PROF.V.B.

SHAH INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT,

R.V.PATEL COLLEGE OF COMMERCE (ENG.MED.),
V.L.SHAH COLLEGE OF COMMERCE (GUJ.MED.),
SUTEX BANK COLLEGE OF COMPUTER APPLICATIONS &
SCIENCE, AMROLI
(Accredited ‘B’ by NAAC)
Affiliated to

VEER NARMAD SOUTH GUJARAT UNIVERSITY, SURAT

PROJECT REPORT

ON

“Cryptocurrencies as a Financial Tool: Acceptance

Factors”
Conducted on behalf of Angel Broking Ltd,

from Dt. 27/12/2021 to Dt.27/02/2022

AS A PARTIAL REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE

OF

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

(B.B.A.)

SUBMITTED BY: GUIDED BY:

Diya Rabari (149) DR.NILESH PATEL

T.Y B.B.A. Semester: - VI

Finance Specialization

Academic Year: - 2021-22

 DECLARATION
I, Diya Rabari Bharmalbhai undersigned, a student of Prof. V.B.Shah Institute
of Management Surat, declare that the project report entitled “Cryptocurrencies

as a Financial Tool: Acceptance Factors” at “Angel Broking Ltd” from 27/12/2021

to 27/02/2022prepared Under Guidance of Dr.Nilesh Patel& submitted to Dr.Nilesh

Patel, Asst. Professor of Prof. V.B.Shah Institute of Management, Surat.

This is my own work & the report prepared there in is based on my study and
experience, during the tenure of my study.

I will not use this project report in future and will not submit the same to any other

university or institute or any other publisher without written permission of my guide

I further declare that the result of my findings & research in the subject is original in

nature and has not been previously submitted either in part or in whole to any other

institute or university for any degree. If it is found, I shall be only responsible for its

consequences.

Place: Amroli,Surat

Date: 04/03/2021

__________________

Diya Rabari

149
 PROF V.B. SHAH INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT
R.V. PATEL COLLEGE OF COMMERCE (E.M)

V.L. SHAH COLLEGE OF COMMERCE (G.M)

SUTEX BANK COLLEGE OF COMPUTER APPLICATIONS & SCIENCE,

AMROLI,SURAT

FACULTY GUIDE CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Miss. Diya Rabari Roll.N0 149 a student of Finance
Specialization from Prof.V.B.Shah Institute of Management, Amroli,
affiliated to Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat, has done her full-
semester project work from 27/12/2021 to 27/02/2022.The project work
entitled “Cryptocurrencies as a Financial Tool: Acceptance Factors”
embodies the original work done by her.

DR. NILESH PATEL DR. MUKESH R. GOYANI

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR PRINCIPAL

Acknowledgements
I am extremely thankful VEER NARMAD SOUTH GUJARAT UNIVERSITY for
offering BBA course. l also wishes to extend my heart-felt thanks and appreciation to Dr.
MUKESH R. GOYANI, the principal of PROF. V.B. SHAH INSTITUTE OF
MANAGEMENT, R.V. PATEL COLLEGE OF COMMERCE (ENG.MED.), V.L. SHAH
COLLEGE OF COMMERCE (GUJ.MED.), SUTEX BANK COLLEGE OF COMPUTER
APPLICATIONS & SCIENCE, AMROLI, for his constant co-operation and support.

I would like to show my greatest appreciation to BBA coordinator Dr. SWATI MEHTA for
their kind assistance and cooperation during the development of my project.

On this great occasion of accomplishment of our project on Cryptocurrencies as a

Financial Tool: Acceptance Factors”, I would like to sincerely express our gratitude to
DR. NILESH PATEL Asst. Professor, who has been supported through the completion of
this project.

I am really obliged and thankful to Dr. ANIL MAISURIYA, who has been an important
support in this research.

I am really thankful to MR. PARESH BHALANI owner of Angel Broking Ltd, who has
given information and important support in this research.

Thanks, are also extended to all the teaching and non‐teaching staff, Classmates, Friends for
their invaluable help.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents and friends, without them this research would not
have been completed.

__________________
Diya Rabari

Roll No:-149

EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
In the chapter: 1 Introduction of new financial form of industry. It deals with origin,
introduction of new financial tools and era, introduction about digital asset and its types, and
new form financial tools, and overview of blockchain technology and its use in cryptocurrency.
Overall industry highlights.

In the chapter: 2 Review of literature this chapter review of work that has already been done. It
usually turn up a number of ideas for future investigation that will advanced the research
keeping this view the empirical studies available in word and allied areas having direct and
indirect bearing on the objective of present study have been scanned. So, with reference to it , to
take up the factors which are actually not included in any literature.

In the chapter: 3 Research methodology, in this chapter research represents the title of the
study, significant of the study, scope of the study, objectives, hypothesis, source, types, design,
method of the data collection, tools and techniques data analysis and limitation of the study.

In the chapter: 4 Theoretical framework, this chapter is about introduction of the birth of first
cryptocurrency ,its history, its impact on Indian economy and its market exchange ,by including
top cryptocurrency in world ,overview of its working in India and its new established CT15
index.

In the chapter 5: Data collection and analysis, firstly by reliability test of data, then this chapter
is about charts, different non-parametric test like man Whitney test and kruskal Wallis test, even
correlation and regression analysis and their interpretations.

In the chapter 6: Findings, this includes the discussion and best findings from this study, by
summarizing and highlighting the main course of analysis.

In the chapter 7: Conclusion, in this chapter includes summary of each chapter and study
investigates effects of the economic growth .and specify the achieve of objective of this study
and shows the different recommendation.

In the chapter 8: Suggestion, in last ,by putting in necessary suggestions for government,
companies, and department of economic affairs for get more benefits ,in several decision
making even also simplifying the limitation of study and key points to dedicate in future
research are specify by the findings of this study.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
CHAPTER NAME PG.NO
CHAPTER: 1. Introduction of industry 2

1.1. Introduction of digital assets 4

1.1.1. Definition of digital asset 4

1.1.2 Types of digital assets 5

1.2. Introduction to blockchain technology 7

1.2.1. Understanding the blockchain and digital asset 7

1.2.2. Understanding the fundamentals 8

1.2.3. Advantages and disadvantages of blockchain technology 9

1.2.4. Potential uses 11

1.2.5. Investment implication 12

1.3. Introduction to cryptocurrency 13

1.3.1.Use of blockchain technology in cryptocurrency market 13

1.4. Global digital asset management outlook 15

1.4.1. Industry highlights 15

1.4.2. Key market trends 16

1.5. Cryptocurrency market size 18

1.5.1. Cryptocurrency Market Size Forecast to 2026 with COVID-19 Impact 20

Analysis

1.5.2 Cryptocurrency market dynamics 20

1.6. Introduction about Internship 24

1.6.1 Company profile 25

CHAPTER: 2.Review of literature 29

CHAPTER: 3 Research methodology 33

3.1. Topic of study 33

3.2. Statement of problem: 33

3.3. Scope of the study 34

3.4. Significant of the study 35

3.5. Objectives of study 35

3.6. Proposed factors their Hypothesis development 36

3.6.1.List of hypothesis 40

3.7. Research design 42

3.8. Source of data 43

3.8.1 Primary Data 43

3.8.2 Secondary Data 43

3.9 Sampling Design 45

3.9.1 Sampling methods 45

3.9.2 Sample period 45

3.9.3 Sampling unit 45

3.10 Tools and techniques for data analysis 45

3.11. Limitations of the study 46

CHAPTER: 4 Theoretical Framework 48

4.1. History of cryptocurrency 50

4.1.1. Bitcoin in middle-years 51

4.1.2. History of bitcoin in India 57

4.1.3. Bitcoin now 53

4.2 Formal definition and meaning of cryptocurrencies 54

4.2.1 Altcoin and stable coins 55

4.2.2 Crypto coins vs. tokens 56

4.2.2.1. Why are there so many types of cryptocurrency? 56

4.2.3 Architecture of cryptocurrency 57

4.2.4. Economics behind cryptocurrency market exchange 61

4.3 Main types of cryptocurrency 64

4.3.1. Top cryptocurrency exchange in world 69

4.3.2. How to Buy and Sell cryptocurrency in India 68

4.3.3. Top cryptocurrency Exchanges in India 68

4.3.4. India’s first crypto index and what it means for investors 69

4.3.4.1 Objective of IC15 Index 70

4.4Market performance of cryptocurrency 70

CHAPTER: 5 Data Analysis 74

5.1 Graphical method 74

5.1.1 Demographical information analysis 74

5.1.2 Awareness level of cryptocurrency 77

5.1.3 Awareness level of blockchain technology 79

5.2 Reliability test of measurement scales of primary data 81

5.2.1 Reliability statistics Scale: all variable 81

5.2.2 Composite reliability 83

5.3 Testing hypothesis 85

CHAPTER:6 Findings from study 91

CHAPTER: 7 Conclusion 95

CHAPTER: 8 Suggestion 97

References& Appendix of measurement of scale 99

List of Figures Figure

Name of figures Pg.no

Fig: 01 Cryptocurrency Market size 7

Fig: 02 Market cap of cryptocurrency 9

Fig: 03 Market performance of cryptocurrency 71

Fig: 04 Gender pie chart 74

Fig: 05 Age group chart 75

Fig: 06 Stream 76

Fig:07 Educational qualification chart 76

Fig:08 Nature of employment chart 77

Fig:09 cryptocurrency gender bar chart 78

Fig:10 cryptocurrency age group bar chart 78

Fig:11 Blockchain gender bar chart 79

Fig:12 Blockchain age group bar chart 80

List of Tables Table

Name of tables Pg.no

Table: 01Hypothesis with the respect to various objective 41

Table: 02 Sampling Design 46

Table: 03 frequency table for gender 74

Table: 04 frequency table for age group 75

Table: 05Awareness level of cryptocurrency 77

Table: 06Awareness level of blockchain technology 74

Table: 07Reliability statistics 81

Table: 08Reliability interpretation 81

Table: 09Item Statistics 82

Table: 10Inter-Item Correlation Matrix 82

Table: 11Composite reliability 84

Table: 12Man Whitney u test 85

Table: 13Kruskal Wallis test for age group 86

Table: 14Kruskal Wallis test for nature of employment 87

Table: 15 Regression analysis
88
 CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION OF
INDUSTRY AND
COMPANY

“CHAPTER - ONE”
“INTRODUCTION”
Today’s economies are all money economies, because all economies have accepted
certain currencies (money) as medium of exchange. The money supply causes inflation

1
as well as deflation in economies by its excess supply and contraction in money supply,
hence currencies of different countries regulated by government in order to combat
inflation or deflation situations. Now a day’s many countries in the world have focusing
towards digital currency and transactions. Even some one doesn’t want to regulate their
currencies and transactions. This brought greater innovation in new currency that is
crypto currency, one of the most advanced, ambiguities, regulation free currency. And
the most fact we do know are part of digital assets and new financial innovation era.
Cryptocurrencies are a new form of digital asset that operate through blockchain
technology and whose purpose is to be used as a means of exchange. Some, such as
bitcoin, have become globally recognized in recent years, but the uncertainty
surrounding cryptocurrencies raises questions about their intended use. This study has
the task of investigating the different factors that affect the intention behind the use of
cryptocurrencies. The results show that all the constructs proposed have significative
influence, either directly or indirectly, on the intention behind the use of
cryptocurrencies. The findings provide value and utility for companies’ and
cryptocurrencies’ intermediaries to formulate their business strategies.
Virtual money has become popular at different times in the history of contemporary
human beings. The number of people using cryptocurrencies today has experienced
significant growth and is comparable to the populations of some small countries. In its
simplest form, a cryptocurrency can be considered as a digital asset built to function as a
medium of exchange based on cryptographic technology to ensure the transactional
flow, as well as to control the creation of additional monetary units.
This growth has translated into an aggregate daily trade volume of cryptocurrency
exchanges of more than USD 391 billion. Within these exchanges, the most popular
cryptocurrency is bitcoin. However, the world of cryptocurrencies does not end here
because there are almost 3750 alternative cryptocurrencies. If we proceed to a
comparison, in May 2013 there were only 13 cryptocurrencies, so this exponential
growth shows the great interest in virtual currencies.
However, what are the main factors of intention to use cryptocurrencies? If we take into
account the main uses of cryptocurrencies: digital asset/investment for speculative
purposes, online exchange medium, payment line and non-monetary use cases on the
net, we determine that most uses are established in the online environment where trust is

2
a key factor for the adoption and acceptance of new technologies included in
cryptocurrencies.
In this online environment, electronic word of mouth or e-Wom refers to, “any positive
or negative statement made by potential, actual or former customers about a product or
company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions through the
Internet”. Furthermore, in this sense, numerous articles establish that in these online
environments, the e-Wom is a fundamental piece as an antecedent to trust. However,
few researchers have given importance to the term e-Wom as a background for trust in
cryptocurrencies, and none have contributed to the mediating effects of it. Similarly,
although e-Wom is positive, users should acquire cryptocurrencies in different websites.
It is significant in the literature review the importance of web quality for the blockchain
environment but has a total lack of research regarding cryptocurrencies.
Finally, most researchers agree that perceived risk plays a key role in cryptocurrencies,
as well as performance expectancy as a background for the intention of use being
essential to take them into account for a research model.
Therefore, based on the above, our main objective is to determine the main factors of
cryptocurrency use by providing a model where trust plays a fundamental role. This
work is very useful because cryptocurrencies can be successful, either as a speculative
good, as a payment method or giving it a more global use, all depending on the
knowledge of the population in these currencies and the support they receive from
governments and people in general . For this reason, it is of great interest to know the
intention of use in order to know if we will be able to take advantage of all the benefits
that this “currency of the future” offers us. Specifically, it is very useful for those
companies that are hesitant to implement/accept payments with cryptocurrencies in their
activity.

1.1 Introduction to Digital Assets

With the emergence of the internet and its subsequent rapid growth in last few decades,
the invention of the blockchain based on the modern internetwork seems to be an

3
 unsurprising product of this new era. This growing technology given birth to digital
assets. One of the most confusing aspects of “virtual money” is the different terms. The
broad term we use to describe all digital assets that relate to the financial industry
is digital currency. The functionality of digital currencies is similar to that of physical
currencies. However, there are advantages to utilizing digital over physical currency.
One such benefit is the ability to instantaneously transact and transfer money across
borders with reduced cost and time. Digital currencies come in various forms, including
virtual currencies, cryptocurrencies, and central bank digital currency which we will
address next.
1.1.1 Definition of a digital asset

Simply put, a digital asset is just a digital file that adds value to an organization. It can
be a text document, a graphic, a logo, a file containing the full code of a website —
digital assets live on computers or the cloud and are utilized by an organization for
business purposes. This is a broad definition because this is a broad category.
Any given digital file is not necessarily a digital asset. Rather, there are three key
features that define a digital asset.
 First, it’s a digital file belonging to an individual or organization.
 Second, it lives within a searchable digital infrastructure. It has specific characteristics
(metadata) that enable discovery.
 Third, it provides unique value to the individual or organization that owns it.
A text document on your hard drive containing simply your name, the name of your
organization, and a relevant phone number is not a digital asset. A graphic file
containing that information, formatted to be printed as a business card, is a digital asset;
it’s uniquely valuable and can be sent out or printed and distributed to promote you and
your organization.

1.1.2 The six types of digital assets

For most organizations, there are six relevant categories of digital assets. Some of these
include subcategories, but it’s most useful to think of six primary types.

4
Photos and videos
Just about every kind of business uses photographs and videos, whether on social
media, in marketing materials, or on websites. Few commercial photographers and
videographers use film cameras these days — it’s all digital. 
Let’s say you work in management for a basketball team. You can take an IPhone
picture of some of your players practicing, and maybe you’ll share it as an Instagram
story, but it’s probably not going to be useful in the long term. It’s not really a digital
asset.
Now, let’s say you hire a professional photographer to come to a game. She takes
hundreds of photos and submits a few dozen particularly good ones, which she’s edited
for quality. You store these on your chosen platform, something like Air, and use them
on your website, in emails, and all over social media. These are digital assets.
Graphic designs
Graphic designs such as logos, business cards, and social media templates are uniquely
valuable digital assets. It’s important to store them in a secure digital asset
management system so the people who need to use them (like designers and marketers)
can easily access them at any given time, from any given place.
This category is a great example of one defining aspect of digital assets: they’re
reusable. They need to be accessible within an organized system for that very reason.

Decks
Powerpoints, slides, decks — whatever your organization calls them or uses to make
them — this asset category is a crucial part of doing business in the digital age. A deck
is just a digital presentation, usually organized in a series of horizontally formatted
cards, usually used as part of a sales pitch. Creative agencies bidding for a client project
might build a deck displaying examples of the work they plan to do, their potential
budget breakdown, and so on.
Like quality photos or graphic designs, these can be reused, either in whole or in part.
It’s important to have an archive of past decks to reference when creating future decks.
Audio
This category is not too different from the photos and videos category. It includes any
audio file with unique value to an organization. For example: a recording of an

5
interview with a customer, meant to be transcribed and edited into a case study. Another
example: audio recordings of company all-hands meetings.
Code
This final digital asset category includes records of all code (HTML, Python, etc.) used
to build websites, apps, and other computer programs. Organizations tend to store
versions of code for both current and historical versions of their websites and apps using
platforms like GitHub.
Other most trending
NFTs (non-fungible token)
For the uninitiated, NFTs are basically digital assets with unique identification codes
and metadata recorded in a blockchain ledger representing the ownership and
authenticity of an associated unique tangible or intangible asset.
NFTs or non-fungible tokens are grabbing headlines globally with digital files of art,
music, memorabilia or even tweets being sold for millions of dollars on the blockchain.
In India, brands are jumping on to the bandwagon too. From celebrities to start-ups,
everybody is selling their version of ‘limited edition’ assets through NFT. Experts
suggest that the India market will grow by at least 50 percent in 2022 with more and
more categories coming up with their NFTs.
Cryptocurrency (a fungible tokens)
A cryptocurrency is a form of digital asset based on a network that is distributed across
a large number of computers. This decentralized structure allows them to exist outside
the control of governments and central authorities.

1.2 Introductions to blockchain technology

6
A blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks that are linked together
using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block,
a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree). The
timestamp proves that the transaction data existed when the block was published in
order to get into its hash. As blocks each contain information about the block previous
to it, they form a chain, with each additional block reinforcing the ones before it.
Therefore, blockchains are resistant to modification of their data because once recorded,
the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without altering all
subsequent blocks.

1.2.1 Understanding blockchain and digital assets

From Bitcoin to Top Shot to Ethereum to tokenized tweets, digital assets are
everywhere today. Despite their controversy, volatility, and sometimes illicit use cases,
it is increasingly likely they are here to stay.
We believe it would be valuable to provide some degree of clarity about digital assets,
as well as shed some light on the conversations we are having here at Manning &
Napier. To be clear, we do not own any cryptocurrencies for client portfolios, but that
doesn’t mean there isn’t work being done or that we aren’t monitoring the emerging
field.
For investors, the questions are many: What are digital assets? How and why do they
work? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Do they have merit as an asset
class? In attempting to address these questions, and many others, investors can then
begin to determine whether they are appropriate as an investable asset, and how these
technologies may impact existing processes and business models.
Overview
Any understanding of digital assets must start with an understanding of the underlying
blockchain technology. This is the foundation on which the space is built.
At its core, a blockchain is a relatively immutable distributed ledger system. We can
think of this as a database stored on several different computers that is prohibitively
difficult to change without consensus. The system lends itself to decentralization—
though this is not always the case—and as such, it is often lacking a central authority.

7
These characteristics are derived from several key features and it allows the technology
to offer a variety of use cases across different industries and asset classes.
The functions, features, and processes supporting a blockchain can be complex,
especially to those without a background in computer science. Nevertheless, we will
briefly touch on some of them in order to better understand how and why blockchains
function the way they do. A general technological overview will also help in
understanding why cryptocurrencies may be useful either in support of an investment
vehicle or as a new technology to implement in the real world.

1.2.2 Understanding the Fundamentals

There are three major fundamental technological characteristics that underpin

blockchain technology: hashing, asymmetric cryptography, and blocks.
Hashing is the process of converting data of nearly any size into a consistent, fixed-size
output, typically for encryption and/or anonymity purposes. In addition to compression
and security features, hashing functions rely on statistical properties that generally
encourage active users to act in ways that lead to more optimal outcomes for all parties
involved.
Asymmetric cryptography uses a combination of public and private keys that allow for
transactions between parties to be accepted and validated. Public keys are visible to all
users of the network and generate addresses that can transfer or store digital assets. The
private keys are known only to the owner and are used like a ‘digital signature’ to
confirm a transaction. When a transaction takes place between users, the network
utilizes the public keys to confirm each party can meet its obligation. If accepted, the
transaction then enters a pool to be added to a new block and ultimately to the chain
itself. Once a transaction has been agreed upon, it is broadcast to all the nodes
participating in the system. These nodes are individual computers running the software
that supports the network. The nodes can be either centralized or decentralized. The
latter is typically associated with blockchain technology, but it should be noted
blockchains can be centrally managed or contained within a private network (for
example, within a company). Importantly, this does not mean that the transaction has
now been recorded and added to the blockchain; rather, these transactions have been
added to the ledger in a pool of candidate transactions.

8
 Blocks are essentially a collection of validated transactions that are duplicated and
distributed across the entire network of computer systems to form a blockchain. Special
computers, referred to as mining nodes, ultimately determine which transactions from
the pool of candidate transactions are added to blocks, and subsequently the blockchain.
Once a node submits a block to the chain, other nodes can then check the validity of
each transaction added to the block and either accept or reject the block based on the
validity of each transaction. Finally, the block itself is hashed and added to the chain.
This ensures that if any previous transaction was changed in any way, the hash itself
would change, and it would subsequently be rejected by the network of nodes.
These characteristics of the blockchain give it several compelling advantages and
disadvantages versus traditional data storage/verification technologies. They’re also
what enable cryptocurrencies to have their unique characteristics versus traditional
financial vehicles. Lastly, while the technologies may seem esoteric or complex, for
those technologically savvy, they are relatively straightforward and accessible, and they
have enabled a plethora of various cryptocurrencies and other digital assets to explode
onto the market, each with technical tweaks or significant changes that provide unique
characteristics and targeted use cases.
1.2.3 Advantages and Disadvantages of Blockchain Technology

As with many new, emerging technologies, the hype and optimism surrounding
mainstream acceptance can detract from substantive analysis. The relative infancy of
blockchain as a technology, coupled with its limited scope of use to date, make
assessing its advantages somewhat theoretical. However, none of this means we can’t
draw some conclusions about positive features of the technology:
 Transparent and Immutable History: Blockchains can provide users with a transparent
history of transactions that can be prohibitively difficult to change.
 Trustless System: The transparent and immutable properties of blockchains enable trust
less interactions between individuals or groups of individuals; this eliminates the need
for trusted intermediaries to acts as brokers within a system, increasing efficiency.
 Rapid Settlement: Even though transactions are not immediately added to the
blockchain, the process tends to be relatively quick and reduces settlement time.
 Accessibility: Given the inherently decentralized nature of many blockchains, they can
increase accessibility to a variety of systems.

9
 Consensus Building: Decentralized blockchains require consensus to add new blocks,
democratizing processes and in many cases ensuring that no one player can accumulate
an outsized position of power.
The above list is purposefully brief and far from exhaustive, but it touches on some of
the main advantages offered by blockchain technology. Conversely, the system presents
a number of challenges that will either be difficult to overcome or require further
development and refinement:
 Inefficiency: Adding new blocks to the chain can be an inefficient process, particularly
in a system where miners compete for the right to add the next block (a ‘proof of work’
model); it is this dynamic that drives the conversation around the energy inefficiency of
Bitcoin.
 Scalability: Some blockchains lack the capability to process very large amounts of
transactions rapidly and at a minimal cost.
 Asset Security: Individuals and groups need to have their private keys to access their
assets. One option is to store these on a central server (like an exchange); however,
some believe that this is not the most secure option. An alternative is to store your own
keys, but if they are lost then your assets will almost certainly be lost as well.
 Upgrades: Upgrading software can be very challenging given the need for consensus
across the nodes in the blockchain.
 Interoperability: Communication between legacy systems and other blockchains is
extremely difficult at the moment.
Despite these challenges, blockchain technologies continue to grow in popularity.
Development efforts have targeted some of these challenges, and we would expect that
many of these problems will eventually be solved to enable broader and more effective
use of blocks.

1.2.4 Potential Uses

10
 Blockchain technologies have the potential to be used across nearly any industry in the
world. But just because blockchain could be used, doesn’t mean it should be. In our
view, the most pertinent question is: Where are the features unique to blockchain most
capable of having a meaningfully positive impact?
As an investment manager, we recognize the importance of understanding how this
potentially disruptive technology can reshape industries and sectors. Consider the
following potential uses:
 Money and Finance: Features such as an immutable history, secure and trustless
transactions, and rapid settlement lend themselves well to financial transactions. There
are real world applications for the technology in combination with traditional fiat
currencies and capital markets.
 Supply Chains and Logistics: Supply chains and logistics lend themselves incredibly
well to being able to track the exact path of different goods and services. From
documenting and effectively communicating places of origin, to value-added
transformations, to proof of carbon-offsets, this industry could potentially be
transformed by blockchain technology.
 Medicine: Blockchain technology could help to transform the way that medical
professionals document procedures, bill patients, file insurance claims, and quickly
view and understand a patient’s entire medical history.
 Recordkeeping and Auditing: There are several industries burdened by significant
documentation needs that stand to be upended by blockchain technology. Past
transactions, such as title transfers, could be quickly viewed and verified before
completing new transactions, simplifying recordkeeping and auditing procedures.
These are just a small number of industries that could be reshaped by the introduction
and adoption of blockchain technologies. As the challenges associated with blockchains
are addressed, more rapid adoption is certainly possible.

1.2.5 Investment Implications

11
So what does all of this mean for investors? It’s a complicated question with no easy
answer.
As it pertains directly to digital assets, cryptocurrencies are the most obvious investment
vehicle. It is helpful to distinguish between those that are more akin to a currency and
those that confer to the owner some sort of utility or function on a network.
Bitcoin is an example of a cryptocurrency that has features similar to other traditional
currencies thought to be a potential store of value, hence it’s moniker ‘digital gold.’
Conversely, a token like Ethereum provides users with certain rights or access to a
network. Still another example of a digital asset is a non-fungible token, or NFT. These
are essentially the hashed output of any number of things, such as videos or pieces of art
that are then put onto a blockchain. Individuals can purchase these tokens to either keep
them for themselves or transfer them to a new owner on the blockchain at a later date.
The potentially disruptive nature of blockchain technology may also lead to investment
implications beyond solely the digital asset space, particularly for its potential
commercial uses. We believe broader acceptance will lead certain industries to see
reduced costs and increased efficiencies, while other industries lose share as the
technology changes the traditional ways of doing business.
As an asset manager, we remain keen observers of the ebbs and flows of the
cryptocurrency space and blockchain technology. While these are some of the issues we
are thinking about today as we evaluate cryptocurrencies, we have not made the
decision to invest. Nevertheless, we are cognizant of the possible impacts that a
technology as potentially disruptive as blockchain can have on our existing holdings,
and how they could reshape the sectors and industries we’ve covered for decades.

1.3 Introductions to cryptocurrency

12
A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a collection of binary data which is
designed to work as a medium of exchange. Individual coin ownership records are
stored in digital ledger in a computerized database using strong cryptography to
secure transaction records, to control the creation of additional coins, and to verify the
transfer of coin ownership. Cryptocurrencies are generally fiat currencies, as they are
not backed by or convertible into commodities. 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.
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). 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. A cryptocurrency is a tradable digital asset or digital
form of money, built on blockchain technology that only exists online. Cryptocurrencies
use encryption to authenticate and protect transactions, hence their name. There are
currently over a thousand different cryptocurrencies in the world, and their supporters
see them as the key to a fairer future economy. Bitcoin, first released as open-source
software in 2009, is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Since the release of bitcoin,
many other cryptocurrencies have been created.

1.3.1 Use of blockchain technology in cryptocurrency market

The validity of each crypto currency’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. Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous
block, a timestamp and transaction data. 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". For use as a
distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network

13
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.

1.4 Global digital assets management market outlook

14
The global digital asset management market was valued at USD 2,962.2 million in
2020, and it is expected to reach USD 8,158.6 million by 2026, registering a CAGR of
18.46% during the period of 2021-2026.
Owing to the growing push for digital engagement the creating and dissemination of
digital content has increased significantly. According to a study of 1,600 marketing and
creative professionals by Bynder in 2021, the digital transformation initiatives have
gained traction during the pandemic, and owing to this, generating more digital content
and creative output, implementing new digital experience technologies, and investing in
customer data and analytics are the focal points of marketing departments. This is
expected to have a positive impact on the market.

1.4.1 Industry Highlights

Among marketers and enterprises, the ability to manage and organize digital assets is
among the biggest challenges, and about 55% of the respondents from a study
conducted by Fotoware in October 2020 recognized the same thing. The study also
found that without strong metadata governance many, assets are hard to find and remain
unused, according to 48% of the respondents.
Many enterprises store their digital assets in several different locations and only few
store in one system. According to the study of over 3,400 marketers and creators, by
Demand Metric in 2020, 61% mentioned cloud storage platforms, 51% a server of their
company, 34% Digital Asset Management, 32% local storage, and 21% mentioned a
tool with a suite of solutions, including an asset storage component. With the use of
Digital Asset Management (DAM), cross team and overall enterprise digital assets can
be easily managed and accessed.
Moreover, DAM systems help improve security as the businesses have far greater
control over access to files and identity management. According to a study of 130
organizations, by Veronis, 88% of companies do not limit access to their folders
appropriately, thus, leaving room for anyone to access and download such files, which
leads to data leaks, loss, and hacks.
A security breach may be detrimental to business and tend to lose customers over lack
of security and trust. According to a study by Bynder, about 78% of the respondents
mentioned that they would stop engaging with brand online if that brand had

15
 experienced breach. To avoid such scenarios, the use of DAMs is increasingly
becoming vital.
DAM space is currently in a period of growth, and vendors in the market are adopting
strategic focus to attract customers. The emphasis is on offering a simple and sleek user
experience. As a greater number of users are turning to DAM to simplify their own
asset-creation process, software providers need to answer the need for easy-to-use,
intuitive solutions. For instance, in April 2021, Adobe launched a new, simplified DAM
Adobe Experience Manager Assets Essentials, offering teams with an easier-to-use
management experience in the Adobe Experience Cloud, than Adobe's current
enterprise-centric asset management tool can offer.
Moreover, high-end systems offer a high degree of customization and services so that
the DAM solution can be wrapped around the customer's existing processes and
procedures in all sorts of ways not available "off-the-shelf." Therefore, they are more
complicated and higher priced.

1.4.2 Key Market Trends

 Cloud Deployment Expected to Drive the Digital Asset Management Market

 Asia-Pacific to Witness the Fastest Growth Rate Over the Forecast Period
Competitive Landscape
The major players in the digital asset management market are Cognizant Technology
Solutions Corp, Oracle Corporation, CELUM GmbH, Adobe Systems Incorporated,
Cloudinary Ltd, and IBM Corporation, among others. They have adopted different
strategies such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, joint ventures,
acquisitions, partnerships, and others to expand their footprints in this market.
 May 2021 - Frontify, a Swiss MarTech business, formed a strategic agreement with
Celum, which includes a comprehensive integration of both systems. This integration
will significantly increase the scope and performance of the Celum cloud platform,
providing customers with more brand management features.
 April 2021 - Adobe launched Adobe Experience Manager Assets Essentials to facilitate
cross-team collaboration. Assets Essentials is a lightweight version of Adobe
Experience Manager Assets that simplifies digital asset storage, discovery, and

16
distribution across marketing and creative professional teams. Assets Essentials will be
the default asset management experience across all Experience Cloud apps.

1.5 Cryptocurrency Market size

17
Cryptocurrency Market size is set to surpass USD 1.8 billion by 2027, according to
a new research report by Global Market Insights Inc.The cryptocurrency industry is
expected to grow significantly over the forecast period due to growing investments
across enterprises operating in blockchain and cryptocurrency. Government authorities
across the globe are establishing a favourable regulatory framework including anti-
money laundering, further boosting industry growth. The companies are considering
cryptocurrencies and other similar digital assets as investments. The lowered processing
fees and performance capabilities of cryptocurrencies enable market growth.

Source: www.gminsight.com,fig:01
Cryptocurrency market size worth over $1.8 Bn by 2027

Cryptocurrency Market size crossed USD 900 million in 2020 and is projected to

register gains at over 10% CAGR from 2021 to 2027. The cryptocurrency industry is
witnessing substantial growth with increasing volumes of cryptocurrency transactions
and their market capitalizations. For instance, the market cap for bitcoin was more than
609 billion in January 2021 as compared to 134 billion in January 2020. Advanced
capabilities including reduced costs associated with the transactions along with peer-to-
peer connection are contributing to the adoption of cryptocurrency. Several enterprises
are adopting virtual currencies to limit the impact of currency fluctuations, enabling the
market growth.

18
Three Trillion Dollars Worth of Crypto (market cap of cryptocurrency in billion
U.S dollars)

source:www.coingecko.com fig:02
Nov 9, 2021
According to website CoinGecko, the market cap of cryptocurrencies exceeded $3
trillion as of November 9, 2021. Bitcoin - by far the biggest cryptocurrency - makes up
more than a third of that, while the next biggest coin, Ethereum, accounts for around 18
percent.
Interestingly, Bitcoin still made up 50 percent of the overall cryptocurrency market cap
when that hit $2 trillion, highlighting the growth of other cryptocurrencies. Smaller
players in the crypto market include Binance Coin ($109 billion market cap) and Solana
($75 billion market cap).Trendy cryptocurrency Shiba Inu - the successor of similarly
themed Dogecoin - was the 11th most valuable coin with a market cap of around $31
billion. The currency surged majorly, now being almost eight times as valuable as in
late September.

1.5.1 Cryptocurrency Market Size Forecast to 2026 with COVID-19

Impact Analysis

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the global economy. With the virus
spreading across 188 countries, a number of businesses were shut down and many
people lost their jobs. The virus mostly affected small businesses, but large corporations
felt the impact as well. Apple closed all of its stores outside of China temporarily and
Bloomingdale’s did the same with all of its 56 locations. Against the backdrop of the
uncertainty raised by COVID-19, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital currencies have
garnered significant attention. Even banks have started buying crypto for the first time.
Banks in the US are creating their own blockchain-based systems, including digital
currencies, to enable B2B cryptocurrency payments between their customers. Also, in
October 2020, PayPal announced that its customers will be able to buy, sell, and hold
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies using their PayPal accounts, allowing customers to buy
things from the 26 million sellers who accept PayPal, In 2021, PayPal is planning to
allow cryptocurrency to be used as a funding source.

1.5.2 Cryptocurrency market dynamics

Driver: Transparency of distributed ledger technology

Issues related to lack of transparency arise when transactions take place without the
knowledge of stakeholders, especially in Asian countries where several instances of
fraudulent or unwanted transactions, such as deduction of scheduled charges, are
frequently observed. This may be caused by human error, machine error, or data
manipulation during the transaction process, and may result in customers losing huge
amounts of money. Moreover, in most cases, financial institutions do not accept their
fault. This lack of transparency in the current monetary system leads to dissatisfaction
among the public.

Restraint: Uncertain regulatory status

20
The cryptocurrency market is not yet regulated. At present, the lack of regulations and
the uncertainty regarding the same are among the major factors restraining the adoption
of cryptocurrencies. While financial regulatory bodies across the world are working to
find common standards for cryptocurrencies, regulatory acceptance remains one of the
biggest challenges. As the distributed ledger technology is still in the nascent stage, it
raises a number of questions for regulators and policymakers at national and
international levels.

Opportunity: Significant growth opportunities in emerging and developed markets

Emerging economies (such as India, China, and Brazil) and developed countries (such
as the US, Germany, and Japan) are expected to offer significant growth opportunities
for companies operating in the cryptocurrency market. For instance, in 2020, Brazilian
crypto companies have signed a code of self-regulation that aims to legitimize and boost
the adoption of crypto assets in the country. The document was signed under the
auspices of Abcripto, the country’s association of cryptocurrency companies. The
objective of the agreement is to establish operational practices and compliance
standards that all members must adhere to. The country’s prominent cryptocurrency
firms that signed the code include Foxbit, Ripio, Bitcoin Market, and Novadax.

Challenge: Concerns regarding security, privacy, and control

Cryptocurrency has the potential of transforming and revolutionizing compliance-free

peer-to-peer and remittance transactions; however, end users have to overcome certain
challenges related to security, privacy, and control to benefit from cryptocurrency. As
cryptocurrency transactions are recorded in the distributed public ledger known as
blockchain, hackers have a large attack surface to gain access to critical and sensitive
information. If this public ledger is used to store confidential contract-related
information or payment data, replicating the file could potentially make it easier for
hackers to access it. If a key is compromised, it can be used to access the database in a
hub-and-spoke model as well as in a distributed database.

21
Restraint: Lack of awareness and technical understanding regarding
cryptocurrency
The major limitation for the adoption of cryptocurrency is the lack of awareness about
the use cases and the limited technical understanding regarding transaction processes.
End users in most verticals do not know about the benefits of cryptocurrency and also
lack understanding of how it works. This restricts the investment by companies in
cryptocurrency as it is decentralized and has an uncertain regulatory status. As for
transforming transaction processes has not yet been realized. Cryptocurrency uses
cryptographic algorithms running across a vast network of independent computers.
Therefore, sound technical knowledge about the related technology is crucial to explore
the benefits of cryptocurrency in use cases. The lack of knowledge and public
awareness is one of the biggest restraints for the adoption of cryptocurrency. However,
the increasing adoption and use of distributed ledger technology would make the
understanding of cryptocurrency essential in the coming future. This would lead to the
establishment and proliferation of platforms to provide training and maintain knowledge
in this field. However, the challenges of legacy infrastructure would continue to be an
obstacle as the practicality of implementing decentralized cryptosystems is beyond the
traditional IT development skill set.
Opportunity: Adoption of cryptocurrency across verticals

The growth of cryptocurrency over the last few years has been remarkable across
developed countries. The cryptocurrency market is growing at an astounding rate for
consumers as well as enterprises. Financial institutions are the frontrunner in adopting
cryptocurrencies for trading and exchange. Blockchain has enhanced the popularity of
cryptocurrencies owing to greater security and scalability. Its diverse features are
attracting organizations to deploy this new technology across their business
transactions. Presently, the world’s largest financial institutions are utilizing
cryptocurrency for currency exchange and trading. Several projects are going on across
the globe to explore the benefits of cryptocurrency and blockchain, which are disrupting
various industries, including BFSI, government, retail and ecommerce, and media and
entertainment. Many verticals such as retail and ecommerce, media and entertainment,
healthcare, and government are expected to utilize digital assets for various use cases.
Nowadays, many large enterprises, banks, and financial institutes are investing heavily
to safeguard their digital assets. In a nutshell, the current and future trends in

22
cryptocurrency, digital assets, and blockchain technology would further fuel the
adoption of crypto asset management solutions during the forecast period.
Based on vertical, Retail and ecommerce is to grow with the fastest growing CAGR. the
retail vertical functions in an environment that is relatively diversified as compared to
other verticals. They are highly tech-savvy in terms of the adoption of advanced
technologies and cryptocurrency is not the exception. The retail and ecommerce
application area are an associated global network of suppliers, retailers, ecommerce
portals, and customers interacting in physical stores, as well as digital online channels.
The retail and ecommerce application area faces steep challenges in the form of limited
supply visibility that leads to instability, increasing customer demand for product
authenticity, and high transaction fees from third-party payment processors.
Overstock.com was the first retailer to accept ecommerce payments via cryptocurrency.
Digital currency offers several benefits, such as secure transaction, low cost, and less
processing time. Currently, many retailers are sceptical about exploring the
opportunities of cryptocurrency. As per industry experts and crypto asset solution
providers, retail and ecommerce businesses are expected to leverage the cryptocurrency
for the online and offline payment process. Hence, the demand for crypto asset
management solutions in the retail and ecommerce industry is expected to increase
during the forecast period.

Key Market Players

Bitmain (China), NVIDIA (US), Xilinx (US), Intel (US), Advanced Micro Devices
(US), Ripple Labs (US), Ethereum Foundation (Switzerland), Bit fury Group
(Netherlands), Coinbase (US), BitGo (US), Binance Holdings (China) Canaan Creative
(China). Bitstamp (Luxemburg), Ifinex (Hong Kong), Ledger SAS (France), Xapo
(Hong Kong), and Alcheminer (US), are a few major companies dominating
the Cryptocurrency market.

23
1.6 Introduction about Internship

Due to the rapid development of information and communication technologies, many

activities in our daily life have been merged online and they become more flexible and
more effective. A huge growth in number of online users has activated virtual word
concepts and created a new business phenomenon which is cryptocurrency to facilitate
the financial activities such as buying, selling and trading. The use of virtual currency
has become widespread in many different systems in recent years.
Although the cryptocurrency economy is fundamentally different from the stock market,
the same analytical techniques can be applied, as both can be represented as long-return
and volatility time series. Cryptocurrencies are a relatively new asset class and we are
interested whether it exhibits similar behaviour when it comes to comparing graph-
theoretical properties, and what are the differences from the well-established financial
sector.. so as crypto being new concepts there is no existences of financial services of
cryptocurrencies but one can get idea from the trading of stock market and other
financial instruments in market through the broking and financial service companies.
This project has given me the opportunity to understand the stock market and its by
getting training and knowledge about working of stock other equity funds trading
through the internship at ‘ANGEL BROKING FIRM’, so the following is the bit
information about the company profile.

24
1.6.2Company profile

Angel One Limited, formerly known as Angel Broking Limited, is an

Indian stockbroker firm established in 1996. The company is a member of the Bombay
Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange of India,
The company has more than 8500 sub-brokers and franchisee outlets in more than 900
cities across India.

Type : public
Traded as : BSE: 543235 ,NSE: ANGELONE
Industry : Financial services
Founded : 8 august, 1996,26 years
Headquarters :Ackruti Trade Center, Andheri (E), Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Area served : India
Key people : Dinesh Thakkar (chairman&MD) ,Narayan Gangadhar(CEO)

History
Angel Broking was incorporated on 8 August 1996 as a private limited company. Later,
Angel Broking was incorporated as a wealth management, retail and corporate broking
firm in December, 1997. In November 1998, Angel Capital and Debt Market Ltd.
gained membership of National Stock Exchange as a legal entity. The company opened
its commodity broking Division in April, 2004. In November 2007, Birla Sun Life
Insurance joined hands with Angel Broking for distribution of its insurance products.
The International Finance Corporation bought an 18% stake in Angel Broking for 152
crore (equivalent to 390 crore or US$52 million in 2020) in December 2007. The
company opened an office in Karol Bagh, New Delhi in October 2012.

25
 In January 2013, a probe found the company and two other entities involved in
fraudulent and unfair trade practices in transactions of shares of Sun Info ways during
Feb-May 2001. As a result, SEBI restrained from taking new clients for a period of two
weeks. Angel filed an appeal against the SEBI order which was dismissed by the
Securities appellate tribunal. Angel Broking began offered shares through an initial
public offering in September 2020, and was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and
the National Stock Exchange on 5 October 2020.
On 22 April 2021, Angel Broking appointed Silicon Valley veteran Narayan Gangadhar
as its new CEO. The Board of Angel Broking approved changing the company's brand
identity to appeal to Gen Z and millennial investors on 29 May 2021. The company
officially began using the new Angel One branding and logo on 3 August 2021, while
the company was formally renamed as Angel One in September 2021

Products
Angel One has products such as Angel Spark, Angel BEE mutual fund app, Angel
SpeedPro, Angel Trade and Angel Swift for online trading. Angel Eye is a browser
trading application; SpeedPro is a trading platform application; Angel Trade offers an
online trading platform for share investors; and Swift is a trading app for small devices.

Awards
 2009 - 'Broking House with Largest Distribution Network' Award and 'Best Retail
Broking House' Award at BSE IPF-D&B Equity Broking Awards
 2012 - BSE IPF-D&B Equity Broking Award for ‘Best Retail Broking House’
 2012-13 - Among BSE Top 10 Performers in Equity Segment (Retail Trading) FY
2012-13
 2013 - BSE-IPF D&B Equity Broking Award for ‘Broking House with Largest
Distribution Network’
 2013 - BSE-IPF D&B Equity Broking Award for 'Best Retail Equity Broking House'
 2013-14 - Awarded ‘Top Three Clients Traded Members in Equity’ by the BSE
 2014 - BSE-IPF D&B Equity Broking Award for ‘Broking House with Largest
Distribution Network’
 2014 - Global Marketing Excellence Award for 'Best Mobile trading application'
 2017 - MCX Commodity broker of the year award

26
Recent development

Angel Broking client base rises to 6.93 million in Oct 2021

The stock broker said its client base jumped 145% year-on-year to 6.93 million in
October 2021 over October 2020.
On a sequential basis, the firm's client base grew 6.3% from 6.52 million clients in
October 2021. Gross client acquisition stood at 0.43 million in October 2021, rising
10% from September 2021 and 208% from October 2020.
The company's retail turnover market share in overall equity segment rose to 20.7% in
October 2021 compared with 14.7% in October 2020. Retail turnover market share in
F&O (derivatives) segment stood at 20.8%, in October 2021 as against 20.3% in
September 2021. The figure stood at 14.5% in October 2020.
Shares of Angel Broking were trading 0.19% higher at Rs 1233.85 on BSE.
Angel Broking is one of the largest retail broking houses in India in terms of active
clients on NSE. It's a technology-led financial services company providing broking and
advisory services, margin funding, loans against shares and financial products
distribution to clients.
The company posted an 80.2% jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 134.2 crore on a
69.3% increase in total income to Rs 538.16 crore in Q2 FY22 over Q2 FY21. The
stock broking company's profitbefore tax jumped 80.2% to Rs 179.31 crore in Q2 FY22
over Q2 FY21.

27
 CHAPTER-2 REVIEW OF
LITERATURE

“CHAPTER - TWO”
REVEIW OF LITERATURE

 A.,Rejeb, K., & Keogh, J. G. (2021). ‘Cryptocurrencies in Modern Finance’: a

Literature Review. Etikonomi, 20(1), 93 – 118. JEL Classification: E42, F30, F65, G21,
G23 How to Cite: Rejeb The focus on cryptocurrencies in the finance and banking
sectors is gaining momentum. In this paper, we investigate the role of cryptocurrencies
in modern finance. We apply a narrative literature review method to synthesize prior

28
 research and draw insights into the opportunities and challenges of leveraging
cryptocurrencies. The results indicate that cryptocurrencies offer businesses
and individuals’ lower transaction costs, higher efficiencies, increased security and
privacy, meaningful diversification benefits, alternative financing solutions, and
financial inclusion. Challenges exist related to the integration of cryptocurrencies in
modern finance. These include the lack of regulatory standards, the risk of criminal
activity, high energy and environmental costs, regulatory bans and usage restrictions,
security and privacy concerns, and the high volatility of cryptocurrencies
 Dr.Mohammed Mubarak feb-2021 ‘A study on cryptocurrencies in India ‘ -
International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (I2021 IJRAR February 2021,
Volume 8, Issue 1 (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138).To understand the concept
of Bitcoin and it’s functioning in regular trading. To know legality and trading of
Bitcoin in India and even we get to know about the comparison study on investment risk
in between Bitcoin and gold from this research paper.
 Dr.shilpi Agrawal, | October - 2020 ‘the sanctioning of cryptocurrencies: positive and
negative ramification in India’ Volume - 10 | Issue - 10 | | PRINT ISSN No. 2249 -
555X.from this research we find that there are various positive and negative impact of
crypto market on India economy and even overall working of blockchain technology on
various e-commerce or e-business, e-payment sectors which shows positive effects and
some of negative ramifications like scalability, cyber security concern ,regulation.
 Rahman and Dawood (2019) in their ‘Bitcoin and Future of Cryptocurrency ‘focused on
cryptocurrency as an imaginative and technically advanced alternative for globalization.
It examined the possibility of an alternative for processing payments across
geographical boundaries and if regulated effectively cryptocurrency could remove a lot
financial challenges faced in the present.
 ShailakJaini (2018) in his ‘The Growth of Cryptocurrency in India’ focuses on aspects
such as the impact of cryptocurrencies in India and the opportunities that come along
with it. It also talks about the various aspects of other countries and their rules and
legislature revolving around the Introduction of cryptocurrencies.
 Rahul J. Nikam (2018) in his Model draft ‘regulation on Cryptocurrencies In India’
focuses on aspects of India to start taking a rm decision on cryptocurrency trading and
regulate it and also speaks about how the RBI should be more open to the idea of
cryptocurrencies and understand the value and opportunities that come with it.

29
 Gunjan Jindal and ShezaAzeen (2018) in their ‘Legal acceptance of bitcoin in India
‘discuss how bitcoin plays a pivotal role in aggregating the growth percentage of the
nation and how it would not be possible unless the government pushes towards making
the transactions legal and implies its regulations on it.
 M Trivedi (2018), in his project, discusses the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
and Threats of Cryptocurrency also, its extension in India. Cryptographic forms of
money have been viewed as productive interests for a long time. On account of its
different points of interest: Easy accessibility, No contribution of any middle person,
Fast installments, Low exchange charges, and Information security. Be that as it may,
Cryptographic forms of money additionally experience the ill effects of certain
shortcomings. The security of information and digital currency has been a significant
concern.
 Komal Dhande (2017) in his Bitcoin and Its Prospects in India study focuses on the
remarkable growth in the acceptance of cryptocurrencies but does not see it replacing
paper currencies anytime soon. The problem is to structure it for the law enforcement
agencies and users to ensure safety in transactions and the problems to determine a way
to charge cryptocurrency tax. The high growth on bitcoins has attracted a lot of interest
but the high amount of risk involved in keeping the investors hesitant to invest. Though
the study shows belief in virtual currencies, a good legal and regulatory framework is
required for investors to trust this form of currency in India.
 Dr.Vijeta Banwari (2017) ‘CRYPTOCURRENCY-SCOPE IN INDIA’ discusses the
change in finance and the world of money. Cryptocurrencies have a huge risk factor but
are increasingly popular cult for the government to control the transaction.and it will
be dif According to the Blockchain Foundation of India, (lobby of around 45 crypto
dealers,) claimed that more than 30 new exchanges have applied for membership in the
recent two months. (The Print, 2018). Blockchain has huge potential to improve the way
data is stored. Despite the ban on cryptocurrency, the blockchain is adopted in various
government organizations (Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and so on). Over the counter,
markets could come up in the future instead of routing transactions through banks.
 ShaikShakeelAhamad,( 2013), ‘A Survey on Crypto Currencies ‘From this survey on
crypto currencies, merits of crypto currencies compared to fiat currencies and then
compare different crypto currencies that are proposed in the literature. Finally, its

30
 propose different requirements that should be satisfied by crypto currencies to replace
Fiat Currencies.
 Dingli xi,Timothy Ian O'Brien,Elnaz Irannezhad, Dec -2019,’ investigating the
Investment Behaviors in Cryptocurrency’ ,this study investigates the socio-demographic
characteristics that individual cryptocurrency investors exhibit and the factors which go
into their investment decisions in different Initial Coin Offerings. A web based revealed
preference survey was conducted among Australian and Chinese blockchain and
cryptocurrency followers, and a Multinomial Logit model was applied to inferentially
analyze the characteristics of cryptocurrency investors and the determinants of the
choice of investment in cryptocurrency coins versus other types of ICO tokens.
 Dr. Neha Parashar, Ms. Farida Rasiwala, “A study on investor’s awareness and
perception regarding investment in Crypto currency with special reference to Bitcoin
‘.this research do focus on to study the level of awareness among investors regarding
bitcoin as a virtual currency ,to study the perception of investors. In this paper they
examine which factors drive individual in adoption intention and actual acceptance of
crypto payments .As Bitcoin is a fully decentralized currency, the value is appreciating
in the financial economy because its supply is limited and there is hugedemand for it.
The demand is mainly because of its low transaction costs, anonymity, investment
possibilities and possibilities for use in illegal activities.

31
 CHAPTER-3
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

32
 “CHAPTER - THREE”

Research methodology

Introduction about the research topic:

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency are attracting increasing attention from
consumers, investors, investment industry and regulators. Cryptocurrency has great
potential to be used for transaction or investment in the future. However, level of
awareness of the blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is still at infant stage,
specifically in developing countries. Thus, this study aims to investigate the level of
awareness, trust, and adoption and over all accepting factors of cryptocurrency as a
financial tool among the community in Surat city. Quantitative approach was adopted in
this study where a new questionnaire was developed in the first phase to measure the
level of awareness, adoption, and trust of cryptocurrency applications among Surat
blockchain communities and the people who have heard about cryptocurrency. The
resulting questionnaire consists of items on respondents’ demographic, the various
factors of acceptance are like, performance expectancy, behavioural intentions, E-Wom,
trust, web quality, perceived risk their awareness, trust, and adoption of FinTech
particularly on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.

3.1Title of study:
“Cryptocurrencies as a Financial Tool: Acceptance Factors”
3.2 Statement of problem

World has transforming in to cash less transactions through innovating and making
transactions by digital money. One of the tremendous innovation in money that is crypto
currency it is digital money, not regulated by any authority and central bank, universal
currency, at the same time there are some problems associated with this new currency
hence many countries step back from its implementation among those India is one of the
country prohibited using and mining Bitcoins. But as per the order of supreme court
now trading through Bitcoin is no more illegal in India from That’s why it is an
important need to understand about Bitcoin trading in India, how its operates, how it
was evolved in India, players who are involving in this transactions.

33
 Even though government have recently launched crypto new index like nifty, sensex, it
is named as’ IC15 INDEX’. But the problem is gradual fall in price and lift in price of
crypto market, makes investors stepping back to invest in it.
 Even the lack of awareness and know ledge about the new blockchain technology.
 As per reports, this move of banning cryptocurrency trading in some country like Russia
has been triggered due to the risks that hover around cryptocurrencies financial stability,
the sovereignty of monetary policy as well as the financial safety of its citizens.

3.2 scope of study

This study aims to investigate the level of awareness, trust and adoption of
cryptocurrency as digital currency use community in Surat. Quantitative approach was
adopted in this study where a new questionnaire was developed in the first phase to
measure the level of awareness, and different factors like perceived risk, behavioural
intentions, trust, E-Wom, web quality, and importantly to know about their opinions for
using cryptocurrency as cashless payment method. This is working on blockchain
technology applications among Surat communities. The resulting questionnaire consists
of items on respondents’ demographic, their awareness, and different acceptance factors
of cryptocurrency. In the second phase, a pilot study was conducted to validate the new
questionnaire from 100 respondents. A real survey was also conducted in this phase
using the validated questionnaire and data were obtained from 100 respondents.
Descriptive statistics were used in the analysis during the third phase of the study, and
results demonstrate that the awareness level of blockchain technology. And importantly
in this research we have set as our main objective the empirical study of the Behavioural
Intention of crypto currencies. So once the study model has been established, and after
the analysis of the results, we observe that the variable that has the greatest influence on
consumer Behavioural Intention is Trust, above Performance Expectancy. We,
therefore, recommend that companies and organizations that issue and intermediate
cryptocurrencies place special emphasis on generating Trust in the consumer. So Due,
in our study we have included a series of variables that, once our results are obtained,
effectively influence this trust. These variables are e-Wom, Perceived Risk and Web
Quality, in this sense; e-Wom is the construct that has more weight on trust.

34
3.3 Significant of study

Inspite number of studies available in the new financial technologies and also about
digital assets. even do study done on awareness ,trust and adoption of cryptocurrency
and blockchain technology community of Malaysia and some other as a references
thesis for same topic for country like Spain is done ,but here is the study on community
of surat .as metropolitan city like surat , with more business minded people , industry
player , or other end users, and even small speculator are there who are interested in
investment in crypto currency and as crypto market is hovering so high that even
community who are not in crypto trading but are still , getting aware and involving in
cryptocurrency market mostly for GEN-Z (10-25years) in this internet world its being
trendy alternatives investment like NFTS, METAVERSE.etc and more about as a future
virtual money. so this research mainly focus on to know the different accepting factors
that people kept in mind while acceptance of cryptocurrency and by taking opinions of
all type community from age group from 18 to 60 years people who have heard about
the cryptocurrency.

3.4Objective of study

1. To study the level of awareness among public regarding cryptocurrency and

blockchain technology.
2. To study the trust ofpeople regarding acceptance of cryptocurrency as mode of cash
less transaction.
3. To know people’s opinion about trust and secure investment regarding
cryptocurrency using blockchain technology.
4. To know which factor more influence the trust and behavioural intention of
individual towards cryptocurrency.
5. To understand the people’s opinion regarding government intervention and
involvement to develop cryptocurrency as legal mode for cash less transactions.
5. To identify the key factors which are indispensable for the adoption of
cryptocurrency.

35
3.6 proposed factors their Hypothesis Development

Different factors have been studied in the use of cryptocurrencies and their
environment, trust being one of the main ones; however, it is necessary to take into
account other variables that affect trust as an antecedent and to have a record in the
literature review such as E-Wom and Perceived Risk. In this sense, we will propose to
include these variables in our research model with the web quality as an antecedent of
the Trust. To develop the model, we have taken as a reference the Technology
Acceptance Model, a model very contrasted in the adoption of new technologies. In this
model, the Behavioural Intention of use has as a precedent the Perceived Utility and the
Perceived Ease of Use together with the Attitude towards this new technology. In this
context, Perceived Utility and Performance Expectancy are equivalent and determine
constructs as precedents of the Behavioural Intention of use, and that is why we have
also decided to include that variable in our research mode.
E-Wom
As previously defined, electronic word of mouth or e-Wom refers to, “any positive or
negative statement made by potential, actual or former customers about a product or
company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions through the
Internet” . The Internet allows customers to share their opinions and experiences about
goods and services with other customers. An example of a suitable platform for e-Wom
is social networks. Its users can share their impressions through comments, photos,
videos or even applications and it is because of these very visual contents that e-Wom is
more enjoyable and attractive . However, as we can deduct from the above, in e-Wom
the recommendations are usually from strangers with whom there is no connection or
trust, so consumers have difficulty determining the credibility of the information.
Studies by Mangold and Faulds suggested that consumers perceive social media as a
more reliable source of brand information than the seller-generated content itself,
communicated through the traditional promotional mix comprising advertising, sales
promotion and public relations . Therefore, the Ha hypothesis will be established to
measure the relationship between e-Wom and consumer trust. On the other hand, online
consumer reviews (e-Wom) include experiences, evaluations and opinions on products
of previous consumers, which all play a fundamental role in the behavioural intention,

36
in line with academic literature. The e-Wom plays a fundamental role in all emerging
technologies such as cryptocurrencies, so we will establish the hypothesis:
Hypothesis a (Ha). E-Wom positively influences the trust in cryptocurrencies.
Hypothesis b (Hb). E-Wom positively influences the Behavioural Intention to use
cryptocurrencies.

Quality of the Website

We define web quality as the users’ evaluation of the features of a website that meet
their needs and reflect the overall excellence of the website. One of the most difficult
assumptions for consumers to make in e-commerce is good salesmanship and the
assumption that it complies with commercial standards in order to have confidence in
it . Trust reduces the uncertainty associated with the seller, giving the consumer the
perception of some control over a transaction, which encourages future transactions, and
helps establish long-term relationships. As we can deduct from the above, trust is
becoming a key element of success in the online environment. McKnight stated that in a
website, the consumer goes through a previous exploratory stage before being ready to
carry out commercial transactions. As the consumer has no experience with the website,
trust is based on aspects such as reputation. Once this first phase is overcome, the
consumer will decide to carry out higher risk operations (for example, placing an order).
In this context, we can perceive a certain relationship between trust and the quality of
the website and this in turn will be decisive to increase the behavioural intention, since
this will be one of the main objectives of cryptocurrencies, so we consider the following
hypothesis:
Hypothesis a (Ha). The quality of the website has a positive influence on trust in
cryptocurrencies.
Hypothesis b (Hb). The quality of the website influences the Behavioural Intention to
use cryptocurrencies.

Perceived Risk
Bauer was the first author to use the term perceived risk, indicating that consumer
behaviour involves risks. In this sense, any action taken will produce consequences that
cannot be anticipated with certainty, some of which may be undesirable. Thus,
perceived risk refers to possible losses resulting from the decisions that the consumer

37
has to make in uncertain contexts. From the perspective of cryptocurrencies, there are
two points of view. The first is that most of them are frauds and speculative bubbles.
This is due to the complexity of the way in which they operate and the need to have a
relatively advanced knowledge of cryptography and computer science in order to
understand their real behaviour. Therefore, for these authors, the crypto market is the
perfect place for speculation and disinformation. The second is that the blockchain
technology will have relevance in the future and that perhaps some coins do have real
utility, but these new payment methods are still unknown to many people. This leads to
uncertainty. Perceived risk can be a determining factor in the decision to trust each
other, i.e., if a consumer associates a high level of risk with an online transaction, then
the level of trust in the seller decreases, and the need to control the transaction
increases. In fact, several studies have empirically validated the negative effect of trust
on perceived risk. For example, Pavlou and Jarvenpaa reported that increased consumer
trust in an online seller can reduce risk perception. Similarly, if we reduce the perceived
risk, it is possible that the behavioural intention of the users with the cryptocurrencies
will improve. This leads us to think about a possible relationship and we propose the
following hypothesis:
Hypothesis a (Ha). Perceived risk adversely affects trust in cryptocurrencies. Hypothesis
b (Hb). Perceived risk adversely influences the Behavioural Intention to use
cryptocurrencies.

Trust
Lewicki and Wiethoffdescribed trust as “the belief and willingness of an individual to
act on the words, actions and decisions of another” [62], i.e., that an individual is
willing to rely, or intends to rely, on another party with a sense of relative security,
despite the lack of control over that party, and although negative consequences are
likely. It is known that bitcoin offers opportunities for fraud and tax evasion thus
becoming the preferred route for money laundering and for cybercriminals. This means
that the use of cryptosystems in illegal activities has become the main concern for
cryptocurrencies users, with the direct consequence that consumers are reluctant to buy
them. However, this confidence can be generated by the credulity in the technology
behind cryptocurrencies. In this sense, cryptocurrencies are not easy to forge as they use

38
cryptographic methods that guarantee confidentiality while providing a transparent
method of verification without intermediaries. Based on the above, cryptocurrencies
record the transactions made in the blockchain, which is a public registry and therefore
offers a level of transparency that avoids trusting a central authority, as is the case with
the multinational PayPal . Therefore, in this system, in addition to reducing transactions
and costs, it maintains credibility and motivates its use, which leads us to the following
hypothesis:
Hypothesis (H). Trust positively influences the intention to use cryptocurrencies.

Performance Expectancy
Performance Expectancy is defined as the degree to which an individual believes that
using a specific technology would be useful in improving his or her performance in
certain activities. Firstly, due to the absence of intrinsic value, the value of
cryptocurrency depends mainly on the number of users, i.e., an increase in the number
of bitcoin buyers. Therefore, and based on the law of supply and demand , which
indicates that supply is directly proportional, with positive proportionality constant, to
price, this will cause an increase in its overall value. Its usefulness, however, does not
go hand in hand with increased value. Recent studies have shown that, despite the
growth in the number of shoppers, this growth is not balanced by the number of
establishments accepting payment with cryptocurrencies. Nowadays, cryptocurrencies
are used for buying goods or services. Based on the findings of Venkatesh, it is
perceived that, in this research, people will adopt the blockchain technology if they
believe it will have positive results. Therefore, it is expected that,
Hypothesis H: performance expectancy will have a positive influence on behavioural
intention.

Easy adaptation of Cryptocurrency as a method of cashless:

The global economy is inevitably moving towards a digital eco-system. From
investment to money transfer, everything is going paperless. The newest and most
promising addition to the digital payment sector is cryptocurrency. A cryptocurrency is
a medium of exchange like normal currencies such as, INR, USD, but designed for the
purpose of exchanging digital information. Cryptocurrency is defined by
Investopedia.com as a decentralized “digital or virtual currency that uses cryptocurrency

39
for secure.This factor of question are taken to in study to know people’s opinion about
the future to use it as cashless payment , so majorly it is depends on how much people
to trust and its shows their behaviour towards it .so we develop the hypothesis as
Hypothesis H: Trust regarding the cryptocurrency as a cashless transaction.
With all this information, we can highlight the following hypothesis:

3.6.1 Listof Hypothesis

H1o: There is no significant difference in mean rank age group with regard to
acceptance and usage of cryptocurrency.
H2a: There is a significant difference in educational qualification with regard to
acceptance and usage of cryptocurrency.
H3o: there is no significant difference male and female regarding the various
acceptance factors of cryptocurrency.
H4(a): E-Wom positively influences the trust in cryptocurrencies.
H4(b):E-Wom positively influences the Behavioural Intention to use cryptocurrencies.
H5(a) :The quality of the website has a positive influence on trust in cryptocurrencies.
H5(b) : The quality of the website influences the Behavioural Intention to use
cryptocurrencies.
H6(a) : Perceived risk adversely affects trust in cryptocurrencies.
H6(b): Perceived risk adversely influences the Behavioural Intention to use
cryptocurrencies.
H7:Trust positively influences the behavioural intention to use cryptocurrencies.
H8:trust regarding the cryptocurrency as a cashless transaction.
H9:Behavioural intentions of people towards the cryptocurrency as a cashless payment.

40
 (Table: 01)
Hypothesis Objective to be achieve
H1o: There is no significant To study the level of awareness
difference in mean rank of age group among public regarding
with regard to acceptance and usage cryptocurrency and blockchain
of cryptocurrency. technology.
H2a: There is a significant difference
in educational qualification with
regard to acceptance and usage of
cryptocurrency.
H3o: there is no significant
difference male and female regarding
the various acceptance factors of
cryptocurrency.
H8:Trust regarding the To study the trust of people
cryptocurrency as a cashless regarding acceptance of
transaction. cryptocurrency as mode of cash less
transaction.
H7: Trust positively influences the To know people’s opinion about
behavioural intention to use trust and secure investment
cryptocurrencies. regarding cryptocurrency using
blockchain technology.
H4(a):E-Wom positively influences 1)To know which factor more
the trust in cryptocurrencies. influence the trust and behavioural
H4(b):E-Wom positively influences intention of individual towards
the Behavioural Intention to use cryptocurrency.
cryptocurrencies. 2)To understand the people’s
H5(a) :The quality of the website has opinion regarding government
a positive influence on trust in intervention and involvement to
cryptocurrencies. develop cryptocurrency as legal
H5(b) : The quality of the website mode for cash less transactions.
influences the Behavioural Intention

41
 to use cryptocurrencies.
H6(a) : Perceived risk adversely
affects trust in cryptocurrencies.
H6(b): Perceived risk adversely
influences the Behavioural Intention
to use cryptocurrencies.
H9: Behavioural intentions of people To understand the people’s opinion
towards the cryptocurrency as a regarding government intervention
cashless payment. and involvement to develop
cryptocurrency as legal mode for
cash less transactions.

3.7 Research design

There are three types of research design have been used into the research study. 1)
Exploratory Research Design
2) Descriptive Research Design
3) Causal Research Design
&here, Researcher has used the Descriptive research design.
Descriptive research, also known as statistical research. It describes data and
characteristics about the population or phenomenon being studied.
Descriptive research answers the questions who, what, where, when and how. This
study is complex and determines high degree scientific skill to study the problem. The
description is used for frequencies, averages and other statistical calculations. Often the
best approach, prior to writing descriptive research, is to conduct a survey investigation.
Qualitative research often has the aim of description and researchers may follow-up
with examinations of why the observations exist and what the implications of the
findings are.
In short descriptive research deals with everything that can be counted and studied.
In this report, Researcher has used this Descriptive Research Design for conducting
survey on “Cryptocurrencies as a Financial Tool: Acceptance Factors”

42
3.8 Data Collection Methods

Data collection usually takes place early on in an improvement project, and is often
formalized through a data collection plan which often contains the following data
collection methods. The source of data collection method is as follows.

3.8.1 Primary Data

Primary data means data collected directly from first-hand experience. Means data
collected for the first time by any researcher for any research use. There are many
methods of collecting primary data and the main methods include:
Methods of collecting the primary data are:
1. Questionnaire method
2. Interviews method
3. Focus group interviews
4. Observation method
5. Case-studies method
6. Diaries method
Researchers have used Questionnaire method for the Primary data collection for the
study.

3.8.2 Secondary Data

Secondary data means data which are collected by any one for a particular research
purpose and which are used by others for different purpose.
Researcher have also used the secondary data for the study like some company
resources like broachers, websites etc.
Method of data collection the present study is based on both primary data and secondary
data. The primary data was collected from 100 respondents through the Google form
questionnaire and secondary data was collected from magazines, online journals and
internet. A real survey was also conducted in this phase using the validated

43
questionnaire and data were obtained online from 100 respondents from which we have
got 75 responses and rest 25 responses were collected by physical survey. Also
respondents were categorized on the basis of their gender, age, occupation and
qualification For this study, convenience sampling method is adopted as it emphasis on
specific features of a population that are of interest, which help to get the appropriate
answers of the questionnaire.
3.9 Sample Design
3.9.1Sampling Methods

Researcher was used non – probability convenience sampling method so select the
sample size because researcher have collected data on the convenience of researcher

3.9.2 Sample Period

Sampling Period was 2nd December, 2021 to 2nd February, 2022.

3.9.3 Sampling Unit

Here, target population is decided .the respondents were drawn from blockchain and
cryptocurrency user and industry practitioner communities in Surat, and non-investors
who are aware about cryptocurrency.

44
 3.10 Tools and Technique for Data Analysis
1)Tools:
 Chart
 Table
2) Technique:
 Reliability test, using Cronbach’s alpha
 Chi – Square
 Kruskal Wallis H Test
 Man Whitney test
 Regression and correlation

In this phase, data gathered were cleaned, coded, and rechecked several times before
commencing the analysis and interpretation of the results. Descriptive statistics and
firstly the reliability test is done to check the reliability of data by using Cronbach’s
composite and alpha reliability indicators, we proceeded to analyze the reliability of the
construction. And by opting to chic square analysis for different variable group with
factors with the help of bar diagram and by proofing the different hypothesis which we
have consider in this study. Even using test like man Whitney, kruskal Wallis test for
two or more independent variable, and to know the relationship between the different
factors and their association by using regression analysis and Pearson’s correlation. All
through using SPSS software.

45
 Table: 02
Sampling Frame Taking sampling frame of and
perception of Surat City Investor.
Sampling Unit Cryptocurrency user and industry
practitioner communities in Surat, and
non-investors who have heard of
cryptocurrency.
Sampling Size 100
Project instrument Questionnaire
Analysis Technique Graphical method , Cronbach’s alpha
test ,Chi – square test, Kruskal Wallis H
Test ,regression and correlation
Statistical Tools MS EXCEL, IBM SPSS STATISTICS
.

3.11 Limitation and future study

The current study has a few limitations that should be taken into account in future
studies in this area. Mainly, the sample size is relatively limited, though accurately
calculated, hence, the results cannot be generalized to community
Includes investors and non-investors. Thus, future studies are recommended to select a
larger and more representative sample size, to generalize the results to the whole
population. The future studies are also recommended to extend these findings to other
contexts and preferably using other models as well. Moreover, future research can be
suggested to expand into a longitudinal study that can be conducted in whole state or
country.

46
 CHAPTER-4
THEORITICAL
FRAMEWORK

“CHAPTER – FOUR”

47
 The 2008 global meltdown and the birth of Bitcoin

When iconic US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Filed for bankruptcy
in 2008, it shook people’s faith in banks so much that a new class of asset, which did
not have the backing of any formal bank, came into being. Bitcoin, the most popular
cryptocurrency, first found a mention in November 2008, about two months after the
Lehman crisis.
A decade later, cryptocurrencies have become one of the most debated financial assets,
globally and in India, in terms of risk and returns.
From a value below $1, its first known value in 2010, Bitcoin’s present value is now
$6200, down about 70% from about $20,000 in December 2017, when it peaked.
Strategies to cope with the stress of job loss in times of crisis

The birth of Bitcoin

On 1 November 2008, a techie by the name Satoshi Nakamoto wrote in an email to a
cryptography mailing list: “I’ve been working on a new electronic cash system that’s
fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party. The paper is available
at bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf.” The technical paper is still available on the link.
The main properties of the system, Satoshi said, would be that the electronic
transactions would be peer-to-peer and would not need to be sent to a financial
institution. The system was designed to be completely de-centralised, meaning that the
users of the currency would not need to repose their trust in a central authority, such as
traditional central banks. In another post in early 2009, Satoshi said that everything in
the newly-built system is based on crypto proof instead of trust.
Satoshi also expressed dissatisfaction that central banks and banks have repeatedly
breached the trust of the people who deposit money with them by lending the money in
credit bubbles while keeping very little as a reserve. “The root problem with
conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank
must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of
breaches of that trust,” Satoshi wrote.

What investors learnt from the 2008 crisis and how they coped with losses

48
The 1st transaction
A couple of months after floating the idea of this cryptocurrency, Satoshi created 50
Bitcoins with the very first transaction on the blockchain at 18:15:05 hours on 3 January
2009. The system is so designed that the initial 50 BTCs can’t be used or spent.
The transaction had an embedded message, including a timestamp, that indicated the
Bitcoin founder’s possible nudge to finally make Bitcoin live. The message read “The
Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”. The message
referred to a headline of a news article that appeared that day in the Times in the UK
that talked about a second bailout for the banks.
Story thereafter
When Bitcoin and the concept of decentralised cryptocurrency started gaining
popularity in 2011, other cryptocurrencies also started coming up. Litecoin was among
the first cryptcurrencies to come up in 2011. Ether or Ethereum, another popular one,
came into existence in 2015. At present, there are a few hundred cryptocurrencies being
traded worldwide, and a new “Initial Coin Offering” is announced every few days.
 Has the financial landscape in India changed over 10 years since the global
meltdown?
The idea probably came into effect due to Satoshi’s dissatisfaction with the existing
financial system. Satoshi wanted Bitcoin to be a currency, which could be used for peer-
to-peer transactions without having to trust a third party like a central bank. However,
over the years, Bitcoin and some other popular cryptocurrencies have turned more into
an asset rather than a currency.
In fact, some service providers, in several countries, started accepting some
cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, in exchange of their services. However, having an
extremely volatile value has been the biggest concern around cryptocurrencies, which
makes it an unsafe option for the retail investors.

4.1History of cryptocurrency

49
In 1983, the American cryptographer David Chaum conceived an anonymous
cryptographic electronic money called ecash. Later, in 1995, he implemented it
through Digicash, an early form of cryptographic electronic payments which 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 the issuing bank, the government, or any 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,
first publishing it in an MIT mailing list and later in 1997, in The American Law
Review (Vol. 46, Issue 4).
In 1998, Wei Dai published a description of “b-money”, characterized as an
anonymous, distributed electronic cash system.Shortly thereafter, Nick
Szabo described bit gold.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 2009, the first decentralized cryptocurrency, bitcoin, was created by presumably
pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It used SHA-256, a cryptographic hash
function, in its proof-of-work scheme. In April 2011, Namecoin was created as an
attempt at forming a decentralized DNS, which would make internet censorship very
difficult. Soon after, in October 2011, Litecoin was released. It used scrypt as its hash
function instead of SHA-256. Another notable cryptocurrency, Peer coin, used a proof-
of-work/proof-of-stake hybrid.
With the emergence of the internet and its subsequent rapid growth in last few decades,
the invention of the blockchain based on the modern internetwork seems to be an
unsurprising product of this new era (Zhou et al., 2016). Since the creation of the first
cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, in 2008 (Nakamoto, 2008), the cryptocurrency market has
experienced exponential growth in the ten years following its inception. This in turn has
turned cryptocurrency into one of the most attractive and fascinating buzzwords in the
world. From less than 0.01 USD worth of bitcoin in 2010 to above 10,000 USD each in
2019, and from a single bitcoin to more than 1000 altcoins and crypto-tokens

50
How and when was Bitcoin created?
There was a lot of mystery around Bitcoin after it was first proposed in 2008, the most
prominent being its creator: Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonymous person whose real
identity is still unknown. Nakamoto posted a paper, entitled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer
Electronic Cash System, on a mailing list on cryptography. This attracted a lot of
attention and a huge discussion ensued about it. Bitcoin price in India stood at Rs. 29.18
lakhs as of 7pm IST on August2.
In 2009, the Bitcoin software was made available to the public. Its mining, the process
through which new Bitcoins are created and transacted on the blockchain, began. The
valuation of Bitcoin took place the next year. Until then, Bitcoin was only mined;
nobody had traded it so the real value of the coin was undetermined. On May 22, 2010,
programmer Laszlo Hanyecz traded 10,000 Bitcoins to buy two pizzas. Had he
controlled his pizza craving, those Bitcoins would have been worth $389 million
(roughly Rs. 2,890 crores) today. A least the episode gave us the “Bitcoin Pizza Day”.
In 2011, the dominance of whatever market Bitcoin had captured by then was first
challenged. Some alternatives to Bitcoin — such as Namecoin and Litecoin — began
emerging. These rival coins offered improved services like better transaction speed,
among some other claims. Today, there are more than 11,000 cryptocurrencies in
circulation, according to CoinMarketCap, a market research website.

4.1.1 Bitcoin’s middle years

These years were some of the most volatile periods in Bitcoin’s history. In 2013, three
years after Bitcoin was first valued, its price crashed for the first time. Bitcoin had
breached the $1,000 (roughly Rs. 74,380) mark by then, but the price began to quickly
slide to around $300 (roughly Rs. 22,310). In January 2014, the world’s largest Bitcoin
exchange, Mt.Gox, suddenly went offline. With it, 850,000 Bitcoins too vanished and
those who owned them never found out what happened to their Bitcoins. On 20 March
2014, Mt. Gox reported that it found 199999.99 Bitcoins in an old digital wallet, which
brought the total number of bitcoins the firm lost down to 650,000, from 850,000.
Investigation into the matter is still on.
In 2015, Bitcoins regained the $1,000 (roughly Rs. 74,380) value again. The next
year, Ethereum posed a serious threat to Bitcoin’s market leadership. However, Bitcoin

51
had gained so much popularity that by 2017 it was getting closer to the $10,000
(roughly Rs. 7.4 lakhs) mark. More people were joining the ecosystem and putting
money into it. This year, the market cap of all cryptocurrency coins rose from $11
billion (roughly Rs. 81,820 crores) to over $300 billion (roughly Rs. 22, 31,640
crores). Ethereum price in India stood at Rs. 1.9 lakhs as of 7pm IST on August 2.

4.1.2 History of Bitcoin in India

In a bid to fight corruption and terrorism, on November 8, 2016, Prime Minister of

India Narendra Modi shocked the nation by demonetizing Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000
currency notes – sparking a new interest in the digital currency and other cashless
mechanisms such as internet banking, digital wallets, credit cards etc. The demonetized
notes amounted to 86% of India’s cash in circulation. India is a country where 87% of
transactions are done in cash. Chaos was inevitable. This resulted in long queues at the
ATMs and banks for weeks. There was not enough cash with the banks to dispense.
People holding cash could deposit their money in the bank accounts or exchange for
new Rs. 500 and Rs. 2000 notes before 30 December. People who were hoarding “black
money” (unaccounted cash) could not deposit money into their accounts because banks
were keeping a close eye on suspicious deposits .What options do these people have?
Let go all of their money? Well some of them did exactly that. Old notes were found
floating in the river .While others turned to look for commodities to hedge the risk of an
economic slowdown; some bought gold, some bought silver. What did government do
to curb this? They started raiding gold jewelers. When gold wasn’t working, people
were buying silver which significantly increased the demand of silver. With gold and
silver being targeted by authorities, these souls saw Bitcoin as a safe haven. Using their
connections and by paying up to 30-35% premium they started buying Bitcoins with
cash. Bitcoin price started to surge and weekly volume of Bitcoin trading nearly
doubled. Not to forget, India is one of the largest remittance markets with a total value
of more than $70 billion. On this a user usually pays up to 15% in bank charges and
conversion fees. This is where Bitcoins true potential lies. To understand how Bitcoin
may progress in India it will be beneficial to know the role gold plays in Indian society.
An American couple’s most valuable asset is typically their home, income and
education. An Indian couple’s possession of gold touches on all these areas. It is fair to

52
compare Bitcoin to gold, as they both are liquid commodities. Bitcoin as a result can be
seen in the middle of fiat currency and gold – only lacking the cultural weight that gold
has.

4.1.3 Bitcoin now

At the start of 2018, Bitcoin price again crashed and it lost more than 80 percent of its
value as several countries took steps to tighten regulatory oversight around
cryptocurrency. Even in India, the RBI issued a note to regulate banks from trading or
facilitating cryptocurrency transactions. Also this year, one of the biggest
cryptocurrency heists took place. The Bit Connect scam siphoned off $2 billion
(roughly Rs. 14,880 crores) by duping investors.
The year 2019 started off quiet. But Bitcoin neared $8,000 (roughly Rs. 5.9 lakhs) by
May. Then it lost nearly $1,000 (roughly Rs. 74,380) in June only to reach $14,000
(roughly Rs. 10.4 lakhs) by July. This year was relatively good for Bitcoin. The next
year, the pandemic year, Bitcoin was still considered a fringe investment by the likes of
Warren Buffet, who said it has “no value.” By the end of the year, however, Bitcoin
nearly quadrupled, reaching an all-time high above $28,000 (roughly Rs. 20.8 lakhs).
The Supreme Court of India set the RBI circular aside on cryptocurrency in May 2020.
This year, Bitcoin has had a roller-coaster ride so far. During the initial months, it had
the backing of the tech tycoon Elon Musk, who later began supporting Dogecoin after
environmentalists raised concern about Bitcoin mining driving up energy
consumption. Dogecoin price in India stood at Rs. 15.11 as of 7pm IST on August 2,
2021. After reaching its lifetime high of $65,000 (roughly Rs. 48.3 lakhs), Bitcoin
crashed massively in May. It has now recovered to some extent and was trading around
$40,000 (roughly Rs. 29.7 lakhs) on Monday, August 2, 2021.

4.2 Formal definition and meaning of cryptocurrencies

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 According to Jan Lansky, a cryptocurrency is a system that meets six conditions:
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.
Cryptocurrencies are physical precomputed files utilizing a public key / private key
pairs generated around a specific encryption algorithm. The key assigns ownership of
each key pair, or ‘coin,’ to the person who is in possession of the private key. These key
pairs are stored in a file named ‘wallet.dat,’ which resides in a default hidden directory
on the owners’ hard drive. The private keys are sent to users using dynamic wallet
addresses generated by the users engaged in transactions. The destination payment
address is the public key of the cryptocurrency key pair. There is a finite amount of each
cryptocoin available on the network, and value of each unit is assigned based on supply
and demand, as well as the fluctuating difficulty levels required for mining each coin.
The wallet.dat file is the most important file of the cryptocurrency software architecture,
as that is where the physical cryptographic private key file is stored. Much like cash, if a
user loses their wallet.dat file, or has it stolen, the cryptocurrency is lost. The
decentralized nature of open source protocol ensures that the control of the network
remains in the hands of the users. Transactions are dependent on participants in the
network, and the user responsible for the security of their own finances and data,
without the need for reliance on third parties such as banking institutions. Bitcoin
operates as a p2p file sharing protocol, and therefore the concept is similar to .torrent
technology. The p2p network relies on user participation for successful trusted data
exchange. Each transaction is confirmed through key verification on multiple nodes in
the network before reaching its destination. This crowd sourced key verification process

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guarantees the integrity of the data transfer. The most popular cryptocurrency at the
time of writing is Bitcoin, with alternatives such as Litecoin rapidly gaining market
traction. The source codes for these programs, as well as the code for other
cryptocurrencies, are available on all major open source code repositories.

4.2.1 Altcoin and stable coins

Tokens, cryptocurrencies, and other types of digital assets that are not bitcoin are
collectively known as alternative cryptocurrencies, typically shortened to “altcoins” or
“alt coins”,[33][34] or disparagingly known as “shitcoins”.Paul Vigna of The Wall Street
Journal also described altcoins as “alternative versions of bitcoin” given its role as the
model protocol for altcoin designers. The term is commonly used to describe coins and
tokens created after bitcoin. Altcoins often have underlying differences with 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. Another
example is Ethereum, which has smart contract functionality that allows decentralized
applications to be run on its blockchain. Ethereum was the most used blockchain in
2020, according to Bloomberg News. In 2016, it had the largest “following” of any
altcoin, according to the New York Times. Significant rallies across altcoin markets are
often referred to as an “altseason”.
Stablecoins
Stablecoins are altcoins that are designed to maintain a stable level of purchasing power.

4.2.2 Crypto coins vs. Tokens

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First things first: know the difference between a coin and a token. When discussing
cryptos, you may hear the terms “coin” and “token” frequently used. While they may
sound like interchangeable terms, there is a difference, and it’s important to keep them
straight.
A digital coin is created on its own blockchain and acts in much the same way as
traditional money. It can be used to store value and as a means of exchange between
two parties doing business with each other. Examples of coins include Bitcoin
and Litecoin (CRYPTO: LTC).
Tokens, on the other hand, have far more use than just digital money. Tokens are
created on top of an existing blockchain and can be used as part of a software
application (like to grant access to an app, to verify identity, or to track products moving
through a supply chain), or they can even represent digital art (like with NFTs, or “non-
fungible tokens,” that certify something as unique). There has even been
experimentation with using NFTs with physical assets, such as real-life art and real
estate. Ether is an example of a token, which is used to make transactions on the
Ethereum network.  Although coins and tokens are closely related, they are distinct
entities.

4.2.2.1 Why are there so many types of cryptocurrency?

Blockchain technology is open source, meaning any software developer can use the
original source code and create something new with it. Developers have done just that.
There are estimated to be more than 4,500 different cryptocurrencies in circulation as of
this writing, and the figure keeps increasing. For reference, it was only about four years
ago that the number of cryptos surpassed 1,000.  
Part of the reason for the surge is the relative ease with which new cryptocurrencies can
be created. The source code of one can be used to build another. For example,
the Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETC) network can be used to create your own personal digital
coins. And sometimes there are “forks” in the software code that change the rules about
how a crypto is governed, which can lead to the creation of a new crypto. Bitcoin
Cash (CRYPTO: BCH) was created in 2017 as a result of a Bitcoin fork allowing for
more transactions to be recorded on a single block of the blockchain.

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Surging crypto prices have led many developers to pile in to try and get a cut of the
action. And blockchain technology has usefulness beyond just digital currencies (more
on that in a minute). Thus, while some cryptos might be a bubble that will eventually
pop the decentralized nature of the technology and the broad scope of how it can be
applied in the software world is in itself a reason why there are so many cryptos.

4.2.3 Architecture of cryptocurrency

Decentralized cryptocurrency is produced by the entire cryptocurrency system

collectively, at a rate which is defined when the system is created and which is publicly
known. In centralized banking and economic systems such as the US Federal Reserve
System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency. In the case of
decentralized 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 decentralized
cryptocurrencies are based was created by the group or individual known as Satoshi
Nakamoto.
As of May 2018, over 1,800 cryptocurrency specifications existed. Within a proof-of-
work cryptocurrency system such as Bitcoin, the safety, integrity and balance
of ledgers is maintained by a community of mutually distrustful parties referred to
as miners: who use their computers to help validate and timestamp transactions, adding
them to the ledger in accordance with a particular timestamping scheme. In a proof-of-
stake (PoS) 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.Compared with ordinary currencies held by financial institutions or kept
as cash on hand, cryptocurrencies can be more difficult for seizure by law enforcement.

Blockchain

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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. Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous
block, a timestamp and transaction data. 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”. 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.

Nodes
In the world of cryptocurrency, a node is a computer that connects to a cryptocurrency
network. The node supports the relevant cryptocurrency’s network through; 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 organisation 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.

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

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The 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.

Mining
In cryptocurrency networks, mining is a 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.
This arms race for cheaper-yet-efficient machines has existed since the first
cryptocurrency, bitcoin, was introduced in 2009.
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. Popular regions for mining include those with inexpensive
electricity, a cold climate, and jurisdictions with clear and conducive regulations. As of
July 2019, bitcoin’s electricity consumption is estimated to about 7 gigawatts, 0.2% of
the global total, or equivalent to that of Switzerland.
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 and Texas. One company is operating data centers for mining
operations at Canadian oil and gas field sites, due to low gas prices. In June

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2018, Hydro Quebec proposed to the provincial government to allocate 500 MW to
crypto companies for mining. According to a February 2018 report
from Fortune, Iceland has become a haven for cryptocurrency miners in part because of
its cheap electricity.
In March 2018, the city of Plattsburgh in upstate 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.

GPU price rise

An increase in cryptocurrency mining increased the demand for graphics cards (GPU) in
2017. (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. A GTX 1070 Ti which was released at a price of $450
sold for as much as $1100. 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.
Nvidia has asked retailers to do what they can when it comes to selling GPUs to gamers
instead of miners. “Gamers come first for Nvidia,” said Boris Böhles, PR manager for
Nvidia in the German region.

Wallets
An example paper printable bitcoin wallet consisting of one bitcoin address for
receiving and the corresponding private key for spending
A cryptocurrency wallet stores the public and private “keys” (address) or seed which
can be used to receive or spend the cryptocurrency. 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 from using paper
wallets which are traditional public, private or seed keys written on paper to using
hardware wallets which are dedicated hardware to securely store your wallet
information, using a digital wallet which is a computer with a software hosting your

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wallet information, hosting your wallet using an exchange where cryptocurrency is
traded. Or by storing your wallet information on a digital medium such as plaintext.

Anonymity
Bitcoin is pseudonymous rather than anonymous in that the cryptocurrency within a
wallet is not tied to people, but rather to one or more specific keys (or
“addresses”).Thereby, bitcoin owners are not identifiable, but all transactions are
publicly available in the blockchain. Still, cryptocurrency exchanges are often required
by law to collect the personal information of their users.
Additions such as Monero, Zerocoin, Zerocash and CryptoNote have been suggested,
which would allow for additional anonymity and fungibility.

4.2.4 Economics behind cryptocurrency market exchange

Cryptocurrencies are used primarily outside existing 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.
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.
The current value, not the long-term value, of the cryptocurrency supports the reward
scheme to incentivize miners to engage in costly mining activities. Some sources claim
that the current bitcoin design is very inefficient, generating a welfare loss of 1.4%

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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.

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. The
currency holder can choose a specific transaction fee, while network entities process
transactions in order of highest offered fee to lowest. 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.
For Ether, 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, the median transaction fee for ether
corresponded to $0.017, while for bitcoin it corresponded to $0.55.
Some cryptocurrencies have no transaction fees, and instead rely on client-side proof-
of-work as the transaction prioritization and anti-spam mechanism.

Exchanges
Cryptocurrency exchanges allow customers to trade cryptocurrenciesfor other assets,
such as conventional fiat money, or to trade between different digital currencies.

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.

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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.

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.
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.

Price trends
The “market cap” of any coin 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 block chain rewards coded into the architecture technology of Bitcoin

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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 an halving (twice thus far historically) the cryptocurrency market
cap increases, followed by a downtrend.
By mid-June 2021 cryptocurrency as an admittedly extremely volatile asset class for
portfolio diversification had begun to be offered by some wealth managers in the US.

4.3 Main types of cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is considered the first cryptocurrency created, and everything else is collectively
known as an “altcoin” (a combo word derived from “alternative coin”). While it’s
difficult to say which cryptos are the best ones, Bitcoin and some of the largest altcoins
out there are top-tier options because of their scalability, privacy, and the scope of
functionality they support.
Coin Total Market Value*

Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) $826 billion

Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) $390 billion

Binance Coin (CRYPTO:BNB) $79.5 billion

Cardano (CRYPTO:ADA) $66.3 billion

Dogecoin (CRYPTO:DOGE) $63.4 billion

Tether (CRYPTO:USDT) $58.2 billion

XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) $51.8 billion

Polkadot (CRYPTO:DOT) $30.5 billion

Internet Computer (CRYPTO:ICP) $25.6 billion

Bitcoin Cash (CRYPTO:BCH) $20.1 billion

Data source: coinmarketcap.com. *As of 5/17/2021.  

There really isn’t one “best” cryptocurrency since each has different features built in
based on what the developer designed it for. Here’s an overview of some of the most
popular digital coins and how each is being used.

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1.Bitcoin
Bitcoin is regarded as the first decentralized cryptocurrency using blockchain
technology to facilitate payments and digital transactions. Instead of using a central
bank to control the supply of money in an economy (like the Federal Reserve in tandem
with the U.S. Department of the Treasury) or third parties to verify transactions (such as
your local bank, credit card issuer, and the merchant’s bank), Bitcoin’s blockchain acts
as a public ledger of all transactions in the history of Bitcoin. That ledger allows a party
to prove they own the Bitcoin they’re trying to use and can help prevent fraud and other
unapproved tampering of the currency. A decentralized currency can also make peer-to-
peer money transfers (like those between parties in two different countries) faster and
less-expensive than traditional currency exchanges involving a third-party institution.

2. Ether (Ethereum)
Ether is the token used to facilitate transactions on the Ethereum network. Ethereum is a
platform that uses blockchain technology to enable the creation of smart contracts and
other decentralized applications (meaning the software doesn’t have to be distributed on
app exchanges like Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) or Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
(NASDAQ:GOOG) Google Play Store, where they might have to give a 30% cut of any
revenue to the tech giants). Thus, Ethereum is both a cryptocurrency (the actual coins
are measured in units called Ether) and a software development sandbox.

3. Binance Coin
Binance Coin is available on the Binance cryptocurrency exchange platform (along with
other digital coins that are available for trading). Binance Coin can be used as a type of
currency, but it also facilitates tokens that can be used to pay fees on the Binance
exchange and to power Binance’s DEX (decentralized exchange) for building apps.  

4. XRP (Ripple)
XRP is a digital currency based on the digital payments platform RippleNet, built by the
company Ripple. It was designed for financial institutions to scale digital payments

65
across the globe and reduce transaction costs associated with typical cross-border funds
transfers. Short-term lines of credit can also be extended using XRP.  

5. Tether
Tether is what’s known as a stablecoin, a currency tied to a fiat currency – in this case,
the U.S. dollar. The idea behind Tether is to combine the benefits of a cryptocurrency
(such as no need for financial intermediaries) with the stability of a currency issued by a
sovereign government (versus the wild price fluctuations inherent with many cryptos).  

6.Dogecoin
Originally made as a joke poking fun of rampant speculation on cryptocurrencies,
Dogecoin has skyrocketed in value, thanks to support from the likes
of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and investor and Dallas Mavericks owner
Mark Cuban. It features a meme of a Shiba Inu dog as a “mascot” and was made to be
used a form of digital payment like Bitcoin. However, Dogecoin makes it quicker and
easier for payments to be recorded, but it also has no limit on how many coins can be
created over time (unlike Bitcoin, which was designed with a cap on how many coins
there can be).

4.3.1 Top cryptocurrency exchange in India

1)Binance
Binance is one of the best crypto exchanges that offers a platform for trading more than
150 cryptocurrencies. This online program has an API to integrate your current trading
application.

2) PrimeXBT

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PrimeXBT is a cryptocurrency exchange that allows users to access multiple markets
from a single account. It offers easy access to Cryptocurrencies, Stock Indices,
Commodities, and Forex.
3)Coinbase 
Coinbase is an online platform that can be utilized for purchasing, selling, transferring,
as well as storing digital currency. It securely stores a wide range of digital assets in
offline storage. This platform supports more than 100 countries.
4) Crypto
Crypto is one of the best Crypto currency exchanges that enable you to buy 200+
cryptocurrencies with 20+ fiat currencies. It allows you to access, manage, and spend
your funds anytime. Crypto obtains the highest security and compliance standards.

5) Paybis
Paybis is a cryptography exchange that enables you to buy Bitcoin with a debit card or
credit card with ease. This platform supports Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, Stellar, Tether,
and more.
6) Coinsmart
Coinsmart is a digital currency exchange that enables you to buy and sell crypto with no
hassle. It enables you to access your Bitcoin payment and your cash instantly. This
application provides you a quick and easy way to invoice your customer using
SmartPay Invoicing.
7) Coinmama
Coinmama is one of the best cryptocurrency exchanges that allow you to buy
cryptocurrencies with your credit card or debit card. This tool provides instant delivery
of your coins.
9) Kraken
Kraken is one of the best ripple wallets that offer financial stability by maintaining full
reserves, relationships, and the highest legal compliance standards.
10) Cex.io
Cex.io is one of the best crypto trading platform that helps you to buy and sell Bitcoins.
It allows you to deposit funds using MasterCard, Visa card, or PayPal Debit
MasterCard. This online program follows scalping and frequency trading strategies to
secure assets and data.

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4.3.2 How to Buy and Sell cryptocurrency in India

The downward trend in cryptocurrency trading in India is mostly due to increased

government regulations. However, this does not stop people from trading. Two ways in
which many Indians trade are:
1) Exchanges
2) P2P methods.
Both these steps follow the KYC norms and usually require documents like Pan Card,
Aadhaar card or passports.

4.3.3 Top cryptocurrency Exchanges in India

Since banking institutions have banned crypto currency trading in India, popular
exchanges like Zeb Pay have had to shut down. Nevertheless, the following top
exchanges are still currently used in India:
Unocoin
Unocoin was founded in 2013 and is the leading Bitcoin exchange in India. It is backed
by investment from the USA and is a regulated company offering low 1% fees which
fall to 0.7% with increased trading volumes. It is a relatively easy exchange platform,
allowing users to buy crypto currency with any Indian bank account. However, with the
banning proposal at hand, things might get challenging for Unocoin.
WazirX
One of India’s most trusted exchange platforms, WazirX was founded in 2018. It
focuses on exchange-escrowed P2P services to enable customers to continue to
withdraw INR. WazirX follows the KYC norms, has a mobile application for both
Android and iOS users and also claims to provide multiple hundred transactions per
second.

Other methods

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Outside of exchanges, P2P trading platforms enable Bitcoin purchases in India, in spite
of the bank bans. Two important P2P marketplaces in India are:
Paxful is a peer to peer marketplace founded in 2015 that allows buyers and sellers to
meet online and trade directly Bitcoin with each other. Sellers on Paxful accept over
300 payment methods, including the major Indian payment methods like PayTM,
Bheem, and Phonepe. As a result, many Indians use Paxful due to ease of access and
payment. There is also no fee for ht site itself, since the Bitcoin is traded at a premium.
Local Bitcoins supports the most popular payment methods and allows individuals
from different countries to purchase Bitcoin for their local currency. Local Bitcoins
currently operates in several major Indian cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata,
Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Pune, Guwahati and many more. Again, due to the
2019 Supreme Court Proposal, many exchanges and marketplaces are wary of the
Indian government’s attitude towards cryptocurrency in general. As of September 2019,
there are no Bitcoin ATMs in India.

4.3.4 India’s first crypto index and what it means for investors

India has the Bombay stock exchange and National stock exchange for equities. Now
we have our very own crypto index. Which will monitor the 15 –most traded
cryptocurrencies that are listed on crypto exchanges globally.
Global cryptocurrency super app Crypto wire has launched a crypto index in India to
monitor the performance of the 15 most traded cryptocurrencies, listed on leading
exchanges in the world. The cryptocurrency index is known as IC15.
Crypto wire is a special business unit of crypto statistics provided Ticker Plant. In a
statement, the company said the index is aimed at increasing awareness and knowledge
of the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem.

How will IC15 Index work?

It may be noted that the IC15 index comprises a governance committee (IGC) that
includes domain experts, industry practitioners as well as academicians. They will be in
charge of monitoring and maintaining the index, including reshuffling of the top 15
cryptos.

69
Jigish Sonagara, Managing Director and CEO of Crypto Wire, said, “Our approach is to
facilitate market development and mitigate risk to a great degree by presenting all
possible tools to evaluate possibilities and make decisions.”
“We want all participants to utilise, to the fullest, this research-oriented, technology-
powered opportunity for tracking the market,” he added.
For a cryptocurrency to be listed on the index, it needs to trade on at least 90 per cent of
the trading days during the review period and should remain in the top 50 in terms of
circulating market capitalisation during the preceding month.
It should also be amongst the top 100 most liquid cryptocurrencies in terms of trading
value to be eligible for listing on the IC15 index.
As mentioned earlier, the index will be monitored, reviewed and rebalanced every
quarter. The base value of the index is set at 10,000 and the base date is April 1, 2018.
The top tokens are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin and Solana, which occupy the four
leading positions.

4.3.4.1 Objective of IC15 Index

The objective of the IC15 index is to provide insights into index-linked products such as
crypto ETFs and funds. It will also help provide information about crypto mining and
the overall cryptocurrency market.
It will help investors understand crucial details about the cryptocurrency ecosystem and
also provide solutions for diversified investments in cryptos.
It will not only help crypto investors, but also enthusiasts and investment managers,
given the fact that it is a fundamental crypto market tracking index that will provide a
overall reflection of global markets.

4.4 Market performance of cryptocurrency

2021 was a record-breaking year for cryptocurrencies, with many, including bitcoin and
ether, reaching new market price highs. The total crypto market capitalization in 2021
also reached a record $3 trillion after recrossing $1 trillion in January and $2 trillion in
May. Bitcoin, the clear market leader in terms of total market value, broke its previous
all-time high and nearly 100% in 2021 while adding roughly $545 billion to its market

70
capitalization — versus Gold: -2.5%, S&P500: 26%, and Nasdaq: 31% in the same time
period. In terms of yearly highs, bitcoin reached $69,000 in early November, a year-to-
high return of over 140%. Notably, all top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization,
excluding Stablecoins, had positive returns. Moreover, most cryptocurrencies in the top
ten outperformed bitcoin with wide margins — including ether, even more than the
previous year.
Layer-1 (L1) protocols and doge-themed “meme coins” were the breakout winners in
2021. The L1 rally (see “Layer-by-Layer” section) was driven primarily by Solana on
the back of intense usage conditions on Ethereum which led to increasingly expensive
gas prices

Source: trading veiw/ from the Blockresearch .com fig:03

The start of the year also saw Binance Smart Chain (BSC) take off paired with the
growth of its native decentralized exchange Pancake Swap, which boosted Binance’s
cryptocurrency Binance Coin (BNB), as BNB was the native gas token on BSC. Later
into the year, we saw Cardano and Avalanche flourish, with the former launching smart
contracts and the latter seeing a growing decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem
continue to develop. Paired with L1 protocols, we also saw the skyrocketing growth of
doge-themed “meme coins” with Dogecoin kicking off the year with the support of

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s backing and Shiba Inu following soon after. In 2021, Shiba
Inu’s cryptocurrency, SHIB, grew over 632,000 times in price. That is, a $100 purchase
of SHIB in January would be worth $63 million at the time of this report

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 CHAPTER: 5
DATA COLLECTION
AND ANALYSIS

“CHAPTER –FIVE”
DATA ANALYSIS
5.1 Graphics Methods

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5.1.1 Demographic Information analysis:

Gender:(Table :03)

Valid
Frequency Percent Percent Cumulative Percent
male 54 54.0 54.0 54.0
female 46 46.0 46.0 100.0
Total
100 100.0 100.0

Interpretation :(Fig:04)
Here, we can see that from total number of responses there are 46 female which is
45% of total population and remaining 55% which 54 male responses are of male.

Age group:
(Table : 04)

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 Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent
Va 18-25years 63 63.0 63.0 63.0
lid 26-35years 16 16.0 16.0 79.0
36-45years 11 11.0 11.0 90.0
40-60years 10 10.0 10.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0

Interpretation: (Fig: 05)

Here we can examine from the table and chart about different number response of
different age group, where highest number of response are 63% from 18-25 years
group ,then 16% of 26-35 years group , 11% of 36-45 years people, and lowest
response from 46-60 years which is 10%.

Stream: (Fig: 06)

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 Interpretation:
Here, we can see, people from commerce field are more interested into the
cryptocurrency with total percentage of 65%, then science stream people are followed
after in contribution to this survey, Arts and other stream people both contributed with
7% from total the population.

Education qualification:

Interpretation: (Fig: 07)

Here, we can see from chart that under graduate people having more contribution of
about 49%, then graduate people with 28%, and 16% of post graduate people, other
includes no degree, or h.s.c, s.s.c people having contribution of 6%.

Nature of employment:

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 (Fig; 08)
Interpretation:
Here, from pie chart we can easily define that 41% of employed, 35% of unemployed
and 23% of self-employed people’s contribution to the survey.

5.1.2 Awareness level of cryptocurrency:

(Table: 05)

Are you aware about cryptocurrency?

Frequenc Percen Valid

y t Percent Cumulative Percent
no
9 9.0 9.0 9.0

yes
91 91.0 91.0 100.0

Total
100 100.0 100.0

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Interpretation: (Fig: 09)
Here from table we can identify that there are 9 people from entire population are not
aware about cryptocurrency and rest of 91 people are aware .even we can see the ratio
of female is more than male in no criteria given in chart
Many people have heard of cryptocurrency but the level of awareness about the working
of it, it is so less. As from the chart if we compare gender wise, mostly female are
unaware then male.

(Fig: 10)
Interpretation:
Even if we compare by age group we find that awareness level of gen-z which 18-25
years group people is high, compare to other age groups, after that 26-35 years follows
as high awareness level then the other age groups.

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5.1.3 Awareness level of blockchain technology

(Fig: 11)
(Table: 06)

Are you aware about block chain technology?

Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
no 44 44.0 44.0 44.0
yes 56 56.0 56.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0

Interpretation:
Here from bar chart and table:05 is about the aware level of blockchain technology , so
we can find that about 44% people are unaware about the blockchain ,if we compare
gender wise likely show in bar chart fig:11 that female are highly unaware about
blockchain than male.

79
 (Fig:12)
Interpretation:
Even if we compare by age group we find that awareness level of gen-z which 18-25
years group people is high regarding blockchain technology, compare to other age
groups, after that 26-35 years follows as high awareness level then the other age
groups. From 36-60 years group people having low awareness level of blockchain
technology.

80
5.2 Reliability test of measurement scales of primary data:

5.2.1 Scale: all variable

Reliability statistics: (Table: 07)

Cronbach’s Alpha
Cronbach’s Based on Standardized
Alpha Items N of Items
.811 .839

Interpretation:
(Table:08)
Alpha Cronbach’s value Interpretation
0.91-1.00 Excellent
0.81-0.90 Good
0.71-0.81 Good and acceptable
0.61-0.70 Acceptable
0.01-0.60 Non-acceptable

Here, we can see the overall value of all variables Cronbach’s alpha shows the 0.811
which the higher than 0.7.which shows the good measure of internal consistency, that is,
how closely related a set of items are as a group.

81
(Table: 09)
Item Statistics
Std.
Mean Deviation N
performance
13.8000 3.28756 100
expectancy
behavioural intentions 13.5300 3.84932 100

trust(t) 19.8600 5.19133 100

E-Wom(ew) 17.4600 4.25790 100
web quality 10.4700 2.26281 100
perceived risk 14.0500 3.25165 100
cryptocurrency as
19.0400 5.89799 100
cashless payment

Here, it is table about the different mean and standard deviation value of different
variables or of different measurement scales.

(Table: 10)
Inter-Item Correlation Matrix
(Ew
PE BI (T) ) WQ PR CP
performance
1.000 .582 .646 .619 .525 .231 .166
expectancy(PE)
behavioural
.582 1.000 .724 .681 .467 .215 .188
intentions(BI)
trust(T) .646 .724 1.000 .789 .583 .228 .339
E-Wom(Ew) .619 .681 .789 1.000 .540 .194 .289
web quality(WQ) .525 .467 .583 .540 1.000 .477 .267
perceived risk(PR) .231 .215 .228 .194 .477 1.000 .218
cryptocurrency as
cashless .166 .188 .339 .289 .267 .218 1.000
payment(CP)

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Here, it is the table showing the correlation every variable with each other, as, its seems
all value are positive so they are positively correlated and shows strong relation.

5.2.2 Composite reliability:

In statistics, a variable is some characteristic shared by people in the population. Age,

height, eye colour, and number of hours of television watched in a week are all
examples of variables. These examples, however, are of characteristics that can be
counted or measured and are observable. Sometimes it is necessary to make
observations of attributes that are not easily observed, such as intelligence or health.
Here, we have performance expectancy, trust, risk, web quality, behavioural intentions
etc. These are multidimensional concepts that can be measured using composite
variables.
A composite variable is a variable created by combining two or more individual
variables, called indicators, into a single variable. Each indicator alone doesn’t provide
sufficient information, but altogether they can represent the more complex concept.
Think of the indicators as pieces of a puzzle that must be fit together to see the big
picture.
So, after we find the Cronbach’s alpha of all variable together, now we are using
composite alpha to know the internal consistency in scale item individually.

83
 Table: 11
Average
variance
Composite extracted(
  Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability AVE)

performance
expectancy 0.848 0.898 0.689

behavioural intentions 0.883 0.919 0.741

trust(t) 0.888 0.916 0.646

E-Wom(ew) 0.901 0.928 0.722

web quality 0.701 0.842 0.649

perceived risk 0.823 0.887 0.662

cryptocurrency as
cashless payment 0.883 0.892 0.544

Interpretation:
Then, using Cronbach’s composite and alpha reliability indicators, we proceeded to
analyze the reliability of the constructions. In all the cases, our indicators were higher
than the 0.7 suggested by Nunnally. Furthermore, by analyzing the average variance
extracted (AVE), convergent validity has been guaranteed. In our case, all the indicators
offered levels higher than the 0.5 these indicators appear in Table 5, in which we can
check that all the constructions meet all the requirements.

84
5.3 Testing hypothesis:

H1o: there is no significant difference between mean rank of male and female
regarding the various acceptance factors of cryptocurrency.
H1a: there is significant difference between mean rank of male and female
regarding the various acceptance factors of cryptocurrency.

Man Whitney U test: (table: 12)

Mean rank of gender

Factors of
cryptocurrency
acceptance Male Female Z-value p-value
performance expectancy 52.19 48.51 -0.637 0.524
behavioural intentions 47.18 54.4 -1.25 0.211
trust(t) 53.56 46.91 -1.145 0.525
E-Wom(ew) 49.63 51.52 -0.327 0.744
web quality 52.69 47.92 -0.829 0.407
perceived risk 51.30 49.57 -0.3 0.764
cryptocurrency as cashless
payment 54.90 45.34 -1.646 0.1

Interpretation:
The significance level is .05, here all distribution of different acceptance factors of
cryptocurrency is the same across the male and female .as all sig. Which (p- Value) is
higher than .05 but the, z-score value shows the value less than -1.96, so we reject null
hypothesis. There is difference in mean rank and opinions of male and female regarding
the accepting factors of cryptocurrency.

H2o: There is no significant difference in age group with regard to acceptance and
usage of cryptocurrency.

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H2a: There is significant difference in age group with regard to acceptance and
usage of cryptocurrency.

Kruskal Wallis test: (Table: 13)

factors of Age group

cryptocurrency chi-
acceptance 18-25 26-35 36-45 46-60 square p-value

performance
expectancy 52.43 48.81 48.45 43.3 1.017 0.797

behavioural
intentions 50.29 50.47 55.64 46.25 0.57 0.903

trust(t) 52.9 45.84 49.27 44.2 1.342 0.719

E-Wom(ew) 52.56 48.91 52.64 37.7 2.396 0.494

web quality 55.6 34.5 51.45 42.9 7.68 0.053

perceived risk 54.07 31.84 52.05 56.15 8.125 0.044

cryptocurrency as
cashless payment 47.27 54.66 63.36 50.05 3.288 0.349

Interpretation:
Here, the table shows different significances and chi square values of different factors regarding
the age group, all factors are having the value higher than the .05, except the p-value of
perceived risk is 0.044 which is why rejecting the hypothesis.

H3o: There is no significant difference in nature of employment with regard to

acceptance and usage of cryptocurrency.

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H3a: There is a significant difference in nature of employment with regard to
acceptance and usage of cryptocurrency.

Kruskal Wallis test: (Table: 14)

Nature of employment
factors of
cryptocurrency self- chi-
acceptance employed employed housewife unemployed square p-value

performance
expectancy 49.94 58.26 7.5 47.36 4.338 .227

behavioural
intentions 54.78 49.13 73.5 45.97 2.462 .482

trust(t) 50.18 54.63 32.5 48.72 .998 .802

E-Wom(ew) 48.58 56.35 25.5 49.59 1.906 .592

web quality 44.73 54.07 41 54.9 2.923 .402

perceived risk 46.38 47.98 72.00 56.10 2.923 .404

cryptocurrency
as cashless
payment 51.58 58.15 36.00 44.81 3.298 .348

Interpretation:
Here, the table shows different significances and chi square values of different factors regarding
the age group, all factors are having the value higher than the .05, so we are retaining the entire
hypothesis.

H4(a): E-Wom positively influences the trust in cryptocurrencies.

H4(b): E-Wom positively influences the Behavioural Intention to use
cryptocurrencies.
H5(a): The quality of the website has a positive influence on trust in
cryptocurrencies.
H5(b). The quality of the website influences the Behavioural Intention to use
cryptocurrencies.
H6(a) Perceived risk adversely affects trust in cryptocurrencies.

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H6(b). Perceived risk adversely influences the Behavioural Intention to use
cryptocurrencies.
H7: Trust positively influences the intention to use cryptocurrencies.
H 8 : trust regarding the cryptocurrency as a cashless transaction.
H9: Performance Expectancy positively influences the intention of use of
cryptocurrencies

Testing rest all hypotheses by using Regression and Pearson’s

correlation value:(Table: 15)
R-square p-value
E-Wom trust 0.623 0.000
E-Wom Behavioural intentions 0.464 0.000
web-quality trust 0.34 0.000
web-quality Behavioural 0.219 0.000
intentions
perceived risk trust 0.520 0.002
Perceived risk Behavioural 0.460 0.003
intentions
Trust behavioural intentions 0.524 0.000
Trust cryptocurrency as a 0.115 0.01
cashless
Performance expectancy 0.339 0.000
behaviuoral intentions
Behaviuorl intentions 0.035 0.000
Cryptocurrency as a cashless

Interpretation:
So, to check the relationship between the various dependent and independent
variables .we checked the R-square of the different acceptance factors in Table 9. As we
can observe, our model has an average explanatory power of the r-square value shows
the different percentage of effect on other factors, like E-Wom have 62.3% effect on
trust, and 46.4% on behavioural intentions of people. Web-quality has 34% effect on
trust and 21.9% on behavioural intentions. Perceived risk having the 52.0% effect on

88
trust and 46% on behavioural intentions. Trust 52.4% affects the behavioural intentions
of individual and 11.5% on accepting cryptocurrency as a cashless payment.
Performance expectancy affects 33.9% to behavioural intentions. the cryptocurrency as
a cashless payment affects 3.5 % on behavioural intentions of individual .
Second, column shows Pearson’s correlation significant p-value. If the p≤ 0.01 the test
is significant (shows the significant relationship between the independent and dependent
variable). So here all variables having the value p≤0.01, so there is positive relationship
between the different values.

89
 CHAPTER:6 FINGINGS
FROM THE STUDY

Chapter –Six
FINDINGS FROM THE STUDY
Findings from study
Well, this study is on cryptocurrency as a new financial tool, by including the different
acceptance factors in it. Study to test the acceptance of cryptocurrency among the Surat
community. So, to achieve the objectives to know the opinions of people regarding
acceptance factors of cryptocurrency is divided in several ways to analyze it, so we
include by firstly interpreting the awareness level of cryptocurrency among gender, age

90
 group, we find Many people have heard of cryptocurrency but the level of awareness
about the working of it, it is so less.
 As from the chart if we compare gender wise mostly female are unaware then male.
Many people have heard of cryptocurrency but the level of awareness about the working
of it, it is so less. even we have check awareness regarding blockchain, and we find if
we compare by age group we find that awareness level of gen-z which 18-25 years
group people is high regarding blockchain technology, compare to other age groups,
after that26-35 years follows as high awareness level then the other age groups. From
36-60 years group people having low awareness level of blockchain technology. Even if
this people are using cryptocurrency which is where their actually using blockchain, but
still there unaware of that cryptocurrency works on blockchain technology.
 We have also included chart for stream , nature of employment ,education qualification ,
we observe that population mostly included high percentage of about 65% of commerce
people, 21% of science people, and qualification wise under graduate and graduate of
49% & 28%,nature of employment chart shows 41%
employed ,35%unemployed,23%of self-employed people having interest in
cryptocurrency.
 Before testing different hypothesis we have check the reliability of data using
Cronbach’s alpha, Composite reliability (sometimes called construct reliability) is a
measure of internal consistency in scale items, much like Cronbach's alpha It can be
thought of as being equal to the total amount of true score variance relative to the total
scale score variance we find are data and factors reliable. In all the cases, our indicators
were higher than the 0.7 suggested by Nunnally. Furthermore, by analyzing the average
variance extracted (AVE), convergent validity has been guaranteed. In our case, all the
indicators offered levels higher than the 0.5, in which we can check that all the
constructions meet all the requirements.
 As our first hypothesis, is about to proof that there is no difference between the mean
rank of male and female regarding the factors of acceptance of cryptocurrency by
usingMan Whitney test, we find distribution of different acceptance factors of
cryptocurrency is the different across the male and female all z-value is less than -1.96.
Every person whether its male or female they consider ,having different opinions as
accepting cryptocurrency in regards of trust , performance , risk, views about the using
it as a cashless payment .

91
 After that to proof no significant difference in age group with regard to acceptance and
usage of cryptocurrency. We have used kruskalWallistest to compare various age group,
we find all factors are having the value higher than the .05, except the p-value of
perceived risk is 0.044 which is why rejecting the hypothesis. By looking at mean value
we find that it is high at age group of 18-25 and following it by age of between 26-
35years in among factors like performance expectancy,trust, behavioural intentions,E-
Wom, and web-quality. at risk factor its seems like age group of 46-60 years find it
more risky, as its shows high mean value in it .when it comes to accept cryptocurrency
as cashless payment the age group 26-35 and 36-45 years shows high mean rank , we
can say they are more into to accept it.
 So, after the age group when it comes to nature of employment, we find that there is
significant difference among the different nature of employment by proving the
alternative hypothesis. Even we find that mean rank suggest that self-employment
people are more into to accept the cryptocurrency among the factors like performance
expectancy,trust, web quality and to use it as a cashless payment, other categories who
consider it more risky, and to consider it in payment are housewife, andunemployed, but
employed people also shows there behaviour intentions to use it.
 Regression and correlation is used to find the relationship between the different
factors ,in which its shows certain percentage of effect on each other ,from which
highest percentage of effect is 62.3% E-Wom on trust , we estimate people are more
believing in word of mouth more than ,other risk and web quality or even performance
expectancy is concern.
 We must emphasize that both Trust and Performance Expectancy have a significant load
on the Behavioural Intention to use and are highly significant. Likewise, the Web
Quality, e-Wom and Perceived Risk are significant antecedents of Trust, with e-Wom
providing the greatest weight. In analyzing these results, we note that we accept all the
proposed hypotheses with a high level of significance. Thus, in order of influence, the
variable that contributes most to the Behavioural Intention is Trust. As for the latter, the
variable that contributes most is e-Wom.
 On the other hand, although e-Wom, Web Quality and Perceived Risk are antecedents
of Trust, indirectly they also affected the Intention of Use, or what is the same, there
was a mediating effect of Trust in the relationships between e-Wom, Web Quality and
Perceived Risk with Behavioural Intention. In this sense, the more Trust the e-Wom will

92
 positively affect the intention of use, the Web Quality will also positively affect the
intention of use and the Perceived Risk will be lower in the Behavioural Intention of
use.
 When even it comes to accepting cryptocurrency as a cashless payment, we found there
is the relationship between trust and cryptocurrency as a cashless payment, when we
talk about behavioural intentions of people regarding using cryptocurrency as a cashless
payment, we find weak relational and we compare with trust, trust affects 11.5% and
behaviour 3.5% so their behavioural to opt it as a cashless instrument is less than to trust
it, so in which trust is relies on E-Wom, risk, performance expectancy and web quality.
Briefly we find, these all factors are inter-related with each other.

93
 CHAPTER: 7
CONCLUSIONS

“CHAPTER-SEVEN”

CONCLUSION

The main novelties of this research we find level of awareness and most important the
factors which are indispensable when it comes to accept the cryptocurrency .And after
the analysis of the results, we conclude,
 There difference in opinions of male and female regarding to accept the cryptocurrency.

94
 When it comes to age group people from 18-25 years and 26-35 years having high
awareness level and behavioural intentions to use it in future.
 Our population mostly includes high ratio of under graduate and graduate people , as
young people having huge craze to use it as they more gets attracts from social media as
part of E-Wom.
 With highly employed, and self-employed people shows more interest in cryptocurrency
they find it as part time income for them and small ratio of unemployed people too as
they find main source of earning as a speculator or being small investor.
 After the we find specially in surat ,people are more following E-Wom as when it
comes to trust any new financial tool.
 More of we observe that most people opinions is that, they can only accept
cryptocurrency, if government authorised and regulated or government stamp approval
financial assets. Otherwise most of them find it risky and less trustful.

95
 CHAPTER: 8
SUGGESTIONS

“CHAPTER-EIGHT”

SUGGESTIONS
8.1 Suggestions for future research:
 Despite the fact that in this study we have covered variables that, after analyzing the
results, do indeed influence cryptocurrencies, it would be interesting to check whether
this same fact is true of a sample at an international level, since the sample studied is at

96
 a national level and mostly of people between the ages of 18 and 44. Likewise, it would
be interesting to include other relevant variables to study the way in which they affect
cryptocurrencies, such as volatility, ease of use or facilitating conditions.
 Probably, the greatest limitation of this research has been to obtain a
sociodemographically unbalanced sample, and it would be interesting to obtain a larger
sample that is as balanced as possible and carry out multi-group analyses to see if the
behaviour is homogeneous or if, on the contrary, there are heterogeneities and different
behaviours.

8.2 Suggestions and recommendations to for non-investors and investors of

cryptocurrency:
 Cryptocurrencies can become a world currency, since factors such as their globality and
immediacy favour them in this aspect. It is going to be best future, if people take it as
ainvestment, not as a trading.
 Future trading or insider trading cannot be consider as fruitful use of blockchain
technology or, by hacking ,making high volatile and unstable market , but it is more
about the innovative digital investment .
 If people know the true importance of use of cryptocurrency as what satoshi Nakamoto
motive, to use when there is recession or any financial crisis, it can be used as
alternative financial tool.

8.3 Suggestions to companies:

 Here for, recommend that companies and organizations that issue and intermediate
cryptocurrencies place special emphasis on generating Trust in the consumer. Due to the
above, in our study we have included a series of variables that, once our results are
obtained, effectively influence this trustThese variables are e-Wom, Perceived Risk and
Web Quality, in this sense, e-Wom is the construct that has more weight on trust.
 We recommend that intermediaries and creators of cryptocurrencies take into
consideration the importance of consumer satisfaction to increase Trust. Hence, it is
necessary to know the criticisms in the online world and to pay attention to negative
comments, since these opinions of consumers are perceived as a more reliable source of
information about brands than the content generated by the seller.

97
 It is recommended that companies offer users the possibility of having all their
transactions under control, and that these are clear and secure, even with perfect
traceability: if customers do not trust that their personal data will be kept with the
maximum confidentiality and that the payment is secure, the purchase will not be
carried out This series of measures will lead to a reduction in the consumer’s Perceived
Risk and therefore an increase in his/her Trust, according to the indirect relationship
between these two variables that our study has shown.

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98
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WEBLINKS:
23. file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/2016CriptocurrencyIJBMC.pdf
24. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/RanaAltounjy/publication/
329268583_Trust_Technology_Awareness_and_Satisfaction_Effect_into_the_Intention
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the-Intention-to-Use-Cryptocurrency-among-Generation-Z-in-Malaysia.pdf.

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25. file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/
Cryptocurrencies_as_a_Financial_Tool_Acceptance_Fa.pdf.
26. https://gadgets360.com/cryptocurrency/news/bitcoin-price-history-creation-
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guide-2500885
27. https://www.guru99.com/best-cryptocurrency-exchanges.html
28. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
349502278_Cryptocurrencies_in_Modern_Finance_A_Literature_Review
29. file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/2016CriptocurrencyIJBMC.pdf
30. https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/crypto-asset-management-
market-201925303.html
31. https://www.gminsights.com/pressrelease/cryptocurrency-market
32. https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/cryptocurrency-market
33. https://www.statista.com/chart/23160/biggest-crypto-currency-market-caps/
34. https://www.guru99.com/best-cryptocurrency-exchanges.html

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

 “Digital Gold” by Nathaniel Popper, New York times publications,2015.
 “The Age of Cryptocurrency” by Paul Vigna and Michael Casey
 “Blockchain Revolution”by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott
 “Bitcoin: The Ultimate Guide to the World of Bitcoin”by IkuyaTakashim
 “The Bitcoin Standard” by SaifedeanAmmous
 “Digital currency: bitcoin, innovation, financial instruments, and big data” book by
Chuen, D.L.

 
Appendix A. Measurement Scales
Construct Items Reference

Performance Expectancy (PE)

PE1. I find the use of cryptocurrencies useful in my daily life.
PE2. The use of cryptocurrencies increases my chances of achieving tasks that are
important to me.

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PE3. The use of cryptocurrencies and related services (wallets, exchanges) helps me
accomplish tasks more quickly.
PE4. The use of cryptocurrencies increases my productivity.

Mahomed, (2018) Behavioural Intention

(BI) IU1. I intend to use cryptocurrencies instead of traditional money.
UI2. I plan to use cryptocurrencies in the next 6-12 months.
UI3. I prefer to use cryptocurrencies in payment.
IU4. If payment with cryptocurrencies is not available as a payment method in a
purchase, I would request it.

Ross (2016) Trust (T)

C1. I believe that cryptocurrencies are trustworthy.
C2. I have confidence in cryptocurrencies.
C3. I do not doubt the veracity of cryptocurrencies, their systems, and related services.
C4. I am confident that the legal and technological structures protect me from problems
with cryptocurrencies.
C5. Even if they were not regulated, I would still trust cryptocurrencies.
C6. Cryptocurrencies are capable of doing their job.

Mahomed, (2018) e-Wom (EW)

EW1. I would recommend the use of cryptocurrencies to other potential consumers.
EW2. I will point out the positive aspects of cryptocurrencies if someone exposes them
to criticism.
EW3. I share the positive aspects of cryptocurrencies.
EW4. I recommend the use of cryptocurrencies to people who ask my advice on such
matters.
EW5. I encourage family and friends to use cryptocurrencies.

Shaikh and Karjaluoto (2016) Web Quality (WQ)

CW1.The Web of the cryptocurrencies is of high quality.

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CW2. The expected quality of the cryptocurrency’s website is extremely high. CW3.
The Web of Cryptocurrencies seems to be of very poor quality.

Everard and Galletta (2006) Perceived Risk (PR)

RP1.I think that the use of cryptocurrencies puts my privacy at risk.
RP2.The mere use of cryptocurrencies exposes me to a general risk.
RP3. Using cryptocurrencies puts my financial activities at risk
RP4. I think hackers can control my transaction history if I use cryptocurrencies.
Although Perceived Risk is a multilevel construct, we have used the scale of Overall
Risk that includes all Risks Featherman and Pavlou (2003)

Easy adaptation of Cryptocurrency as a method of cashless payment (CP) CP1:If

there is more advertising/education about cryptocurrency.
CP2: If there is more advertising/education about cryptocurrency.
CP3: If there is more advertising/education about cryptocurrency.
CP4:If Major retail websites start accepting cryptocurrencies. If Major retail websites
start accepting cryptocurrencies.
CP5:If there is more secure storage methods for cryptocurrency.
CP6: If Governments stamps of approval.
CP7:If the Transaction savings on cryptocurrency is passed on to consumers.
CP8:If Existing monetary transactions are changed to accept cryptocurrency.

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