TY - JOUR
T1 - Blockchains and Bitcoin
T2 - regulatory responses to cryptocurrencies
AU - Guadamuz, Andres
AU - Marsden, Chris
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© First Monday, 1995-2016.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - This paper examines Bitcoin from a legal and regulatory perspective, answering several important questions. We begin by explaining what Bitcoin is, and why it matters. We describe problems with Bitcoin as a method of implementing a cryptocurrency. This introduction to cryptocurrencies allows us eventually to ask the inevitable question: Is it legal? What are the regulatory responses to the currency? Can it be regulated? We make clear why virtual currencies are of interest, how self-regulation has failed, and what useful lessons can be learned. Finally, we produce useful and semi-permanent findings into the usefulness of virtual currencies in general, blockchains as a means of mining currency, and the profundity of Bitcoin as compared with the development of block chain technologies. We conclude that though Bitcoin may be the equivalent of Second Life a decade later, so blockchains may be the equivalent of Web 2.0 social networks, a truly transformative social technology.
AB - This paper examines Bitcoin from a legal and regulatory perspective, answering several important questions. We begin by explaining what Bitcoin is, and why it matters. We describe problems with Bitcoin as a method of implementing a cryptocurrency. This introduction to cryptocurrencies allows us eventually to ask the inevitable question: Is it legal? What are the regulatory responses to the currency? Can it be regulated? We make clear why virtual currencies are of interest, how self-regulation has failed, and what useful lessons can be learned. Finally, we produce useful and semi-permanent findings into the usefulness of virtual currencies in general, blockchains as a means of mining currency, and the profundity of Bitcoin as compared with the development of block chain technologies. We conclude that though Bitcoin may be the equivalent of Second Life a decade later, so blockchains may be the equivalent of Web 2.0 social networks, a truly transformative social technology.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84958213727&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5210/fm.v20i12.6198
DO - 10.5210/fm.v20i12.6198
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84958213727
SN - 1396-0466
VL - 20
JO - First Monday
JF - First Monday
IS - 12
ER -