Using metaphors for cryptocurrencies helps people feel more familiar with the technology. But there’s a downside – we expect it to work just like regular money.
If Bitcoin is a bubble, it will be because its price rises are too great and can’t continue. If it isn’t, it will be because the Bitcoin market is still expanding. We just don’t know which one yet.
The astronomic rise of the price of bitcoin over the past 12 months raises fears that the cryptocurrency is set to crash which could see many people lose money.
Crypto cash is catnip for criminals and a huge challenge to law enforcement – so it’s time to bring in a tough, jurisdiction-busting regulatory body.
When using a cryptocurrency, you interact with a system like the blockchain, an online ledger that records transactions, directly. Bitcoin, is an examples of this.
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A digital Australian dollar could remove the role of middlemen and creates a cheaper electronic currency system, while at the same time enabling the government to fully regulate the system.
Paul Dylan-Ennis, University College Dublin and Donncha Kavanagh, University College Dublin
Within the world of cryptocurrencies, ICOs are the way to raise funds – but without any government oversight.
One of China’s biggest bitcoin exchanges recently stopped trading after regulators ordered all digital currency exchanges to close — demonstrating traditional institutions’ nervousness about distributed trust technologies. In this 2013 photo, a staff member at Bitcoin mining company Landminers in southwestern China checks a computer used for that purpose.
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The development of distributed trust technologies is making traditional institutions like banks, corporations and governments nervous. Those who have power like to hold onto it. What’s next?
Initial coin offerings have taken off this year.
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As cryptocurrency systems improve, they will better protect criminals’ identities and even allow people to offer anonymous rewards for crimes they want committed.
A Bitcoin (virtual currency) souvenir coin. But cryptocurrencies like this can be debt and equity as well.
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Despite its name, cryptocurrency isn’t just money. It could also be debt or equity and so it should be regulated and taxed in the same way as other finance.
An illustration photo of Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins
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Nir Kshetri, University of North Carolina – Greensboro
Cybercriminals increasingly depend on e-currencies to profit from their misdeeds. They, and their potential victims, could be driving some of the growth in cryptocurrency markets.
The 16th U.S. president has graced the penny since 1909.
AP Photo/David Zalubowski