Research questions:

● What is the role of cryptocurrency in today’s economy?

○ I am interested in learning more about the origin of cryptocurrency, reasons for
the popularization of cryptocurrency, whether or not cryptocurrency is a viable
legal alternative to standard currency, whether it is a universal currency across
borders, how it is applicable to investment, what are the advantages and
disadvantages, what are the risks? What financial experts say about it? Who
invests in it? Why would investing in cryptocurrency be worthwhile or not
worthwhile? What is the difference between cryptocurrency and e-currency? I
want to become more knowledgeable about this topic so that I can form an
educated opinion on it.
● Overview of the issue:​ According to Sahdev: “what cryptocurrency is, is essentially the
tokenization of electrons, as opposed to petroleum molecules and it is becoming a
reference storage for all the things that are useful in your life.”
○ My sources:
■ https://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencewintermeyer/2018/10/26/the-rol
e-of-cryptocurrencies-in-future-society/#20f0e116787d​ “The Role of
Cryptocurrencies In Future Society”​ by Lawrence Wintermeyer, author
of fintech, digital, and investment categories of forbes magazine.
Wintermeyer interviews Navroop Sahdev, who is “a fellow at MIT
connection science” as stated by Wintermeyer. It is an interview that was
conducted to gather more information about cryptocurrencies and their
role in the future economy. It was written in October of 2018 in response
to the collapse of the cryptocurrency market in June of 2018. Because it
was written a few months after the collapse, it is still a relevant article.
● Overview of forbes article: Cryptocurrency could play a role in
helping the UN achieve their Sustainable Development Goals by
2030. Cryptocurrency could “help us innovate and move from
centralized systems” According to TEDx speaker Navroop Sahdev,
cryptocurrency can be valuable in the same sense that money in a
traditional sense is valuable: “Money’s a matter of functions four,
a medium, a measure, a standard, a store.” Can increase global
trade. The internet transitions the economy to digital assets, of
which bitcoin is one. “Data is a primary asset” Apple, amazon,
alphabet, and microsoft are the 4 most vauable comapnies on
fortune 500. The value of money in a digital sense is a new
concept, but one that is evolving nonetheless. Wintermeyer states
that “cryptocurrencies can serve as a stable source of
value…[especially] for countries with a weak national currency or
 excess inflation.” comparison of cryptocurrency to oil. Value of
cryptocurrency based on “market demand and supply”. Believes
that for cryptocurrency to be adopted by the masses, it needs to
have a stable price. Believes that power/control must be
decentralized. Regulation of cryptocurrency is an issue.
■ http://ide.mit.edu/economics-digital-cryptocurrencies-and-blockchain-chri
stian-catalini​ ​The Economics of Digital Cryptocurrencies and the
Blockchain with Christian Catalini ; ​Christian Catalini is from MIT
Sloan School of Mgmt who took part in Bitcoin while a junior on campus.
He took part of the bitcoin initiative on his campus to “learn something
from it from a research perspective.”
● Overview of MIT article: Christian feels that there is a lot of
uncertainty surrounding Bitcoin. He and his peers were interested
in joining Bitcoin to investigate its “financial transaction privacy”
■ https://bitcoin.org/en/how-it-works​ ​How Does Bitcoin work?​ Uses
cryptography to create block chain transactions, which are “transfers of
value between bitcoin wallets.” there is a signature portion of the
transaction for security reasons. “Through a process called mining,
transactions are broadcast to the network within 10-20 minutes”. Once
transactions are added to the block chain, they cannot be altered.
■ https://money.cnn.com/infographic/technology/what-is-bitcoin/index.html
What is bitcoin? ​An article published by Tal Yellin, Dominic Aratari, and
Jose Pagliery of CNN defines bitcoin in layman's terms.
● Bitcoin is a currency through which transactions are made without
a middle man. There are no credit fees. International payments are
convenient. Bitcoin exchanges can occur through the use of
various currencies. There are different exchange platforms by
which these exchanges are conducted. Security of these platforms
has been an issue in the past. Bitcoins can be sent digitally.
Bitcoins are formed when individuals successfully mine for
bitcoins, or solve an algorithm. Bitcoins are “stored in a digital
wallet...bitcoin wallets are not insured by the FDIC.” The way
bitcoins are stored is also subject to security issues. Exchanges
through bitcoin are anonymous.
● Importance
○ The topic of bitcoin is important to me because I am a business major. It is one
example of how technology can be applied to govern the financial sector of the
economy. I am fascinated by the idea of a currency that is unregulated by the
government and puts countries on a level playing field in terms of a zero
exchange rate. I am fascinated to observe how the value of bitcoin fluctuates over
time, how its importance will increase/decrease, and how the government will
attempt to regulate it. For instance, how will it deal with individuals who use
bitcoin but have not reported their earnings? As technology continues to pave the
way for the future and dominates every aspect of society, I think it is important to
be knowledgeable about how this is being accomplished.