason why this has become such a hot topic is that technologists and business people see, in these basic characteristics, immense potential for using blockchain beyond the financial services sector where it was conceived, in many different areas of the economy from energy to health, from transport to music and even as a form of digital democracy in society as a whole. The key characteristics that are attracting so much attention are the efficiencies to be derived from a network that is distributed and not centralised, combined with the permanence of the record or ledger at its heart that is cryptographically secured. This attracts those that see profound ideological implications in something that is an alternative to systems that are controlled from a single central point. For the music industry, some of these characterstics might mean that creators could, in theory, radically reduce the cost of unit transactions, thus potentially enabling content licensing for very small sums to be viable. Equally, the transparent record keeping inherent in the system has the potential to lead incrementally to the creation of a Global Repertoire Database (GRD), a kind of holy grail of the digital music industry. Some other functions that potentially could be performed on blockchain networks could relate to the establishment, validation and tracking of identities, so that individuals could be uniquely identified (e.g., as the performer on a recording). Equally good behaviour in, for example, transactions or in rights distribution speediness could contribute to developing an online reputation, which in turn could effect the sorts of terms that are made available for a particular individual or business. This paper takes a look at how bitcoin and blockchain captured the public imagination, some of the technology issues at the heart of blockchain and a key dispute that is taking the bitcoin community in different directions and has a bearing on any possible music applications. The paper explores the initially superficial ways in which blockchain represented an attractive technology and then captures some of the voices that have been generating so much deeper interest in the subject in relation to music. The paper concludes with an assessment of opportunities and obstacles.
Blockchain technology is disrupting society by enabling new kinds of disintermediated digital platforms. Furthermore, it is also providing efficiency gains on top of old existing structures by removing the need for actively intermediated data-synchronization and concurrency control. Due to this dual effect, blockchain technology has the potential to impact all sectors and layers of society, in a multitude of combined ways. While there is a lot of hype around the concept of blockchains, the phenomenon itself has remained ambiguous and misconceptions have emerged about the capabilities and the potential of blockchain technology. Drawing from ETLA’s participation in blockchain research in 2014–2016, this paper aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding on blockchain technology, its true possibilities, and its potential larger societal implications. It offers a holistic view of the key concepts and the basic principles, and the tools and the framework to understand the ongoing discussion, to critically evaluate different viewpoints, and to delve deeper in a constructed manner
Ryan Michael Burke, Brett Reardon, Stephen Happel, William J. Boyes
Evolved by way of an anonymous programmer, Bitcoin is a global cryptocurrency and a machine for virtual currency.The transactions take location immediately among the users minus any intermediaries.Bitcoin is an awesome mode of exchange whilst in comparison to traditional banks.Those transactions are verified through network nodes and recorded in a public dispensed ledger called blockchain.The price of bitcoins are volatile i.e. they could unpredictably boom or lower over a quick time period.They are taken into consideration excessivedanger assets whose transactions can simplest be refunded and not reversed.The bitcoin came into life in January 2009, with Satoshi Nakamoto mined the primary block of bitcoins ever.Given that then, some of supporters engaged in transactions and acquired bitcoins.International locations round the world started out accepting bitcoin as a legitimate mode of currency like the United States.However, some countries like Djibouti haven't legalized yet the usage of this foreign money due to some of reasons.The targets of this paper are to understand the awareness about the existence of bitcoins, to evaluate the perception of bitcoin as the future currency and to research the possibility of legalization of bitcoins in Djibouti.
Purpose Given its innovative characteristics and increasing popularity, the Bitcoin, and other virtual currencies, are expected to become mainstream, leading to the need for a generally accepted accounting treatment. Currently, however, there are no accounting standards which offer guidance on the recognition and measurement of these virtual currencies. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to determine a conceptual approach for accounting for the Bitcoin, grounded in the theories of neoliberalism and stewardship. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts an interpretive mixed-method approach. The relevant literature is analysed to identify key characteristics of the Bitcoin. These, as well as the elements of accounting policies inspired by neoliberalism and stewardship, form row and column headings in a correspondence matrix completed by 40 financial reporting experts. The correlations between rows and columns (developed using principal component analysis) are used to identify possible recognition and measurement requirements for the Bitcoin. Semi-structured interviews are used to complement the correspondence analysis. Findings The correspondence analysis and interviews reveal an emphasis on cost and fair value proposed by models grounded in stewardship and neoliberalism, respectively. The primary factor at work is the need to account for the underlying economics of the unit of account, something which is informed heavily by an organisation’s business model. Cost and fair value may be conceptual opposites, but in the eyes of respondents, these need to be used to achieve the single goal of communicating the economic rationale for holding the Bitcoin. Research limitations/implications The study is based on a purposefully selected sample of experts and lacks the exploratory potential of purely qualitative research. Nevertheless, it makes novel use of a correspondence analysis to provide an initial frame of reference for developing an accounting policy for unusual transactions and balances. Originality/value The paper is the first to provide a normative perspective on the accounting for this poorly understood “currency”. It also adds to the limited body of interpretive accounting research which dispenses with traditional finance paradigms and positivist models to provide practical recommendations. Finally, the paper offers an innovative approach, using a correspondence analysis and detailed interviews, for developing an accounting policy for transactions not specifically within the scope of existing accounting standards.
Current regulation of decentralized ledger technology leaves industry actors in confusion, facing high risk, and confronting significant disincentives to innovate. This Article argues that an endogenous regulatory approach offers an avenue for alleviating these obstacles while still providing sufficient tools for government oversight. In particular, this Article proposes regulation that is endogenous at two levels: first, in that it is created through an iterative, cooperative process involving both regulators and industry actors, and second, that it is implemented as regulation-through-code, that is, regulation written into the code itself. In so doing, this Article also investigates whether successful implementation of such an approach could disrupt the dichotomous choice between ex ante and ex post regulation in the financial and other spheres. This Article first examines the current regulatory landscape facing decentralized ledger technologies, including payments applications such as bitcoin. This Article then discusses ways in which these regulatory approaches have failed to keep pace with the technology and, as a result, are impeding innovation in a variety of sectors. This Article next outlines criteria for improving the regulatory landscape applicable to decentralized ledger technologies, evaluating alternative models of regulation in light of the criteria, and concluding that most such proposals continue to leave a regulatory lacunae. Drawing on theories of endogenous economic regulation, endogenous development, comparative law’s functional method and financial regulation, this Article attempts to fill the gap by proposing that decentralized technologies, including decentralized payment systems such as bitcoin, are robust enough to support a theory of endogenous, technology-assisted regulation.
Alexia Maddox, Supriya Singh, Heather A. Horst, Greg Adamson
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are a recent socio-technical innovation that seeks to disrupt the existing monetary system. Through mundane uses of this new digital cash, they provide a social critique of the centralized infrastructures of the banking industry. This paper outlines an ethnographic research agenda for this new digital frontier of social practice and exchange and the human affordances of engaging with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Firstly we argue that the use of Bitcoin can be seen as acts of social resistance and a form of social mobility that harnesses the emergent, serendipitous and dynamic properties of digital community. We then outline the disruptive nature of borderless, affordable and instantaneous international transfers within social practice. Finally, we identify the possible permutations of trust that may be found in the technical affordances of Bitcoin and how these relate to user (pseudo)anonymity, cybertheft, cyberfraud, and consumer protection. Bringing together these three key areas we highlight the importance of understanding the ordinary (rather than extra-ordinary) uses of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. We contend that focusing upon users interactions with Bitcoin as a system and culture will shed light upon mundane acts of socio-technical disruption, acts that critique and provide alternative financial exchange practices to the economic and regulatory financial infrastructures of the centralised banking industry.
Something very exciting is happening on the internet and, depending on whom you ask, it could be as game changing as the internet itself, or as mundane as just another protocol layer on it. The noise, hype and media coverage surrounding blockchain has reached fever pitch over something that is conceptually simple, technically straightforward and potentially super-disruptive. BCS DRM blogger Jude Umeh brings some clarity and perspective on the blockchain and explores what is required for it to either live up to the game-changing expectations or end up as yet another faddish internet bubble.
version anglaise de Crowdfunding baseado em blockchain: qual seu impacto sobre a produção artística e o consumo de arte?, Observatorio/ITAU cultural,n°19
Transitions in monetary technologies raise novel ethical and philosophical questions. One prominent transition concerns the introduction of cryptocurrencies, which are digital currencies based on blockchain technology. Bitcoin is an example of a cryptocurrency. In this paper we discuss ethical issues raised by cryptocurrencies by conceptualising them as what we call "narrative technologies". Drawing on the work of Ricoeur and responding to the work of Searle, we elaborate on the social and linguistic dimension of money and cryptocurrencies, and explore the implications of our proposed theoretical framework for the ethics of cryptocurrencies. In particular, taking a social-narrative turn, we argue that technologies have a temporal and narrative character: that they are made sense of by means of individual and collective narratives but also themselves co-constitute those narratives and inter-human and social relations; configuring events in a meaningful temporal whole. We show how cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin dynamically re-configure social relations and explore the consequent ethical implications.