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Wikipedia

Cryptocurrency

March 13, 2023

Not to be confused with Virtual currency.

A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it.[2] It is a decentralized system for verifying that the parties to a transaction have the money they claim to have, eliminating the need for traditional intermediaries, such as banks, when funds are being transferred between two entities.[3]

A logo for Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency
The genesis block of Bitcoin's blockchain, with a note containing The Times newspaper headline. This note has been interpreted as a comment on the instability caused by fractional-reserve banking.[1]: 18 

Individual coin ownership records are stored in a digital ledger, which is a computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records, control the creation of additional coins, and verify the transfer of coin ownership.[4][5][6] Despite their name, cryptocurrencies are not considered to be currencies in the traditional sense, and while varying treatments have been applied to them, including classification as commodities, securities, and currencies, cryptocurrencies are generally viewed as a distinct asset class in practice.[7][8][9] Some crypto schemes use validators to maintain the cryptocurrency. In a proof-of-stake model, owners put up their tokens as collateral. In return, they get authority over the token in proportion to the amount they stake. Generally, these token stakers get additional ownership in the token over time via network fees, newly minted tokens, or other such reward mechanisms.[10]

Cryptocurrency does not exist in physical form (like paper money) and is typically not issued by a central authority. Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to a central bank digital currency (CBDC).[11] When a cryptocurrency is minted, or created prior to issuance, or issued by a single issuer, it is generally considered centralized. When implemented with decentralized control, each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database.[12] Traditional asset classes like currencies, commodities, and stocks, as well as macroeconomic factors, have modest exposures to cryptocurrency returns.[13]

The first decentralized cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which was first released as open-source software in 2009. As of March 2022, there were more than 9,000 other cryptocurrencies in the marketplace, of which more than 70 had a market capitalization exceeding $1 billion.[14]

History

See also: History of bitcoin

In 1983, American cryptographer David Chaum conceived of a type of cryptographic electronic money called ecash.[15][16] Later, in 1995, he implemented it through Digicash,[17] an early form of cryptographic electronic payments. Digicash required user software in order to withdraw notes from a bank and designate specific encrypted keys before it can be sent to a recipient. This allowed the digital currency to be untraceable by a third party.

In 1996, the National Security Agency published a paper entitled How to Make a Mint: the Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash, describing a cryptocurrency system. The paper was first published in an MIT mailing list[18] and later in 1997 in The American Law Review.[19]

In 1998, Wei Dai described "b-money", an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system.[20] Shortly thereafter, Nick Szabo described bit gold.[21] Like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that would follow it, bit gold (not to be confused with the later gold-based exchange BitGold) was described as an electronic currency system which required users to complete a proof of work function with solutions being cryptographically put together and published.

In January 2009, Bitcoin was created by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It used SHA-256, a cryptographic hash function, in its proof-of-work scheme.[22][23] In April 2011, Namecoin was created as an attempt at forming a decentralized DNS. In October 2011, Litecoin was released which used scrypt as its hash function instead of SHA-256. Peercoin, created in August 2012, used a hybrid of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake.[24]

On 6 August 2014, the UK announced its Treasury had commissioned a study of cryptocurrencies, and what role, if any, they could play in the UK economy. The study was also to report on whether regulation should be considered.[25] Its final report was published in 2018,[26] and it issued a consultation on cryptoassets and stablecoins in January 2021.[27]

In June 2021, El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, after the Legislative Assembly had voted 62–22 to pass a bill submitted by President Nayib Bukele classifying the cryptocurrency as such.[28]

In August 2021, Cuba followed with Resolution 215 to recognize and regulate cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.[29]

In September 2021, the government of China, the single largest market for cryptocurrency, declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal. This completed a crackdown on cryptocurrency that had previously banned the operation of intermediaries and miners within China.[30]

On 15 September 2022, the world second largest cryptocurrency at that time, Ethereum transitioned its consensus mechanism from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) in an upgrade process known as "the Merge". According to the Ethereum Founder, the upgrade can cut Ethereum's energy use by 99.9% and carbon-dioxide emissions by 99.9%.[31]

On 11 November 2022, FTX Trading Ltd., a cryptocurrency exchange, which also operated a crypto hedge fund, and had been valued at $18 billion,[32] filed for bankruptcy.[33] The financial impact of the collapse extended beyond the immediate FTX customer base, as reported,[34] while, at a Reuters conference, financial industry executives said that "regulators must step in to protect crypto investors."[35] Technology analyst Avivah Litan commented on the cryptocurrency ecosystem that "everything...needs to improve dramatically in terms of user experience, controls, safety, customer service."[36]

Formal definition

According to Jan Lansky, a cryptocurrency is a system that meets six conditions:[37]

  1. The system does not require a central authority; its state is maintained through distributed consensus.
  2. The system keeps an overview of cryptocurrency units and their ownership.
  3. The system defines whether new cryptocurrency units can be created. If new cryptocurrency units can be created, the system defines the circumstances of their origin and how to determine the ownership of these new units.
  4. Ownership of cryptocurrency units can be proved exclusively cryptographically.
  5. The system allows transactions to be performed in which ownership of the cryptographic units is changed. A transaction statement can only be issued by an entity proving the current ownership of these units.
  6. If two different instructions for changing the ownership of the same cryptographic units are simultaneously entered, the system performs at most one of them.

In March 2018, the word cryptocurrency was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.[38]

Altcoins

Further information: List of cryptocurrencies

Tokens, cryptocurrencies, and other digital assets other than Bitcoin are collectively known as alternative cryptocurrencies,[39][40][41] typically shortened to "altcoins" or "alt coins",[42][43] or disparagingly "shitcoins".[44] Paul Vigna of The Wall Street Journal also described altcoins as "alternative versions of Bitcoin"[45] given its role as the model protocol for altcoin designers.

 
The logo of Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency

Altcoins often have underlying differences when compared to Bitcoin. For example, Litecoin aims to process a block every 2.5 minutes, rather than Bitcoin's 10 minutes, which allows Litecoin to confirm transactions faster than Bitcoin.[46] Another example is Ethereum, which has smart contract functionality that allows decentralized applications to be run on its blockchain.[47] Ethereum was the most used blockchain in 2020, according to Bloomberg News.[48] In 2016, it had the largest "following" of any altcoin, according to the New York Times.[49]

Significant rallies across altcoin markets are often referred to as an "altseason".[50][51]

Stablecoins

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable level of purchasing power.[52] Notably, these designs are not foolproof, as a number of stablecoins have crashed or lost their peg. For example, on 11 May 2022, Terra's stablecoin UST fell from $1 to 26 cents.[53][54] The subsequent failure of Terraform Labs resulted in the loss of nearly $40B invested in the Terra and Luna coins.[55] In September 2022, South Korean prosecutors requested the issuance of an Interpol Red Notice against the company's founder, Do Kwon.[56] In Hong Kong, the expected regulatory framework for stablecoins in 2023/24 is being shaped and includes a few considerations.[57]

Architecture

Cryptocurrency is produced by an entire cryptocurrency system collectively, at a rate which is defined when the system is created and which is publicly stated. In centralized banking and economic systems such as the US Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency.[citation needed] In the case of cryptocurrency, companies or governments cannot produce new units, and have not so far provided backing for other firms, banks or corporate entities which hold asset value measured in it. The underlying technical system upon which cryptocurrencies are based was created by Satoshi Nakamoto.[58]

Within a proof-of-work system such as Bitcoin, the safety, integrity and balance of ledgers is maintained by a community of mutually distrustful parties referred to as miners. Miners use their computers to help validate and timestamp transactions, adding them to the ledger in accordance with a particular timestamping scheme.[22] In a proof-of-stake blockchain, transactions are validated by holders of the associated cryptocurrency, sometimes grouped together in stake pools.

Most cryptocurrencies are designed to gradually decrease the production of that currency, placing a cap on the total amount of that currency that will ever be in circulation.[59] Compared with ordinary currencies held by financial institutions or kept as cash on hand, cryptocurrencies can be more difficult for seizure by law enforcement.[4]

Blockchain

Main article: Blockchain

The validity of each cryptocurrency's coins is provided by a blockchain. A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography.[58][60] Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block,[60] a timestamp and transaction data.[61] By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. It is "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way".[62] For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires collusion of the network majority.

Blockchains are secure by design and are an example of a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance. Decentralized consensus has therefore been achieved with a blockchain.[63]

Nodes

A node is a computer that connects to a cryptocurrency network. The node supports the cryptocurrency's network through either relaying transactions, validation, or hosting a copy of the blockchain. In terms of relaying transactions, each network computer (node) has a copy of the blockchain of the cryptocurrency it supports. When a transaction is made, the node creating the transaction broadcasts details of the transaction using encryption to other nodes throughout the node network so that the transaction (and every other transaction) is known.

Node owners are either volunteers, those hosted by the organization or body responsible for developing the cryptocurrency blockchain network technology, or those who are enticed to host a node to receive rewards from hosting the node network.[64]

Timestamping

Cryptocurrencies use various timestamping schemes to "prove" the validity of transactions added to the blockchain ledger without the need for a trusted third party.

The first timestamping scheme invented was the proof-of-work scheme. The most widely used proof-of-work schemes are based on SHA-256 and scrypt.[24]

Some other hashing algorithms that are used for proof-of-work include CryptoNight, Blake, SHA-3, and X11.

Another method is called the proof-of-stake scheme. Proof-of-stake is a method of securing a cryptocurrency network and achieving distributed consensus through requesting users to show ownership of a certain amount of currency. It is different from proof-of-work systems that run difficult hashing algorithms to validate electronic transactions. The scheme is largely dependent on the coin, and there's currently no standard form of it. Some cryptocurrencies use a combined proof-of-work and proof-of-stake scheme.[24]

Mining

 
Hashcoin mine

On a blockchain, mining is the validation of transactions. For this effort, successful miners obtain new cryptocurrency as a reward. The reward decreases transaction fees by creating a complementary incentive to contribute to the processing power of the network. The rate of generating hashes, which validate any transaction, has been increased by the use of specialized machines such as FPGAs and ASICs running complex hashing algorithms like SHA-256 and scrypt.[65] This arms race for cheaper-yet-efficient machines has existed since Bitcoin was introduced in 2009.[65] Mining is measured by hash rate typically in TH/s.[66]

With more people venturing into the world of virtual currency, generating hashes for validation has become more complex over time, forcing miners to invest increasingly large sums of money to improve computing performance. Consequently, the reward for finding a hash has diminished and often does not justify the investment in equipment and cooling facilities (to mitigate the heat the equipment produces), and the electricity required to run them.[67] Popular regions for mining include those with inexpensive electricity, a cold climate, and jurisdictions with clear and conducive regulations. By July 2019, Bitcoin's electricity consumption was estimated to be approximately 7 gigawatts, around 0.2% of the global total, or equivalent to the energy consumed nationally by Switzerland.[68]

Some miners pool resources, sharing their processing power over a network to split the reward equally, according to the amount of work they contributed to the probability of finding a block. A "share" is awarded to members of the mining pool who present a valid partial proof-of-work.

As of February 2018, the Chinese Government has halted trading of virtual currency, banned initial coin offerings and shut down mining. Many Chinese miners have since relocated to Canada[69] and Texas.[70] One company is operating data centers for mining operations at Canadian oil and gas field sites, due to low gas prices.[71] In June 2018, Hydro Quebec proposed to the provincial government to allocate 500 megawatts of power to crypto companies for mining.[72] According to a February 2018 report from Fortune, Iceland has become a haven for cryptocurrency miners in part because of its cheap electricity.[73]

In March 2018, the city of Plattsburgh, New York put an 18-month moratorium on all cryptocurrency mining in an effort to preserve natural resources and the "character and direction" of the city.[74] In 2021, Kazakhstan became the second-biggest crypto-currency mining country, producing 18.1% of the global exahash rate. The country built a compound containing 50,000 computers near Ekibastuz.[75]

GPU price rise

An increase in cryptocurrency mining increased the demand for graphics cards (GPU) in 2017.[76] The computing power of GPUs makes them well-suited to generating hashes. Popular favorites of cryptocurrency miners such as Nvidia's GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 graphics cards, as well as AMD's RX 570 and RX 580 GPUs, doubled or tripled in price – or were out of stock.[77] A GTX 1070 Ti which was released at a price of $450 sold for as much as $1,100. Another popular card, the GTX 1060 (6 GB model) was released at an MSRP of $250, and sold for almost $500. RX 570 and RX 580 cards from AMD were out of stock for almost a year. Miners regularly buy up the entire stock of new GPU's as soon as they are available.[78]

Nvidia has asked retailers to do what they can when it comes to selling GPUs to gamers instead of miners. Boris Böhles, PR manager for Nvidia in the German region, said: "Gamers come first for Nvidia."[79]

Wallets

 
An example paper printable Bitcoin wallet consisting of one Bitcoin address for receiving and the corresponding private key for spending
Main article: Cryptocurrency wallet

A cryptocurrency wallet is a means of storing the public and private "keys" (address) or seed which can be used to receive or spend the cryptocurrency.[80] With the private key, it is possible to write in the public ledger, effectively spending the associated cryptocurrency. With the public key, it is possible for others to send currency to the wallet.

There exist multiple methods of storing keys or seed in a wallet. These methods range from using paper wallets (which are public, private or seed keys written on paper), to using hardware wallets (which are hardware to store your wallet information), to a digital wallet (which is a computer with a software hosting your wallet information), to hosting your wallet using an exchange where cryptocurrency is traded, or by storing your wallet information on a digital medium such as plaintext.[81]

Anonymity

Main article: Privacy and blockchain

Bitcoin is pseudonymous, rather than anonymous; the cryptocurrency in a wallet is not tied to a person, but rather to one or more specific keys (or "addresses").[82] Thereby, Bitcoin owners are not immediately identifiable, but all transactions are publicly available in the blockchain.[83] Still, cryptocurrency exchanges are often required by law to collect the personal information of their users.[84]

Some cryptocurrencies, such as Monero, Zerocoin, Zerocash, and CryptoNote, implement additional measures to increase privacy, such as by using zero-knowledge proofs.[85][86]

Economics

See also: Cryptoeconomics

Cryptocurrencies are used primarily outside banking and governmental institutions and are exchanged over the Internet.

Block rewards

Proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, offer block rewards incentives for miners. There has been an implicit belief that whether miners are paid by block rewards or transaction fees does not affect the security of the blockchain, but a study suggests that this may not be the case under certain circumstances.[87]

The rewards paid to miners increase the supply of the cryptocurrency. By making sure that verifying transactions is a costly business, the integrity of the network can be preserved as long as benevolent nodes control a majority of computing power. The verification algorithm requires a lot of processing power, and thus electricity in order to make verification costly enough to accurately validate public blockchain. Not only do miners have to factor in the costs associated with expensive equipment necessary to stand a chance of solving a hash problem, they further must consider the significant amount of electrical power in search of the solution. Generally, the block rewards outweigh electricity and equipment costs, but this may not always be the case.[88]

The current value, not the long-term value, of the cryptocurrency supports the reward scheme to incentivize miners to engage in costly mining activities.[89] Some sources[weasel words] claim that the current Bitcoin design is very inefficient, generating a welfare loss of 1.4% relative to an efficient cash system. The main source for this inefficiency is the large mining cost, which is estimated to be US$360 million per year. This translates into users being willing to accept a cash system with an inflation rate of 230% before being better off using Bitcoin as a means of payment. However, the efficiency of the Bitcoin system can be significantly improved by optimizing the rate of coin creation and minimizing transaction fees. Another potential improvement is to eliminate inefficient mining activities by changing the consensus protocol altogether.[90]

Transaction fees

Transaction fees for cryptocurrency depend mainly on the supply of network capacity at the time, versus the demand from the currency holder for a faster transaction.[citation needed] The currency holder can choose a specific transaction fee, while network entities process transactions in order of highest offered fee to lowest.[citation needed] Cryptocurrency exchanges can simplify the process for currency holders by offering priority alternatives and thereby determine which fee will likely cause the transaction to be processed in the requested time.[citation needed]

For Ethereum, transaction fees differ by computational complexity, bandwidth use, and storage needs, while Bitcoin transaction fees differ by transaction size and whether the transaction uses SegWit. In September 2018[needs update], the median transaction fee for Ether corresponded to $0.017,[91] while for Bitcoin it corresponded to $0.55.[92]

Some cryptocurrencies have no transaction fees, and instead rely on client-side proof-of-work as the transaction prioritization and anti-spam mechanism.[93][94][95]

Exchanges

Main article: Cryptocurrency exchange

Cryptocurrency exchanges allow customers to trade cryptocurrencies[96] for other assets, such as conventional fiat money, or to trade between different digital currencies.

Crypto marketplaces do not guarantee that an investor is completing a purchase or trade at the optimal price. As a result, as of 2020 it was possible to arbitrage to find the difference in price across several markets.[97]

Atomic swaps

Atomic swaps are a mechanism where one cryptocurrency can be exchanged directly for another cryptocurrency, without the need for a trusted third party such as an exchange.[98]

ATMs

Jordan Kelley, founder of Robocoin, launched the first Bitcoin ATM in the United States on 20 February 2014. The kiosk installed in Austin, Texas, is similar to bank ATMs but has scanners to read government-issued identification such as a driver's license or a passport to confirm users' identities.[99]

Initial coin offerings

An initial coin offering (ICO) is a controversial means of raising funds for a new cryptocurrency venture. An ICO may be used by startups with the intention of avoiding regulation. However, securities regulators in many jurisdictions, including in the U.S., and Canada, have indicated that if a coin or token is an "investment contract" (e.g., under the Howey test, i.e., an investment of money with a reasonable expectation of profit based significantly on the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others), it is a security and is subject to securities regulation. In an ICO campaign, a percentage of the cryptocurrency (usually in the form of "tokens") is sold to early backers of the project in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies, often Bitcoin or Ether.[100][101][102]

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, four of the 10 biggest proposed initial coin offerings have used Switzerland as a base, where they are frequently registered as non-profit foundations. The Swiss regulatory agency FINMA stated that it would take a "balanced approach" to ICO projects and would allow "legitimate innovators to navigate the regulatory landscape and so launch their projects in a way consistent with national laws protecting investors and the integrity of the financial system." In response to numerous requests by industry representatives, a legislative ICO working group began to issue legal guidelines in 2018, which are intended to remove uncertainty from cryptocurrency offerings and to establish sustainable business practices.[103]

Price trends

The market capitalization of a cryptocurrency is calculated by multiplying the price by the number of coins in circulation. The total cryptocurrency market cap has historically been dominated by Bitcoin accounting for at least 50% of the market cap value where altcoins have increased and decreased in market cap value in relation to Bitcoin. Bitcoin's value is largely determined by speculation among other technological limiting factors known as blockchain rewards coded into the architecture technology of Bitcoin itself. The cryptocurrency market cap follows a trend known as the "halving", which is when the block rewards received from Bitcoin are halved due to technological mandated limited factors instilled into Bitcoin which in turn limits the supply of Bitcoin. As the date reaches near of a halving (twice thus far historically) the cryptocurrency market cap increases, followed by a downtrend.[104]

By June 2021, cryptocurrency had begun to be offered by some wealth managers in the US for 401(k)s.[105][106][107]

Volatility

Cryptocurrency prices are much more volatile than established financial assets such as stocks. For example, over one week in May 2022, Bitcoin lost 20% of its value and Ethereum lost 26%, while Solana and Cardano lost 41% and 35% respectively. The falls were attributed to warnings about inflation. By comparison, in the same week, the Nasdaq tech stock index fell 7.6 per cent and the FTSE 100 was 3.6 per cent down.[108]

In the longer term, of the 10 leading cryptocurrencies identified by the total value of coins in circulation in January 2018, only four (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano and Ripple (XRP)) were still in that position in early 2022.[109] The total value of all cryptocurrencies was $2 trillion at the end of 2021, but had halved nine months later.[110][111] The Wall Street Journal has commented that the crypto sector has become “intertwined” with the rest of the capital markets and “sensitive to the same forces that drive tech stocks and other risk assets”, such as inflation forecasts.[112]

Databases

There are also centralized databases, outside of blockchains, that store crypto market data. Compared to the blockchain, databases perform fast as there is no verification process. Four of the most popular cryptocurrency market databases are CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko, BraveNewCoin, and Cryptocompare.[113]

Social and political aspects

See also: Crypto-anarchism and Cypherpunk

According to Alan Feuer of The New York Times, libertarians and anarcho-capitalists were attracted to the philosophical idea behind Bitcoin. Early Bitcoin supporter Roger Ver said: "At first, almost everyone who got involved did so for philosophical reasons. We saw Bitcoin as a great idea, as a way to separate money from the state."[114] Economist Paul Krugman argues that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are "something of a cult" based in "paranoid fantasies" of government power.[115]

David Golumbia says that the ideas influencing Bitcoin advocates emerge from right-wing extremist movements such as the Liberty Lobby and the John Birch Society and their anti-Central Bank rhetoric, or, more recently, Ron Paul and Tea Party-style libertarianism.[116] Steve Bannon, who owns a "good stake" in Bitcoin, sees cryptocurrency as a form of disruptive populism, taking control back from central authorities.[117]

Bitcoin's founder, Satoshi Nakamoto has supported the idea that cryptocurrencies go well with libertarianism: "It's very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint if we can explain it properly." Nakamoto said in 2008.[118]

According to the European Central Bank, the decentralization of money offered by Bitcoin has its theoretical roots in the Austrian school of economics, especially with Friedrich von Hayek in his book Denationalisation of Money: The Argument Refined,[119] in which Hayek advocates a complete free market in the production, distribution and management of money to end the monopoly of central banks.[120]

Increasing regulation

The rise in the popularity of cryptocurrencies and their adoption by financial institutions has led some governments to assess whether regulation is needed to protect users. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has defined cryptocurrency-related services as "virtual asset service providers" (VASPs) and recommended that they be regulated with the same money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) requirements as financial institutions.[121]

In May 2020, the Joint Working Group on interVASP Messaging Standards published "IVMS 101", a universal common language for communication of required originator and beneficiary information between VASPs. The FATF and financial regulators were informed as the data model was developed.[122]

In June 2020, FATF updated its guidance to include the "Travel Rule" for cryptocurrencies, a measure which mandates that VASPs obtain, hold, and exchange information about the originators and beneficiaries of virtual asset transfers.[123] Subsequent standardized protocol specifications recommended using JSON for relaying data between VASPs and identity services. As of December 2020, the IVMS 101 data model has yet to be finalized and ratified by the three global standard setting bodies that created it.[124]

The European Commission published a digital finance strategy in September 2020. This included a draft regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), which aimed to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets in the EU.[125][126]

On 10 June 2021, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision proposed that banks that held cryptocurrency assets must set aside capital to cover all potential losses. For instance, if a bank were to hold Bitcoin worth $2 billion, it would be required to set aside enough capital to cover the entire $2 billion. This is a more extreme standard than banks are usually held to when it comes to other assets. However, this is a proposal and not a regulation.

The IMF is seeking a coordinated, consistent and comprehensive approach to supervising cryptocurrencies. Tobias Adrian, the IMF's financial counsellor and head of its monetary and capital markets department said in a January 2022 interview that "Agreeing global regulations is never quick. But if we start now, we can achieve the goal of maintaining financial stability while also enjoying the benefits which the underlying technological innovations bring,"[127]

United States

In 2021, 17 states passed laws and resolutions concerning cryptocurrency regulation.[128] The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering what steps to take. On 8 July 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren, part of the Senate Banking Committee, wrote to the chairman of the SEC and demanded that it provide answers on cryptocurrency regulation by 28 July 2021,[129][needs update] due to the increase in cryptocurrency exchange use and the danger this poses to consumers. On 17 February 2022, the Justice department named Eun Young Choi as the first director of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to aid in identification of and dealing with misuse of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.[130]

In February 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ruled that cryptocurrency exchange Kraken's estimated $42 billion in staked assets globally operated as an illegal securities seller. The company agreed to a $30 million settlement with the SEC and to cease selling its staking service in the U.S. The case would impact other major crypto exchanges operating staking programs.[131]

China

In September 2017, China banned ICOs to cause abnormal return from cryptocurrency decreasing during announcement window. The liquidity changes by banning ICOs in China was temporarily negative while the liquidity effect became positive after news.[132]

On 18 May 2021, China banned financial institutions and payment companies from being able to provide cryptocurrency transaction related services.[133] This led to a sharp fall in the price of the biggest proof of work cryptocurrencies. For instance, Bitcoin fell 31%, Ethereum fell 44%, Binance Coin fell 32% and Dogecoin fell 30%.[134] Proof of work mining was the next focus, with regulators in popular mining regions citing the use of electricity generated from highly polluting sources such as coal to create Bitcoin and Ethereum.[135]

In September 2021, the Chinese government declared all cryptocurrency transactions of any kind illegal, completing its crackdown on cryptocurrency.[30]

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, as of 10 January 2021, all cryptocurrency firms, such as exchanges, advisors and professionals that have either a presence, market product or provide services within the UK market must register with the Financial Conduct Authority. Additionally, on 27 June 2021, the financial watchdog demanded that Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange,[136] cease all regulated activities in the UK.[137]

South Africa

South Africa, which has seen a large number of scams related to cryptocurrency, is said to be putting a regulatory timeline in place that will produce a regulatory framework.[138] The largest scam occurred in April 2021, where the two founders of an African-based cryptocurrency exchange called Africrypt, Raees Cajee and Ameer Cajee, disappeared with $3.8 billion worth of Bitcoin.[139] Additionally, Mirror Trading International disappeared with $170 million worth of cryptocurrency in January 2021.[139]

South Korea

In March 2021, South Korea implemented new legislation to strengthen their oversight of digital assets. This legislation requires all digital asset managers, providers and exchanges to be registered with the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit in order to operate in South Korea.[140] Registering with this unit requires that all exchanges are certified by the Information Security Management System and that they ensure all customers have real name bank accounts. It also requires that the CEO and board members of the exchanges have not been convicted of any crimes and that the exchange holds sufficient levels of deposit insurance to cover losses arising from hacks.[140]

Turkey

On 30 April 2021, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey banned the use of cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets for making purchases on the grounds that the use of cryptocurrencies for such payments poses significant transaction risks.[141]

El Salvador

On 9 June 2021, El Salvador announced that it will adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, the first country to do so.[142]

India

At present, India neither prohibits nor allows investment in the cryptocurrency market. In 2020, the Supreme Court of India had lifted the ban on cryptocurrency, which was imposed by the Reserve Bank of India.[143][144][145][146] Since then, an investment in cryptocurrency is considered legitimate, though there is still ambiguity about the issues regarding the extent and payment of tax on the income accrued thereupon and also its regulatory regime. But it is being contemplated that the Indian Parliament will soon pass a specific law to either ban or regulate the cryptocurrency market in India.[147] Expressing his public policy opinion on the Indian cryptocurrency market to a well-known online publication, a leading public policy lawyer and Vice President of SAARCLAW (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation in Law) Hemant Batra has said that the "cryptocurrency market has now become very big with involvement of billions of dollars in the market hence, it is now unattainable and irreconcilable for the government to completely ban all sorts of cryptocurrency and its trading and investment".[148] He mooted regulating the cryptocurrency market rather than completely banning it. He favoured following IMF and FATF guidelines in this regard.

Switzerland

Switzerland was one of the first countries to implement the FATF’s Travel Rule. FINMA, the Swiss regulator, issued its own guidance to VASPs in 2019. The guidance followed the FATF’s Recommendation 16, however with stricter requirements. According to FINMA’s[149] requirements, VASPs need to verify the identity of the beneficiary of the transfer.

Legality

Main article: Legality of cryptocurrency by country or territory

The legal status of cryptocurrencies varies substantially from country to country and is still undefined or changing in many of them. At least one study has shown that broad generalizations about the use of Bitcoin in illicit finance are significantly overstated and that blockchain analysis is an effective crime fighting and intelligence gathering tool.[150] While some countries have explicitly allowed their use and trade,[151] others have banned or restricted it. According to the Library of Congress in 2018, an "absolute ban" on trading or using cryptocurrencies applies in eight countries: Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates. An "implicit ban" applies in another 15 countries, which include Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Lesotho, Lithuania, Macau, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan.[152] In the United States and Canada, state and provincial securities regulators, coordinated through the North American Securities Administrators Association, are investigating "Bitcoin scams" and ICOs in 40 jurisdictions.[153]

Various government agencies, departments, and courts have classified Bitcoin differently. China Central Bank banned the handling of Bitcoins by financial institutions in China in early 2014.

In Russia, though owning cryptocurrency is legal, its residents are only allowed to purchase goods from other residents using the Russian ruble while nonresidents are allowed to use foreign currency.[154] Regulations and bans that apply to Bitcoin probably extend to similar cryptocurrency systems.[155]

In August 2018, the Bank of Thailand announced its plans to create its own cryptocurrency, the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).[156]

Advertising bans

Cryptocurrency advertisements have been banned on the following platforms:

U.S. tax status

On 25 March 2014, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruled that Bitcoin will be treated as property for tax purposes. Therefore, virtual currencies are considered commodities subject to capital gains tax.[161]

Legal concerns relating to an unregulated global economy

As the popularity and demand for online currencies has increased since the inception of Bitcoin in 2009,[162] so have concerns that such an unregulated person to person global economy that cryptocurrencies offer may become a threat to society. Concerns abound that altcoins may become tools for anonymous web criminals.[163]

Cryptocurrency networks display a lack of regulation that has been criticized as enabling criminals who seek to evade taxes and launder money. Money laundering issues are also present in regular bank transfers, however with bank-to-bank wire transfers for instance, the account holder must at least provide a proven identity.

Transactions that occur through the use and exchange of these altcoins are independent from formal banking systems, and therefore can make tax evasion simpler for individuals. Since charting taxable income is based upon what a recipient reports to the revenue service, it becomes extremely difficult to account for transactions made using existing cryptocurrencies, a mode of exchange that is complex and difficult to track.[163]

Systems of anonymity that most cryptocurrencies offer can also serve as a simpler means to launder money. Rather than laundering money through an intricate net of financial actors and offshore bank accounts, laundering money through altcoins can be achieved through anonymous transactions.[163]

Cryptocurrency makes legal enforcement against extremist groups more complicated, which consequently strengthens them.[164] White supremacist Richard Spencer went as far as to declare Bitcoin the “currency of the alt-right.”[165]

Loss, theft, and fraud

Main article: Cryptocurrency and crime

In February 2014, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, declared bankruptcy. Likely due to theft, the company claimed that it had lost nearly 750,000 Bitcoins belonging to their clients. This added up to approximately 7% of all Bitcoins in existence, worth a total of $473 million. Mt. Gox blamed hackers, who had exploited the transaction malleability problems in the network. The price of a Bitcoin fell from a high of about $1,160 in December to under $400 in February.[166]

On 21 November 2017, Tether announced that it had been hacked, losing $31 million in USDT from its core treasury wallet.[167]

On 7 December 2017, Slovenian cryptocurrency exchange Nicehash reported that hackers had stolen over $70M using a hijacked company computer.[168]

On 19 December 2017, Yapian, the owner of South Korean exchange Youbit, filed for bankruptcy after suffering two hacks that year.[169][170] Customers were still granted access to 75% of their assets.

In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold had its transactions hijacked and abused by unknown hackers.[171] Exchanges lost an estimated $18m and Bitcoin Gold was delisted from Bittrex after it refused to pay its share of the damages.

On 13 September 2018, Homero Josh Garza was sentenced to 21 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.[172] Garza had founded the cryptocurrency startups GAW Miners and ZenMiner in 2014, acknowledged in a plea agreement that the companies were part of a pyramid scheme, and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2015. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission separately brought a civil enforcement action against Garza, who was eventually ordered to pay a judgment of $9.1 million plus $700,000 in interest. The SEC's complaint stated that Garza, through his companies, had fraudulently sold "investment contracts representing shares in the profits they claimed would be generated" from mining.[173]

In January 2018, Japanese exchange Coincheck reported that hackers had stolen $530M worth of cryptocurrencies.[174]

In June 2018, South Korean exchange Coinrail was hacked, losing over $37M worth of cryptos.[175] The hack worsened an already ongoing cryptocurrency selloff by an additional $42 billion.[176]

On 9 July 2018, the exchange Bancor, whose code and fundraising had been subjects of controversy, had $23.5 million in cryptocurrency stolen.[177]

A 2020 EU report found that users had lost crypto-assets worth hundreds of millions of US dollars in security breaches at exchanges and storage providers. Between 2011 and 2019, reported breaches ranged from four to twelve a year. In 2019, more than a billion dollars worth of cryptoassets was reported stolen. Stolen assets "typically find their way to illegal markets and are used to fund further criminal activity".[178]

According to a 2020 report produced by the United States Attorney General's Cyber-Digital Task Force, the following three categories make up the majority of illicit cryptocurrency uses: "(1) financial transactions associated with the commission of crimes; (2) money laundering and the shielding of legitimate activity from tax, reporting, or other legal requirements; or (3) crimes, such as theft, directly implicating the cryptocurrency marketplace itself." The report concludes that "for cryptocurrency to realize its truly transformative potential, it is imperative that these risks be addressed" and that "the government has legal and regulatory tools available at its disposal to confront the threats posed by cryptocurrency's illicit uses".[179][180]

According to the UK 2020 national risk assessment—a comprehensive assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risk in the UK—the risk of using cryptoassets such as Bitcoin for money laundering and terrorism financing is assessed as "medium" (from "low" in the previous 2017 report).[181] Legal scholars suggested that the money laundering opportunities may be more perceived than real.[182] Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis concluded that illicit activities like cybercrime, money laundering and terrorism financing made up only 0.15% of all crypto transactions conducted in 2021, representing a total of $14 billion.[183][184][185]

In December 2021, Monkey Kingdom - a NFT project based in Hong Kong lost US$1.3 million worth of cryptocurrencies via a phishing link used by the hacker.[186]

Money laundering

See also: Cryptocurrency and crime

According to blockchain data company Chainalysis, criminals laundered US$8,600,000,000 worth of cryptocurrency in 2021, up by 30% from the previous year.[187] The data suggests that rather than managing numerous illicit havens, cybercriminals make use of a small group of purpose built centralized exchanges for sending and receiving illicit cryptocurrency. In 2021, those exchanges received 47% of funds sent by crime linked addresses.[188] Almost $2.2bn worth of cryptocurrencies was embezzled from DeFi protocols in 2021, which represents 72% of all cryptocurrency theft in 2021.

According to Bloomberg and the New York Times, Federation Tower, a two skyscraper complex in the heart of Moscow City, is home to many cryptocurrency businesses under suspicion of facilitating extensive money laundering, including accepting illicit cryptocurrency funds obtained through scams, darknet markets, and ransomware.[189] Notable businesses include Garantex, Eggchange, Cashbank, Buy-Bitcoin, Tetchange, Bitzlato, and Suex, which was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2021. Bitzlato founder and owner Anatoly Legkodymov was arrested following money-laundering charges by the United States Department of Justice.[190]

Dark money has also been flowing into Russia through a dark web marketplace called Hydra, which is powered by cryptocurrency, and enjoyed more than $1 billion in sales in 2020, according to Chainalysis.[191] The platform demands that sellers liquidate cryptocurrency only through certain regional exchanges, which has made it difficult for investigators to trace the money.

Almost 74% of ransomware revenue in 2021 — over $400 million worth of cryptocurrency — went to software strains likely affiliated with Russia, where oversight is notoriously limited.[189] However, Russians are also leaders in the benign adoption of cryptocurrencies, as the ruble is unreliable, and President Putin favours the idea of "overcoming the excessive domination of the limited number of reserve currencies."[192]


Darknet markets

Main article: Darknet market

Properties of cryptocurrencies gave them popularity in applications such as a safe haven in banking crises and means of payment, which also led to the cryptocurrency use in controversial settings in the form of online black markets, such as Silk Road.[163] The original Silk Road was shut down in October 2013 and there have been two more versions in use since then. In the year following the initial shutdown of Silk Road, the number of prominent dark markets increased from four to twelve, while the amount of drug listings increased from 18,000 to 32,000.[163]

Darknet markets present challenges in regard to legality. Cryptocurrency used in dark markets are not clearly or legally classified in almost all parts of the world. In the U.S., Bitcoins are labelled as "virtual assets".[citation needed] This type of ambiguous classification puts pressure on law enforcement agencies around the world to adapt to the shifting drug trade of dark markets.[193][unreliable source?]

Wash trades

Various studies have found that crypto-trading is rife with wash trading. Wash trading is a process, illegal in some jurisdictions, involving buyers and sellers being the same person or group, and may be used to manipulate the price of a cryptocurrency or inflate volume artificially. Exchanges with higher volumes can demand higher premiums from token issuers.[194] A study from 2019 concluded that up to 80% of trades on unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges could be wash trades.[194] A 2019 report by Bitwise Asset Management claimed that 95% of all Bitcoin trading volume reported on major website CoinMarketCap had been artificially generated, and of 81 exchanges studied, only 10 provided legitimate volume figures.[195]

As a tool to evade sanctions

In 2022, cryptocurrencies attracted attention when Western nations imposed severe economic sanctions on Russia in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine in February. However, American sources warned in March that some crypto-transactions could potentially be used to evade economic sanctions against Russia and Belarus.[196]

In April 2022, the computer programmer Virgil Griffith received a five-year prison sentence in the US for attending a Pyongyang cryptocurrency conference, where he gave a presentation on blockchains which might be used for sanctions evasion.[197]

Impacts and analysis

External video
  Cryptocurrencies: looking beyond the hype, Hyun Song Shin, Bank for International Settlements, 2:48[198]

The Bank for International Settlements summarized several criticisms of cryptocurrencies in Chapter V of their 2018 annual report. The criticisms include the lack of stability in their price, the high energy consumption, high and variable transactions costs, the poor security and fraud at cryptocurrency exchanges, vulnerability to debasement (from forking), and the influence of miners.[198][199][200]

Speculation, fraud, and adoption

See also: Cryptocurrency bubble, Cryptocurrency and crime, and Criminal activity on Bitcoin's network

Cryptocurrencies have been compared to Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes[201] and economic bubbles,[202] such as housing market bubbles.[203] Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management stated in 2017 that digital currencies were "nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme), based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it", and compared them to the tulip mania (1637), South Sea Bubble (1720), and dot-com bubble (1999), which all experienced profound price booms and busts.[204]

Regulators in several countries have warned against cryptocurrency and some have taken measures to dissuade users.[205] However, research in 2021 by the UK's financial regulator suggests such warnings either went unheard, or were ignored. Fewer than one in 10 potential cryptocurrency buyers were aware of consumer warnings on the FCA website, and 12% of crypto users were not aware that their holdings were not protected by statutory compensation.[206][207] Of 1,000 respondents between the ages of eighteen and forty, almost 70% falsely assumed cryptocurrencies were regulated, 75% of younger crypto investors claimed to be driven by competition with friends and family, 58% said that social media enticed them to make high risk investments.[208] The FCA recommends making use of its warning list, which flags unauthorized financial firms.[209]

Many banks do not offer virtual currency services themselves and can refuse to do business with virtual currency companies.[210] In 2014, Gareth Murphy, a senior banking officer, suggested that the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies may lead to too much money being obfuscated, blinding economists who would use such information to better steer the economy.[211] While traditional financial products have strong consumer protections in place, there is no intermediary with the power to limit consumer losses if Bitcoins are lost or stolen. One of the features cryptocurrency lacks in comparison to credit cards, for example, is consumer protection against fraud, such as chargebacks.

The French regulator Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) lists 16 websites of companies that solicit investment in cryptocurrency without being authorized to do so in France.[212]

An October 2021 paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that Bitcoin suffers from systemic risk as the top 10,000 addresses control about one-third of all Bitcoin in circulation.[213] It's even worse for Bitcoin miners, with 0.01% controlling 50% of the capacity. According to researcher Flipside Crypto, less than 2% of anonymous accounts control 95% of all available Bitcoin supply.[214] This is considered risky as a great deal of the market is in the hands of a few entities.

A paper by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, a graduate student found that in 2017 the price of Bitcoin had been substantially inflated using another cryptocurrency, Tether.[215]

Roger Lowenstein, author of "Bank of America: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve," says in a New York Times story that FTX will face over $8 billion in claims.[216]

Non-fungible tokens

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that represent art, collectibles, gaming, etc. Like crypto, their data is stored on the blockchain. NFTs are bought and traded using cryptocurrency. The Ethereum blockchain was the first place where NFTs were implemented, but now many other blockchains have created their own versions of NFTs. The popularity of NFTs has increased since 2021.[217]

Banks

As the first big Wall Street bank to embrace cryptocurrencies, Morgan Stanley announced on 17 March 2021 that they will be offering access to Bitcoin funds for their wealthy clients through three funds which enable Bitcoin ownership for investors with an aggressive risk tolerance.[218] BNY Mellon on 11 February 2021 announced that it would begin offering cryptocurrency services to its clients.[219]

On 20 April 2021,[220] Venmo added support to its platform to enable customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies.[221]

In October 2021, financial services company Mastercard announced it is working with digital asset manager Bakkt on a platform that would allow any bank or merchant on the Mastercard network to offer cryptocurrency services.[222]

Environmental impact

Main article: Environmental impact of cryptocurrencies
See also: Bitcoin § Environmental impact

Mining for proof-of-work cryptocurrencies requires enormous amounts of electricity and consequently comes with a large carbon footprint due to causing greenhouse gas emissions.[223] Proof-of-work blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero were estimated to have added between 3 million and 15 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere in the period from 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2017.[224] By November 2018, Bitcoin was estimated to have an annual energy consumption of 45.8TWh, generating 22.0 to 22.9 million tons of CO2, rivalling nations like Jordan and Sri Lanka.[225] By the end of 2021, Bitcoin was estimated to produce 65.4 million tons of CO2, as much as Greece,[226] and consume between 91 and 177 terawatt-hours annually.[227][228]

Critics have also identified a large electronic waste problem in disposing of mining rigs.[229] Mining hardware is improving at a fast rate, quickly resulting in older generations of hardware.[230]

Bitcoin is the least energy-efficient cryptocurrency, using 707.6 kilowatt-hours of electricity per transaction.[231]

The world's second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, uses 62.56 kilowatt-hours of electricity per transaction.[232] XRP is the world's most energy efficient cryptocurrency, using 0.0079 kilowatt-hours of electricity per transaction.[233]

Although the biggest PoW blockchains consume energy on the scale of medium-sized countries, the annual power demand from proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains is on a scale equivalent to a housing estate. The Times identified six "environmentally friendly" cryptocurrencies: Chia, IOTA, Cardano, Nano, Solarcoin and Bitgreen.[234] Academics and researchers have used various methods for estimating the energy use and energy efficiency of blockchains. A study of the six largest proof-of-stake networks in May 2021 concluded:

  • Cardano has the lowest electricity use per node;
  • Polkadot has the lowest electricity use overall; and
  • Solana has the lowest electricity use per transaction.

In terms of annual consumption (kWh/yr), the figures were: Polkadot (70,237), Tezos (113,249), Avalanche (489,311), Algorand (512,671), Cardano (598,755) and Solana (1,967,930). This equates to Polkadot consuming 7 times the electricity of an average U.S. home, Cardano 57 homes and Solana 200 times as much. The research concluded that PoS networks consumed 0.001% the electricity of the Bitcoin network.[235] University College London researchers reached a similar conclusion.[236]

Variable renewable energy power stations could invest in Bitcoin mining to reduce curtailment, hedge electricity price risk, stabilize the grid, increase the profitability of renewable energy power stations and therefore accelerate transition to sustainable energy.[237][238][239][240][241]

Technological limitations

There are also purely technical elements to consider. For example, technological advancement in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin result in high up-front costs to miners in the form of specialized hardware and software.[242] Cryptocurrency transactions are normally irreversible after a number of blocks confirm the transaction. Additionally, cryptocurrency private keys can be permanently lost from local storage due to malware, data loss or the destruction of the physical media. This precludes the cryptocurrency from being spent, resulting in its effective removal from the markets.[243]

Academic studies

Main article: Ledger (journal)

In September 2015, the establishment of the peer-reviewed academic journal Ledger (ISSN 2379-5980) was announced. It covers studies of cryptocurrencies and related technologies, and is published by the University of Pittsburgh.[244]

The journal encourages authors to digitally sign a file hash of submitted papers, which will then be timestamped into the Bitcoin blockchain. Authors are also asked to include a personal Bitcoin address in the first page of their papers.[245][246]

Aid agencies

A number of aid agencies have started accepting donations in cryptocurrencies, including UNICEF.[247] Christopher Fabian, principal adviser at UNICEF Innovation, said the children's fund would uphold donor protocols, meaning that people making donations online would have to pass checks before they were allowed to deposit funds.[248][249]

However, in 2021, there was a backlash against donations in Bitcoin because of the environmental emissions it caused. Some agencies stopped accepting Bitcoin and others turned to "greener" cryptocurrencies.[250] The U.S. arm of Greenpeace stopped accepting bitcoin donations after seven years. It said: "As the amount of energy needed to run Bitcoin became clearer, this policy became no longer tenable."[251]

In 2022, the Ukrainian government raised over US$10,000,000 worth of aid through cryptocurrency following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[252]

Criticism

Bitcoin has been characterized as a speculative bubble by eight winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences: Paul Krugman,[253] Robert J. Shiller,[254] Joseph Stiglitz,[255] Richard Thaler,[256] James Heckman,[257] Thomas Sargent,[257] Angus Deaton,[257] and Oliver Hart;[257] and by central bank officials including Alan Greenspan,[258] Agustín Carstens,[259] Vítor Constâncio,[260] and Nout Wellink.[261]

The investors Warren Buffett and George Soros have respectively characterized it as a "mirage"[262] and a "bubble";[263] while the business executives Jack Ma and J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have called it a "bubble"[264] and a "fraud",[265] respectively, although Jamie Dimon later said he regretted dubbing Bitcoin a fraud.[266] BlackRock CEO Laurence D. Fink called Bitcoin an "index of money laundering".[267]

In June 2022, Bill Gates said that cryptocurrencies are "100% based on greater fool theory".[268]

Legal scholars criticize the lack of regulation, which hinders conflict resolution when crypto assets are at the center of a legal dispute, for example a divorce or an inheritance. In Switzerland, jurists generally deny that cryptocurrencies are objects that fall under property law, as cryptocurrencies do not belong to any class of legally defined objects (Typenzwang, the legal numerus clausus). Therefore, it is debated whether anybody could even be sued for embezzlement of cryptocurrency if he/she had access to someone's wallet. However, in the law of obligations and contract law, any kind of object would be legally valid, but the object would have to be tied to an identified counterparty. However, as the more popular cryptocurrencies can be freely and quickly exchanged into legal tender, they are financial assets and have to be taxed and accounted for as such.[269]

Crypto-related suicides

In 2018, an increase in crypto-related suicides was noticed after the cryptocurrency market crashed in August. The situation was particularly critical in Korea as crypto traders were on "suicide watch". A cryptocurrency forum on Reddit even started providing suicide prevention support to affected investors.[270][271][272]

The May 2022 collapse of the Luna currency operated by Terra also led to reports of suicidal investors in crypto-related subreddits.[273]

See also

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Further reading

  • Chayka, Kyle (2 July 2013). "What Comes After Bitcoin?". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  • Guadamuz, Andres; Marsden, Chris (2015). "Blockchains and Bitcoin: Regulatory responses to cryptocurrencies" (PDF). First Monday. 20 (12). doi:10.5210/fm.v20i12.6198. S2CID 811921.

External links

  •   Media related to Cryptocurrency at Wikimedia Commons
  •   Quotations related to Cryptocurrency at Wikiquote
  • Wikiversity:Should cryptocurrencies be banned?

March 13, 2023
cryptocurrency, confused, with, virtual, currency, cryptocurrency, crypto, currency, crypto, digital, currency, designed, work, medium, exchange, through, computer, network, that, reliant, central, authority, such, government, bank, uphold, maintain, decentral. Not to be confused with Virtual currency A cryptocurrency crypto currency or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority such as a government or bank to uphold or maintain it 2 It is a decentralized system for verifying that the parties to a transaction have the money they claim to have eliminating the need for traditional intermediaries such as banks when funds are being transferred between two entities 3 A logo for Bitcoin the first decentralized cryptocurrency The genesis block of Bitcoin s blockchain with a note containing The Times newspaper headline This note has been interpreted as a comment on the instability caused by fractional reserve banking 1 18 Individual coin ownership records are stored in a digital ledger which is a computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records control the creation of additional coins and verify the transfer of coin ownership 4 5 6 Despite their name cryptocurrencies are not considered to be currencies in the traditional sense and while varying treatments have been applied to them including classification as commodities securities and currencies cryptocurrencies are generally viewed as a distinct asset class in practice 7 8 9 Some crypto schemes use validators to maintain the cryptocurrency In a proof of stake model owners put up their tokens as collateral In return they get authority over the token in proportion to the amount they stake Generally these token stakers get additional ownership in the token over time via network fees newly minted tokens or other such reward mechanisms 10 Cryptocurrency does not exist in physical form like paper money and is typically not issued by a central authority Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to a central bank digital currency CBDC 11 When a cryptocurrency is minted or created prior to issuance or issued by a single issuer it is generally considered centralized When implemented with decentralized control each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology typically a blockchain that serves as a public financial transaction database 12 Traditional asset classes like currencies commodities and stocks as well as macroeconomic factors have modest exposures to cryptocurrency returns 13 The first decentralized cryptocurrency was Bitcoin which was first released as open source software in 2009 As of March 2022 there were more than 9 000 other cryptocurrencies in the marketplace of which more than 70 had a market capitalization exceeding 1 billion 14 Contents 1 History 2 Formal definition 2 1 Altcoins 2 1 1 Stablecoins 3 Architecture 3 1 Blockchain 3 2 Nodes 3 2 1 Timestamping 3 3 Mining 3 3 1 GPU price rise 3 4 Wallets 3 5 Anonymity 4 Economics 4 1 Block rewards 4 2 Transaction fees 4 3 Exchanges 4 4 Atomic swaps 4 5 ATMs 4 6 Initial coin offerings 4 7 Price trends 4 8 Volatility 4 9 Databases 5 Social and political aspects 6 Increasing regulation 6 1 United States 6 2 China 6 3 United Kingdom 6 4 South Africa 6 5 South Korea 6 6 Turkey 6 7 El Salvador 6 8 India 6 9 Switzerland 7 Legality 7 1 Advertising bans 7 2 U S tax status 7 3 Legal concerns relating to an unregulated global economy 7 4 Loss theft and fraud 7 5 Money laundering 7 6 Darknet markets 7 7 Wash trades 7 8 As a tool to evade sanctions 8 Impacts and analysis 8 1 Speculation fraud and adoption 8 2 Non fungible tokens 8 3 Banks 8 4 Environmental impact 8 5 Technological limitations 8 6 Academic studies 8 7 Aid agencies 8 8 Criticism 8 9 Crypto related suicides 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External linksHistorySee also History of bitcoin In 1983 American cryptographer David Chaum conceived of a type of cryptographic electronic money called ecash 15 16 Later in 1995 he implemented it through Digicash 17 an early form of cryptographic electronic payments Digicash required user software in order to withdraw notes from a bank and designate specific encrypted keys before it can be sent to a recipient This allowed the digital currency to be untraceable by a third party In 1996 the National Security Agency published a paper entitled How to Make a Mint the Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash describing a cryptocurrency system The paper was first published in an MIT mailing list 18 and later in 1997 in The American Law Review 19 In 1998 Wei Dai described b money an anonymous distributed electronic cash system 20 Shortly thereafter Nick Szabo described bit gold 21 Like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that would follow it bit gold not to be confused with the later gold based exchange BitGold was described as an electronic currency system which required users to complete a proof of work function with solutions being cryptographically put together and published In January 2009 Bitcoin was created by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto It used SHA 256 a cryptographic hash function in its proof of work scheme 22 23 In April 2011 Namecoin was created as an attempt at forming a decentralized DNS In October 2011 Litecoin was released which used scrypt as its hash function instead of SHA 256 Peercoin created in August 2012 used a hybrid of proof of work and proof of stake 24 On 6 August 2014 the UK announced its Treasury had commissioned a study of cryptocurrencies and what role if any they could play in the UK economy The study was also to report on whether regulation should be considered 25 Its final report was published in 2018 26 and it issued a consultation on cryptoassets and stablecoins in January 2021 27 In June 2021 El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender after the Legislative Assembly had voted 62 22 to pass a bill submitted by President Nayib Bukele classifying the cryptocurrency as such 28 In August 2021 Cuba followed with Resolution 215 to recognize and regulate cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin 29 In September 2021 the government of China the single largest market for cryptocurrency declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal This completed a crackdown on cryptocurrency that had previously banned the operation of intermediaries and miners within China 30 On 15 September 2022 the world second largest cryptocurrency at that time Ethereum transitioned its consensus mechanism from proof of work PoW to proof of stake PoS in an upgrade process known as the Merge According to the Ethereum Founder the upgrade can cut Ethereum s energy use by 99 9 and carbon dioxide emissions by 99 9 31 On 11 November 2022 FTX Trading Ltd a cryptocurrency exchange which also operated a crypto hedge fund and had been valued at 18 billion 32 filed for bankruptcy 33 The financial impact of the collapse extended beyond the immediate FTX customer base as reported 34 while at a Reuters conference financial industry executives said that regulators must step in to protect crypto investors 35 Technology analyst Avivah Litan commented on the cryptocurrency ecosystem that everything needs to improve dramatically in terms of user experience controls safety customer service 36 Formal definitionAccording to Jan Lansky a cryptocurrency is a system that meets six conditions 37 The system does not require a central authority its state is maintained through distributed consensus The system keeps an overview of cryptocurrency units and their ownership The system defines whether new cryptocurrency units can be created If new cryptocurrency units can be created the system defines the circumstances of their origin and how to determine the ownership of these new units Ownership of cryptocurrency units can be proved exclusively cryptographically The system allows transactions to be performed in which ownership of the cryptographic units is changed A transaction statement can only be issued by an entity proving the current ownership of these units If two different instructions for changing the ownership of the same cryptographic units are simultaneously entered the system performs at most one of them In March 2018 the word cryptocurrency was added to the Merriam Webster Dictionary 38 Altcoins Further information List of cryptocurrencies Tokens cryptocurrencies and other digital assets other than Bitcoin are collectively known as alternative cryptocurrencies 39 40 41 typically shortened to altcoins or alt coins 42 43 or disparagingly shitcoins 44 Paul Vigna of The Wall Street Journal also described altcoins as alternative versions of Bitcoin 45 given its role as the model protocol for altcoin designers The logo of Ethereum the second largest cryptocurrencyAltcoins often have underlying differences when compared to Bitcoin For example Litecoin aims to process a block every 2 5 minutes rather than Bitcoin s 10 minutes which allows Litecoin to confirm transactions faster than Bitcoin 46 Another example is Ethereum which has smart contract functionality that allows decentralized applications to be run on its blockchain 47 Ethereum was the most used blockchain in 2020 according to Bloomberg News 48 In 2016 it had the largest following of any altcoin according to the New York Times 49 Significant rallies across altcoin markets are often referred to as an altseason 50 51 Stablecoins Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable level of purchasing power 52 Notably these designs are not foolproof as a number of stablecoins have crashed or lost their peg For example on 11 May 2022 Terra s stablecoin UST fell from 1 to 26 cents 53 54 The subsequent failure of Terraform Labs resulted in the loss of nearly 40B invested in the Terra and Luna coins 55 In September 2022 South Korean prosecutors requested the issuance of an Interpol Red Notice against the company s founder Do Kwon 56 In Hong Kong the expected regulatory framework for stablecoins in 2023 24 is being shaped and includes a few considerations 57 ArchitectureThis section duplicates the scope of other articles specifically Blockchain Please discuss this issue on the talk page and edit it to conform with Wikipedia s Manual of Style by replacing the section with a link and a summary of the repeated material or by spinning off the repeated text into an article in its own right August 2022 Cryptocurrency is produced by an entire cryptocurrency system collectively at a rate which is defined when the system is created and which is publicly stated In centralized banking and economic systems such as the US Federal Reserve System corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency citation needed In the case of cryptocurrency companies or governments cannot produce new units and have not so far provided backing for other firms banks or corporate entities which hold asset value measured in it The underlying technical system upon which cryptocurrencies are based was created by Satoshi Nakamoto 58 Within a proof of work system such as Bitcoin the safety integrity and balance of ledgers is maintained by a community of mutually distrustful parties referred to as miners Miners use their computers to help validate and timestamp transactions adding them to the ledger in accordance with a particular timestamping scheme 22 In a proof of stake blockchain transactions are validated by holders of the associated cryptocurrency sometimes grouped together in stake pools Most cryptocurrencies are designed to gradually decrease the production of that currency placing a cap on the total amount of that currency that will ever be in circulation 59 Compared with ordinary currencies held by financial institutions or kept as cash on hand cryptocurrencies can be more difficult for seizure by law enforcement 4 Blockchain Main article Blockchain The validity of each cryptocurrency s coins is provided by a blockchain A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records called blocks which are linked and secured using cryptography 58 60 Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block 60 a timestamp and transaction data 61 By design blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data It is an open distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way 62 For use as a distributed ledger a blockchain is typically managed by a peer to peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks Once recorded the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks which requires collusion of the network majority Blockchains are secure by design and are an example of a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance Decentralized consensus has therefore been achieved with a blockchain 63 Nodes A node is a computer that connects to a cryptocurrency network The node supports the cryptocurrency s network through either relaying transactions validation or hosting a copy of the blockchain In terms of relaying transactions each network computer node has a copy of the blockchain of the cryptocurrency it supports When a transaction is made the node creating the transaction broadcasts details of the transaction using encryption to other nodes throughout the node network so that the transaction and every other transaction is known Node owners are either volunteers those hosted by the organization or body responsible for developing the cryptocurrency blockchain network technology or those who are enticed to host a node to receive rewards from hosting the node network 64 Timestamping Cryptocurrencies use various timestamping schemes to prove the validity of transactions added to the blockchain ledger without the need for a trusted third party The first timestamping scheme invented was the proof of work scheme The most widely used proof of work schemes are based on SHA 256 and scrypt 24 Some other hashing algorithms that are used for proof of work include CryptoNight Blake SHA 3 and X11 Another method is called the proof of stake scheme Proof of stake is a method of securing a cryptocurrency network and achieving distributed consensus through requesting users to show ownership of a certain amount of currency It is different from proof of work systems that run difficult hashing algorithms to validate electronic transactions The scheme is largely dependent on the coin and there s currently no standard form of it Some cryptocurrencies use a combined proof of work and proof of stake scheme 24 Mining Hashcoin mine On a blockchain mining is the validation of transactions For this effort successful miners obtain new cryptocurrency as a reward The reward decreases transaction fees by creating a complementary incentive to contribute to the processing power of the network The rate of generating hashes which validate any transaction has been increased by the use of specialized machines such as FPGAs and ASICs running complex hashing algorithms like SHA 256 and scrypt 65 This arms race for cheaper yet efficient machines has existed since Bitcoin was introduced in 2009 65 Mining is measured by hash rate typically in TH s 66 With more people venturing into the world of virtual currency generating hashes for validation has become more complex over time forcing miners to invest increasingly large sums of money to improve computing performance Consequently the reward for finding a hash has diminished and often does not justify the investment in equipment and cooling facilities to mitigate the heat the equipment produces and the electricity required to run them 67 Popular regions for mining include those with inexpensive electricity a cold climate and jurisdictions with clear and conducive regulations By July 2019 Bitcoin s electricity consumption was estimated to be approximately 7 gigawatts around 0 2 of the global total or equivalent to the energy consumed nationally by Switzerland 68 Some miners pool resources sharing their processing power over a network to split the reward equally according to the amount of work they contributed to the probability of finding a block A share is awarded to members of the mining pool who present a valid partial proof of work As of February 2018 update the Chinese Government has halted trading of virtual currency banned initial coin offerings and shut down mining Many Chinese miners have since relocated to Canada 69 and Texas 70 One company is operating data centers for mining operations at Canadian oil and gas field sites due to low gas prices 71 In June 2018 Hydro Quebec proposed to the provincial government to allocate 500 megawatts of power to crypto companies for mining 72 According to a February 2018 report from Fortune Iceland has become a haven for cryptocurrency miners in part because of its cheap electricity 73 In March 2018 the city of Plattsburgh New York put an 18 month moratorium on all cryptocurrency mining in an effort to preserve natural resources and the character and direction of the city 74 In 2021 Kazakhstan became the second biggest crypto currency mining country producing 18 1 of the global exahash rate The country built a compound containing 50 000 computers near Ekibastuz 75 GPU price rise An increase in cryptocurrency mining increased the demand for graphics cards GPU in 2017 76 The computing power of GPUs makes them well suited to generating hashes Popular favorites of cryptocurrency miners such as Nvidia s GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 graphics cards as well as AMD s RX 570 and RX 580 GPUs doubled or tripled in price or were out of stock 77 A GTX 1070 Ti which was released at a price of 450 sold for as much as 1 100 Another popular card the GTX 1060 6 GB model was released at an MSRP of 250 and sold for almost 500 RX 570 and RX 580 cards from AMD were out of stock for almost a year Miners regularly buy up the entire stock of new GPU s as soon as they are available 78 Nvidia has asked retailers to do what they can when it comes to selling GPUs to gamers instead of miners Boris Bohles PR manager for Nvidia in the German region said Gamers come first for Nvidia 79 Wallets An example paper printable Bitcoin wallet consisting of one Bitcoin address for receiving and the corresponding private key for spending Main article Cryptocurrency wallet A cryptocurrency wallet is a means of storing the public and private keys address or seed which can be used to receive or spend the cryptocurrency 80 With the private key it is possible to write in the public ledger effectively spending the associated cryptocurrency With the public key it is possible for others to send currency to the wallet There exist multiple methods of storing keys or seed in a wallet These methods range from using paper wallets which are public private or seed keys written on paper to using hardware wallets which are hardware to store your wallet information to a digital wallet which is a computer with a software hosting your wallet information to hosting your wallet using an exchange where cryptocurrency is traded or by storing your wallet information on a digital medium such as plaintext 81 Anonymity Main article Privacy and blockchain Bitcoin is pseudonymous rather than anonymous the cryptocurrency in a wallet is not tied to a person but rather to one or more specific keys or addresses 82 Thereby Bitcoin owners are not immediately identifiable but all transactions are publicly available in the blockchain 83 Still cryptocurrency exchanges are often required by law to collect the personal information of their users 84 Some cryptocurrencies such as Monero Zerocoin Zerocash and CryptoNote implement additional measures to increase privacy such as by using zero knowledge proofs 85 86 EconomicsSee also Cryptoeconomics Cryptocurrencies are used primarily outside banking and governmental institutions and are exchanged over the Internet Block rewards Proof of work cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin offer block rewards incentives for miners There has been an implicit belief that whether miners are paid by block rewards or transaction fees does not affect the security of the blockchain but a study suggests that this may not be the case under certain circumstances 87 The rewards paid to miners increase the supply of the cryptocurrency By making sure that verifying transactions is a costly business the integrity of the network can be preserved as long as benevolent nodes control a majority of computing power The verification algorithm requires a lot of processing power and thus electricity in order to make verification costly enough to accurately validate public blockchain Not only do miners have to factor in the costs associated with expensive equipment necessary to stand a chance of solving a hash problem they further must consider the significant amount of electrical power in search of the solution Generally the block rewards outweigh electricity and equipment costs but this may not always be the case 88 The current value not the long term value of the cryptocurrency supports the reward scheme to incentivize miners to engage in costly mining activities 89 Some sources weasel words claim that the current Bitcoin design is very inefficient generating a welfare loss of 1 4 relative to an efficient cash system The main source for this inefficiency is the large mining cost which is estimated to be US 360 million per year This translates into users being willing to accept a cash system with an inflation rate of 230 before being better off using Bitcoin as a means of payment However the efficiency of the Bitcoin system can be significantly improved by optimizing the rate of coin creation and minimizing transaction fees Another potential improvement is to eliminate inefficient mining activities by changing the consensus protocol altogether 90 Transaction fees Transaction fees for cryptocurrency depend mainly on the supply of network capacity at the time versus the demand from the currency holder for a faster transaction citation needed The currency holder can choose a specific transaction fee while network entities process transactions in order of highest offered fee to lowest citation needed Cryptocurrency exchanges can simplify the process for currency holders by offering priority alternatives and thereby determine which fee will likely cause the transaction to be processed in the requested time citation needed For Ethereum transaction fees differ by computational complexity bandwidth use and storage needs while Bitcoin transaction fees differ by transaction size and whether the transaction uses SegWit In September 2018 needs update the median transaction fee for Ether corresponded to 0 017 91 while for Bitcoin it corresponded to 0 55 92 Some cryptocurrencies have no transaction fees and instead rely on client side proof of work as the transaction prioritization and anti spam mechanism 93 94 95 Exchanges Main article Cryptocurrency exchange Cryptocurrency exchanges allow customers to trade cryptocurrencies 96 for other assets such as conventional fiat money or to trade between different digital currencies Crypto marketplaces do not guarantee that an investor is completing a purchase or trade at the optimal price As a result as of 2020 it was possible to arbitrage to find the difference in price across several markets 97 Atomic swaps Atomic swaps are a mechanism where one cryptocurrency can be exchanged directly for another cryptocurrency without the need for a trusted third party such as an exchange 98 ATMs Bitcoin ATM Jordan Kelley founder of Robocoin launched the first Bitcoin ATM in the United States on 20 February 2014 The kiosk installed in Austin Texas is similar to bank ATMs but has scanners to read government issued identification such as a driver s license or a passport to confirm users identities 99 Initial coin offerings An initial coin offering ICO is a controversial means of raising funds for a new cryptocurrency venture An ICO may be used by startups with the intention of avoiding regulation However securities regulators in many jurisdictions including in the U S and Canada have indicated that if a coin or token is an investment contract e g under the Howey test i e an investment of money with a reasonable expectation of profit based significantly on the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others it is a security and is subject to securities regulation In an ICO campaign a percentage of the cryptocurrency usually in the form of tokens is sold to early backers of the project in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies often Bitcoin or Ether 100 101 102 According to PricewaterhouseCoopers four of the 10 biggest proposed initial coin offerings have used Switzerland as a base where they are frequently registered as non profit foundations The Swiss regulatory agency FINMA stated that it would take a balanced approach to ICO projects and would allow legitimate innovators to navigate the regulatory landscape and so launch their projects in a way consistent with national laws protecting investors and the integrity of the financial system In response to numerous requests by industry representatives a legislative ICO working group began to issue legal guidelines in 2018 which are intended to remove uncertainty from cryptocurrency offerings and to establish sustainable business practices 103 Price trends The market capitalization of a cryptocurrency is calculated by multiplying the price by the number of coins in circulation The total cryptocurrency market cap has historically been dominated by Bitcoin accounting for at least 50 of the market cap value where altcoins have increased and decreased in market cap value in relation to Bitcoin Bitcoin s value is largely determined by speculation among other technological limiting factors known as blockchain rewards coded into the architecture technology of Bitcoin itself The cryptocurrency market cap follows a trend known as the halving which is when the block rewards received from Bitcoin are halved due to technological mandated limited factors instilled into Bitcoin which in turn limits the supply of Bitcoin As the date reaches near of a halving twice thus far historically the cryptocurrency market cap increases followed by a downtrend 104 By June 2021 cryptocurrency had begun to be offered by some wealth managers in the US for 401 k s 105 106 107 Volatility Cryptocurrency prices are much more volatile than established financial assets such as stocks For example over one week in May 2022 Bitcoin lost 20 of its value and Ethereum lost 26 while Solana and Cardano lost 41 and 35 respectively The falls were attributed to warnings about inflation By comparison in the same week the Nasdaq tech stock index fell 7 6 per cent and the FTSE 100 was 3 6 per cent down 108 In the longer term of the 10 leading cryptocurrencies identified by the total value of coins in circulation in January 2018 only four Bitcoin Ethereum Cardano and Ripple XRP were still in that position in early 2022 109 The total value of all cryptocurrencies was 2 trillion at the end of 2021 but had halved nine months later 110 111 The Wall Street Journal has commented that the crypto sector has become intertwined with the rest of the capital markets and sensitive to the same forces that drive tech stocks and other risk assets such as inflation forecasts 112 Databases There are also centralized databases outside of blockchains that store crypto market data Compared to the blockchain databases perform fast as there is no verification process Four of the most popular cryptocurrency market databases are CoinMarketCap CoinGecko BraveNewCoin and Cryptocompare 113 Social and political aspectsSee also Crypto anarchism and Cypherpunk According to Alan Feuer of The New York Times libertarians and anarcho capitalists were attracted to the philosophical idea behind Bitcoin Early Bitcoin supporter Roger Ver said At first almost everyone who got involved did so for philosophical reasons We saw Bitcoin as a great idea as a way to separate money from the state 114 Economist Paul Krugman argues that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are something of a cult based in paranoid fantasies of government power 115 David Golumbia says that the ideas influencing Bitcoin advocates emerge from right wing extremist movements such as the Liberty Lobby and the John Birch Society and their anti Central Bank rhetoric or more recently Ron Paul and Tea Party style libertarianism 116 Steve Bannon who owns a good stake in Bitcoin sees cryptocurrency as a form of disruptive populism taking control back from central authorities 117 Bitcoin s founder Satoshi Nakamoto has supported the idea that cryptocurrencies go well with libertarianism It s very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint if we can explain it properly Nakamoto said in 2008 118 According to the European Central Bank the decentralization of money offered by Bitcoin has its theoretical roots in the Austrian school of economics especially with Friedrich von Hayek in his book Denationalisation of Money The Argument Refined 119 in which Hayek advocates a complete free market in the production distribution and management of money to end the monopoly of central banks 120 Increasing regulationThe rise in the popularity of cryptocurrencies and their adoption by financial institutions has led some governments to assess whether regulation is needed to protect users The Financial Action Task Force FATF has defined cryptocurrency related services as virtual asset service providers VASPs and recommended that they be regulated with the same money laundering AML and know your customer KYC requirements as financial institutions 121 In May 2020 the Joint Working Group on interVASP Messaging Standards published IVMS 101 a universal common language for communication of required originator and beneficiary information between VASPs The FATF and financial regulators were informed as the data model was developed 122 In June 2020 FATF updated its guidance to include the Travel Rule for cryptocurrencies a measure which mandates that VASPs obtain hold and exchange information about the originators and beneficiaries of virtual asset transfers 123 Subsequent standardized protocol specifications recommended using JSON for relaying data between VASPs and identity services As of December 2020 the IVMS 101 data model has yet to be finalized and ratified by the three global standard setting bodies that created it 124 The European Commission published a digital finance strategy in September 2020 This included a draft regulation on Markets in Crypto Assets MiCA which aimed to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets in the EU 125 126 On 10 June 2021 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision proposed that banks that held cryptocurrency assets must set aside capital to cover all potential losses For instance if a bank were to hold Bitcoin worth 2 billion it would be required to set aside enough capital to cover the entire 2 billion This is a more extreme standard than banks are usually held to when it comes to other assets However this is a proposal and not a regulation The IMF is seeking a coordinated consistent and comprehensive approach to supervising cryptocurrencies Tobias Adrian the IMF s financial counsellor and head of its monetary and capital markets department said in a January 2022 interview that Agreeing global regulations is never quick But if we start now we can achieve the goal of maintaining financial stability while also enjoying the benefits which the underlying technological innovations bring 127 United States In 2021 17 states passed laws and resolutions concerning cryptocurrency regulation 128 The U S Securities and Exchange Commission SEC is considering what steps to take On 8 July 2021 Senator Elizabeth Warren part of the Senate Banking Committee wrote to the chairman of the SEC and demanded that it provide answers on cryptocurrency regulation by 28 July 2021 129 needs update due to the increase in cryptocurrency exchange use and the danger this poses to consumers On 17 February 2022 the Justice department named Eun Young Choi as the first director of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to aid in identification of and dealing with misuse of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets 130 In February 2023 the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC ruled that cryptocurrency exchange Kraken s estimated 42 billion in staked assets globally operated as an illegal securities seller The company agreed to a 30 million settlement with the SEC and to cease selling its staking service in the U S The case would impact other major crypto exchanges operating staking programs 131 China In September 2017 China banned ICOs to cause abnormal return from cryptocurrency decreasing during announcement window The liquidity changes by banning ICOs in China was temporarily negative while the liquidity effect became positive after news 132 On 18 May 2021 China banned financial institutions and payment companies from being able to provide cryptocurrency transaction related services 133 This led to a sharp fall in the price of the biggest proof of work cryptocurrencies For instance Bitcoin fell 31 Ethereum fell 44 Binance Coin fell 32 and Dogecoin fell 30 134 Proof of work mining was the next focus with regulators in popular mining regions citing the use of electricity generated from highly polluting sources such as coal to create Bitcoin and Ethereum 135 In September 2021 the Chinese government declared all cryptocurrency transactions of any kind illegal completing its crackdown on cryptocurrency 30 United Kingdom In the United Kingdom as of 10 January 2021 all cryptocurrency firms such as exchanges advisors and professionals that have either a presence market product or provide services within the UK market must register with the Financial Conduct Authority Additionally on 27 June 2021 the financial watchdog demanded that Binance the world s largest cryptocurrency exchange 136 cease all regulated activities in the UK 137 South Africa South Africa which has seen a large number of scams related to cryptocurrency is said to be putting a regulatory timeline in place that will produce a regulatory framework 138 The largest scam occurred in April 2021 where the two founders of an African based cryptocurrency exchange called Africrypt Raees Cajee and Ameer Cajee disappeared with 3 8 billion worth of Bitcoin 139 Additionally Mirror Trading International disappeared with 170 million worth of cryptocurrency in January 2021 139 South Korea In March 2021 South Korea implemented new legislation to strengthen their oversight of digital assets This legislation requires all digital asset managers providers and exchanges to be registered with the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit in order to operate in South Korea 140 Registering with this unit requires that all exchanges are certified by the Information Security Management System and that they ensure all customers have real name bank accounts It also requires that the CEO and board members of the exchanges have not been convicted of any crimes and that the exchange holds sufficient levels of deposit insurance to cover losses arising from hacks 140 Turkey On 30 April 2021 the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey banned the use of cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets for making purchases on the grounds that the use of cryptocurrencies for such payments poses significant transaction risks 141 El Salvador On 9 June 2021 El Salvador announced that it will adopt Bitcoin as legal tender the first country to do so 142 India At present India neither prohibits nor allows investment in the cryptocurrency market In 2020 the Supreme Court of India had lifted the ban on cryptocurrency which was imposed by the Reserve Bank of India 143 144 145 146 Since then an investment in cryptocurrency is considered legitimate though there is still ambiguity about the issues regarding the extent and payment of tax on the income accrued thereupon and also its regulatory regime But it is being contemplated that the Indian Parliament will soon pass a specific law to either ban or regulate the cryptocurrency market in India 147 Expressing his public policy opinion on the Indian cryptocurrency market to a well known online publication a leading public policy lawyer and Vice President of SAARCLAW South Asian Association for Regional Co operation in Law Hemant Batra has said that the cryptocurrency market has now become very big with involvement of billions of dollars in the market hence it is now unattainable and irreconcilable for the government to completely ban all sorts of cryptocurrency and its trading and investment 148 He mooted regulating the cryptocurrency market rather than completely banning it He favoured following IMF and FATF guidelines in this regard Switzerland Switzerland was one of the first countries to implement the FATF s Travel Rule FINMA the Swiss regulator issued its own guidance to VASPs in 2019 The guidance followed the FATF s Recommendation 16 however with stricter requirements According to FINMA s 149 requirements VASPs need to verify the identity of the beneficiary of the transfer LegalityMain article Legality of cryptocurrency by country or territory The legal status of cryptocurrencies varies substantially from country to country and is still undefined or changing in many of them At least one study has shown that broad generalizations about the use of Bitcoin in illicit finance are significantly overstated and that blockchain analysis is an effective crime fighting and intelligence gathering tool 150 While some countries have explicitly allowed their use and trade 151 others have banned or restricted it According to the Library of Congress in 2018 an absolute ban on trading or using cryptocurrencies applies in eight countries Algeria Bolivia Egypt Iraq Morocco Nepal Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates An implicit ban applies in another 15 countries which include Bahrain Bangladesh China Colombia the Dominican Republic Georgia Indonesia Iran Kuwait Lesotho Lithuania Macau Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia and Taiwan 152 In the United States and Canada state and provincial securities regulators coordinated through the North American Securities Administrators Association are investigating Bitcoin scams and ICOs in 40 jurisdictions 153 Various government agencies departments and courts have classified Bitcoin differently China Central Bank banned the handling of Bitcoins by financial institutions in China in early 2014 In Russia though owning cryptocurrency is legal its residents are only allowed to purchase goods from other residents using the Russian ruble while nonresidents are allowed to use foreign currency 154 Regulations and bans that apply to Bitcoin probably extend to similar cryptocurrency systems 155 In August 2018 the Bank of Thailand announced its plans to create its own cryptocurrency the Central Bank Digital Currency CBDC 156 Advertising bans Cryptocurrency advertisements have been banned on the following platforms Google 157 Twitter 157 Facebook 157 Bing 158 Snapchat LinkedIn 159 MailChimp 160 Baidu Tencent Weibo Line Yandex 159 U S tax status On 25 March 2014 the United States Internal Revenue Service IRS ruled that Bitcoin will be treated as property for tax purposes Therefore virtual currencies are considered commodities subject to capital gains tax 161 Legal concerns relating to an unregulated global economy As the popularity and demand for online currencies has increased since the inception of Bitcoin in 2009 162 so have concerns that such an unregulated person to person global economy that cryptocurrencies offer may become a threat to society Concerns abound that altcoins may become tools for anonymous web criminals 163 Cryptocurrency networks display a lack of regulation that has been criticized as enabling criminals who seek to evade taxes and launder money Money laundering issues are also present in regular bank transfers however with bank to bank wire transfers for instance the account holder must at least provide a proven identity Transactions that occur through the use and exchange of these altcoins are independent from formal banking systems and therefore can make tax evasion simpler for individuals Since charting taxable income is based upon what a recipient reports to the revenue service it becomes extremely difficult to account for transactions made using existing cryptocurrencies a mode of exchange that is complex and difficult to track 163 Systems of anonymity that most cryptocurrencies offer can also serve as a simpler means to launder money Rather than laundering money through an intricate net of financial actors and offshore bank accounts laundering money through altcoins can be achieved through anonymous transactions 163 Cryptocurrency makes legal enforcement against extremist groups more complicated which consequently strengthens them 164 White supremacist Richard Spencer went as far as to declare Bitcoin the currency of the alt right 165 Loss theft and fraud Main article Cryptocurrency and crime In February 2014 the world s largest Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox declared bankruptcy Likely due to theft the company claimed that it had lost nearly 750 000 Bitcoins belonging to their clients This added up to approximately 7 of all Bitcoins in existence worth a total of 473 million Mt Gox blamed hackers who had exploited the transaction malleability problems in the network The price of a Bitcoin fell from a high of about 1 160 in December to under 400 in February 166 On 21 November 2017 Tether announced that it had been hacked losing 31 million in USDT from its core treasury wallet 167 On 7 December 2017 Slovenian cryptocurrency exchange Nicehash reported that hackers had stolen over 70M using a hijacked company computer 168 On 19 December 2017 Yapian the owner of South Korean exchange Youbit filed for bankruptcy after suffering two hacks that year 169 170 Customers were still granted access to 75 of their assets In May 2018 Bitcoin Gold had its transactions hijacked and abused by unknown hackers 171 Exchanges lost an estimated 18m and Bitcoin Gold was delisted from Bittrex after it refused to pay its share of the damages On 13 September 2018 Homero Josh Garza was sentenced to 21 months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release 172 Garza had founded the cryptocurrency startups GAW Miners and ZenMiner in 2014 acknowledged in a plea agreement that the companies were part of a pyramid scheme and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2015 The U S Securities and Exchange Commission separately brought a civil enforcement action against Garza who was eventually ordered to pay a judgment of 9 1 million plus 700 000 in interest The SEC s complaint stated that Garza through his companies had fraudulently sold investment contracts representing shares in the profits they claimed would be generated from mining 173 In January 2018 Japanese exchange Coincheck reported that hackers had stolen 530M worth of cryptocurrencies 174 In June 2018 South Korean exchange Coinrail was hacked losing over 37M worth of cryptos 175 The hack worsened an already ongoing cryptocurrency selloff by an additional 42 billion 176 On 9 July 2018 the exchange Bancor whose code and fundraising had been subjects of controversy had 23 5 million in cryptocurrency stolen 177 A 2020 EU report found that users had lost crypto assets worth hundreds of millions of US dollars in security breaches at exchanges and storage providers Between 2011 and 2019 reported breaches ranged from four to twelve a year In 2019 more than a billion dollars worth of cryptoassets was reported stolen Stolen assets typically find their way to illegal markets and are used to fund further criminal activity 178 According to a 2020 report produced by the United States Attorney General s Cyber Digital Task Force the following three categories make up the majority of illicit cryptocurrency uses 1 financial transactions associated with the commission of crimes 2 money laundering and the shielding of legitimate activity from tax reporting or other legal requirements or 3 crimes such as theft directly implicating the cryptocurrency marketplace itself The report concludes that for cryptocurrency to realize its truly transformative potential it is imperative that these risks be addressed and that the government has legal and regulatory tools available at its disposal to confront the threats posed by cryptocurrency s illicit uses 179 180 According to the UK 2020 national risk assessment a comprehensive assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risk in the UK the risk of using cryptoassets such as Bitcoin for money laundering and terrorism financing is assessed as medium from low in the previous 2017 report 181 Legal scholars suggested that the money laundering opportunities may be more perceived than real 182 Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis concluded that illicit activities like cybercrime money laundering and terrorism financing made up only 0 15 of all crypto transactions conducted in 2021 representing a total of 14 billion 183 184 185 In December 2021 Monkey Kingdom a NFT project based in Hong Kong lost US 1 3 million worth of cryptocurrencies via a phishing link used by the hacker 186 Money laundering See also Cryptocurrency and crime According to blockchain data company Chainalysis criminals laundered US 8 600 000 000 worth of cryptocurrency in 2021 up by 30 from the previous year 187 The data suggests that rather than managing numerous illicit havens cybercriminals make use of a small group of purpose built centralized exchanges for sending and receiving illicit cryptocurrency In 2021 those exchanges received 47 of funds sent by crime linked addresses 188 Almost 2 2bn worth of cryptocurrencies was embezzled from DeFi protocols in 2021 which represents 72 of all cryptocurrency theft in 2021 According to Bloomberg and the New York Times Federation Tower a two skyscraper complex in the heart of Moscow City is home to many cryptocurrency businesses under suspicion of facilitating extensive money laundering including accepting illicit cryptocurrency funds obtained through scams darknet markets and ransomware 189 Notable businesses include Garantex Eggchange Cashbank Buy Bitcoin Tetchange Bitzlato and Suex which was sanctioned by the U S in 2021 Bitzlato founder and owner Anatoly Legkodymov was arrested following money laundering charges by the United States Department of Justice 190 Dark money has also been flowing into Russia through a dark web marketplace called Hydra which is powered by cryptocurrency and enjoyed more than 1 billion in sales in 2020 according to Chainalysis 191 The platform demands that sellers liquidate cryptocurrency only through certain regional exchanges which has made it difficult for investigators to trace the money Almost 74 of ransomware revenue in 2021 over 400 million worth of cryptocurrency went to software strains likely affiliated with Russia where oversight is notoriously limited 189 However Russians are also leaders in the benign adoption of cryptocurrencies as the ruble is unreliable and President Putin favours the idea of overcoming the excessive domination of the limited number of reserve currencies 192 Darknet markets Main article Darknet market Properties of cryptocurrencies gave them popularity in applications such as a safe haven in banking crises and means of payment which also led to the cryptocurrency use in controversial settings in the form of online black markets such as Silk Road 163 The original Silk Road was shut down in October 2013 and there have been two more versions in use since then In the year following the initial shutdown of Silk Road the number of prominent dark markets increased from four to twelve while the amount of drug listings increased from 18 000 to 32 000 163 Darknet markets present challenges in regard to legality Cryptocurrency used in dark markets are not clearly or legally classified in almost all parts of the world In the U S Bitcoins are labelled as virtual assets citation needed This type of ambiguous classification puts pressure on law enforcement agencies around the world to adapt to the shifting drug trade of dark markets 193 unreliable source Wash trades Various studies have found that crypto trading is rife with wash trading Wash trading is a process illegal in some jurisdictions involving buyers and sellers being the same person or group and may be used to manipulate the price of a cryptocurrency or inflate volume artificially Exchanges with higher volumes can demand higher premiums from token issuers 194 A study from 2019 concluded that up to 80 of trades on unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges could be wash trades 194 A 2019 report by Bitwise Asset Management claimed that 95 of all Bitcoin trading volume reported on major website CoinMarketCap had been artificially generated and of 81 exchanges studied only 10 provided legitimate volume figures 195 As a tool to evade sanctions In 2022 cryptocurrencies attracted attention when Western nations imposed severe economic sanctions on Russia in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine in February However American sources warned in March that some crypto transactions could potentially be used to evade economic sanctions against Russia and Belarus 196 In April 2022 the computer programmer Virgil Griffith received a five year prison sentence in the US for attending a Pyongyang cryptocurrency conference where he gave a presentation on blockchains which might be used for sanctions evasion 197 Impacts and analysisExternal video Cryptocurrencies looking beyond the hype Hyun Song Shin Bank for International Settlements 2 48 198 The Bank for International Settlements summarized several criticisms of cryptocurrencies in Chapter V of their 2018 annual report The criticisms include the lack of stability in their price the high energy consumption high and variable transactions costs the poor security and fraud at cryptocurrency exchanges vulnerability to debasement from forking and the influence of miners 198 199 200 Speculation fraud and adoption See also Cryptocurrency bubble Cryptocurrency and crime and Criminal activity on Bitcoin s network Cryptocurrencies have been compared to Ponzi schemes pyramid schemes 201 and economic bubbles 202 such as housing market bubbles 203 Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management stated in 2017 that digital currencies were nothing but an unfounded fad or perhaps even a pyramid scheme based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it and compared them to the tulip mania 1637 South Sea Bubble 1720 and dot com bubble 1999 which all experienced profound price booms and busts 204 Regulators in several countries have warned against cryptocurrency and some have taken measures to dissuade users 205 However research in 2021 by the UK s financial regulator suggests such warnings either went unheard or were ignored Fewer than one in 10 potential cryptocurrency buyers were aware of consumer warnings on the FCA website and 12 of crypto users were not aware that their holdings were not protected by statutory compensation 206 207 Of 1 000 respondents between the ages of eighteen and forty almost 70 falsely assumed cryptocurrencies were regulated 75 of younger crypto investors claimed to be driven by competition with friends and family 58 said that social media enticed them to make high risk investments 208 The FCA recommends making use of its warning list which flags unauthorized financial firms 209 Many banks do not offer virtual currency services themselves and can refuse to do business with virtual currency companies 210 In 2014 Gareth Murphy a senior banking officer suggested that the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies may lead to too much money being obfuscated blinding economists who would use such information to better steer the economy 211 While traditional financial products have strong consumer protections in place there is no intermediary with the power to limit consumer losses if Bitcoins are lost or stolen One of the features cryptocurrency lacks in comparison to credit cards for example is consumer protection against fraud such as chargebacks The French regulator Autorite des marches financiers AMF lists 16 websites of companies that solicit investment in cryptocurrency without being authorized to do so in France 212 An October 2021 paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that Bitcoin suffers from systemic risk as the top 10 000 addresses control about one third of all Bitcoin in circulation 213 It s even worse for Bitcoin miners with 0 01 controlling 50 of the capacity According to researcher Flipside Crypto less than 2 of anonymous accounts control 95 of all available Bitcoin supply 214 This is considered risky as a great deal of the market is in the hands of a few entities A paper by John Griffin a finance professor at the University of Texas and Amin Shams a graduate student found that in 2017 the price of Bitcoin had been substantially inflated using another cryptocurrency Tether 215 Roger Lowenstein author of Bank of America The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve says in a New York Times story that FTX will face over 8 billion in claims 216 Non fungible tokens Non fungible tokens NFTs are digital assets that represent art collectibles gaming etc Like crypto their data is stored on the blockchain NFTs are bought and traded using cryptocurrency The Ethereum blockchain was the first place where NFTs were implemented but now many other blockchains have created their own versions of NFTs The popularity of NFTs has increased since 2021 217 Banks As the first big Wall Street bank to embrace cryptocurrencies Morgan Stanley announced on 17 March 2021 that they will be offering access to Bitcoin funds for their wealthy clients through three funds which enable Bitcoin ownership for investors with an aggressive risk tolerance 218 BNY Mellon on 11 February 2021 announced that it would begin offering cryptocurrency services to its clients 219 On 20 April 2021 220 Venmo added support to its platform to enable customers to buy hold and sell cryptocurrencies 221 In October 2021 financial services company Mastercard announced it is working with digital asset manager Bakkt on a platform that would allow any bank or merchant on the Mastercard network to offer cryptocurrency services 222 Environmental impact Main article Environmental impact of cryptocurrencies See also Bitcoin Environmental impact Mining for proof of work cryptocurrencies requires enormous amounts of electricity and consequently comes with a large carbon footprint due to causing greenhouse gas emissions 223 Proof of work blockchains such as Bitcoin Ethereum Litecoin and Monero were estimated to have added between 3 million and 15 million tons of carbon dioxide CO2 to the atmosphere in the period from 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2017 224 By November 2018 Bitcoin was estimated to have an annual energy consumption of 45 8TWh generating 22 0 to 22 9 million tons of CO2 rivalling nations like Jordan and Sri Lanka 225 By the end of 2021 Bitcoin was estimated to produce 65 4 million tons of CO2 as much as Greece 226 and consume between 91 and 177 terawatt hours annually 227 228 Critics have also identified a large electronic waste problem in disposing of mining rigs 229 Mining hardware is improving at a fast rate quickly resulting in older generations of hardware 230 Bitcoin is the least energy efficient cryptocurrency using 707 6 kilowatt hours of electricity per transaction 231 The world s second largest cryptocurrency Ethereum uses 62 56 kilowatt hours of electricity per transaction 232 XRP is the world s most energy efficient cryptocurrency using 0 0079 kilowatt hours of electricity per transaction 233 Although the biggest PoW blockchains consume energy on the scale of medium sized countries the annual power demand from proof of stake PoS blockchains is on a scale equivalent to a housing estate The Times identified six environmentally friendly cryptocurrencies Chia IOTA Cardano Nano Solarcoin and Bitgreen 234 Academics and researchers have used various methods for estimating the energy use and energy efficiency of blockchains A study of the six largest proof of stake networks in May 2021 concluded Cardano has the lowest electricity use per node Polkadot has the lowest electricity use overall and Solana has the lowest electricity use per transaction In terms of annual consumption kWh yr the figures were Polkadot 70 237 Tezos 113 249 Avalanche 489 311 Algorand 512 671 Cardano 598 755 and Solana 1 967 930 This equates to Polkadot consuming 7 times the electricity of an average U S home Cardano 57 homes and Solana 200 times as much The research concluded that PoS networks consumed 0 001 the electricity of the Bitcoin network 235 University College London researchers reached a similar conclusion 236 Variable renewable energy power stations could invest in Bitcoin mining to reduce curtailment hedge electricity price risk stabilize the grid increase the profitability of renewable energy power stations and therefore accelerate transition to sustainable energy 237 238 239 240 241 Technological limitations There are also purely technical elements to consider For example technological advancement in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin result in high up front costs to miners in the form of specialized hardware and software 242 Cryptocurrency transactions are normally irreversible after a number of blocks confirm the transaction Additionally cryptocurrency private keys can be permanently lost from local storage due to malware data loss or the destruction of the physical media This precludes the cryptocurrency from being spent resulting in its effective removal from the markets 243 Academic studies Main article Ledger journal In September 2015 the establishment of the peer reviewed academic journal Ledger ISSN 2379 5980 was announced It covers studies of cryptocurrencies and related technologies and is published by the University of Pittsburgh 244 The journal encourages authors to digitally sign a file hash of submitted papers which will then be timestamped into the Bitcoin blockchain Authors are also asked to include a personal Bitcoin address in the first page of their papers 245 246 Aid agencies A number of aid agencies have started accepting donations in cryptocurrencies including UNICEF 247 Christopher Fabian principal adviser at UNICEF Innovation said the children s fund would uphold donor protocols meaning that people making donations online would have to pass checks before they were allowed to deposit funds 248 249 However in 2021 there was a backlash against donations in Bitcoin because of the environmental emissions it caused Some agencies stopped accepting Bitcoin and others turned to greener cryptocurrencies 250 The U S arm of Greenpeace stopped accepting bitcoin donations after seven years It said As the amount of energy needed to run Bitcoin became clearer this policy became no longer tenable 251 In 2022 the Ukrainian government raised over US 10 000 000 worth of aid through cryptocurrency following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine 252 Criticism Bitcoin has been characterized as a speculative bubble by eight winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences Paul Krugman 253 Robert J Shiller 254 Joseph Stiglitz 255 Richard Thaler 256 James Heckman 257 Thomas Sargent 257 Angus Deaton 257 and Oliver Hart 257 and by central bank officials including Alan Greenspan 258 Agustin Carstens 259 Vitor Constancio 260 and Nout Wellink 261 The investors Warren Buffett and George Soros have respectively characterized it as a mirage 262 and a bubble 263 while the business executives Jack Ma and J P Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have called it a bubble 264 and a fraud 265 respectively although Jamie Dimon later said he regretted dubbing Bitcoin a fraud 266 BlackRock CEO Laurence D Fink called Bitcoin an index of money laundering 267 In June 2022 Bill Gates said that cryptocurrencies are 100 based on greater fool theory 268 Legal scholars criticize the lack of regulation which hinders conflict resolution when crypto assets are at the center of a legal dispute for example a divorce or an inheritance In Switzerland jurists generally deny that cryptocurrencies are objects that fall under property law as cryptocurrencies do not belong to any class of legally defined objects Typenzwang the legal numerus clausus Therefore it is debated whether anybody could even be sued for embezzlement of cryptocurrency if he she had access to someone s wallet However in the law of obligations and contract law any kind of object would be legally valid but the object would have to be tied to an identified 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Be an Oxymoron news bloomberglaw com Retrieved 16 January 2022 One way to invest in Bitcoin that has a positive effect on renewable energy is to encourage mining operations near wind or solar sites This provides a customer for power that might otherwise need to be transmitted or stored saving money as well as carbon Eid Bilal Islam Md Rabiul Shah Rakibuzzaman Nahid Abdullah Al Kouzani Abbas Z Mahmud M A Parvez 1 November 2021 Enhanced Profitability of Photovoltaic Plants By Utilizing Cryptocurrency Based Mining Load IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity 31 8 1 5 Bibcode 2021ITAS 3196503E doi 10 1109 TASC 2021 3096503 hdl 20 500 11782 2513 ISSN 1558 2515 S2CID 237245955 The grid connected photovoltaic PV power plants PVPPs are booming nowadays The main problem facing the PV power plants deployment is the intermittency which leads to instability of the grid This paper investigating the usage of a customized load cryptocurrency mining rig to create an added value for the owner of the plant and increase the ROI of the project The developed strategy is able to keep the profitability as high as possible during the fluctuation of the mining network Bastian Pinto Carlos L Araujo Felipe V de S Brandao Luiz E Gomes Leonardo L 1 March 2021 Hedging renewable energy investments with Bitcoin mining Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 138 110520 doi 10 1016 j rser 2020 110520 ISSN 1364 0321 S2CID 228861639 Windfarms can hedge electricity price risk by investing in Bitcoin mining These findings which can also be applied to other renewable energy sources may be of interest to both the energy generator as well as the system regulator as it creates an incentive for early investment in sustainable and renewable energy sources Rennie Ellie 2021 Climate change and the legitimacy of Bitcoin SSRN Electronic Journal doi 10 2139 ssrn 3961105 ISSN 1556 5068 S2CID 244155800 Want to make money off Bitcoin mining Hint Don t mine Archived 5 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine The Week 15 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state of the law of crypto currencies PDF Aktuelle Juristische Praxis Pratique Juridique Actuelle in German 2 Ghosh Monika 15 June 2021 Are Crypto Related Suicides A Real Problem www jumpstartmag com Retrieved 2 May 2022 Emem Mark 12 June 2019 Chinese Bitcoin Trader Commits Suicide after Losing 2 000 BTC on 100x Leverage Bet finance yahoo com Retrieved 2 May 2022 Evans Holly Sharman Laura 17 February 2022 Bitcoin trader 23 takes own life after break up and losing all his money Mirror Retrieved 2 May 2022 Sarlin Jon 17 May 2022 Stablecoins were supposed to be stable Then the crash came CNN Retrieved 30 May 2022 Further readingChayka Kyle 2 July 2013 What Comes After Bitcoin Pacific Standard Retrieved 18 January 2014 Guadamuz Andres Marsden Chris 2015 Blockchains and Bitcoin Regulatory responses to cryptocurrencies PDF First Monday 20 12 doi 10 5210 fm v20i12 6198 S2CID 811921 External links Media related to Cryptocurrency at Wikimedia Commons Quotations related to Cryptocurrency at Wikiquote Wikiversity Should cryptocurrencies be banned Portals Business and economics Free and open source software Money Numismatics Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cryptocurrency amp oldid 1141142712, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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