Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
forms of payments. The first is as a conduit for small international transactions like
remittances from foreign workers. Bitcoin could reduce both the cost and the time
required for such payments (Guerrera, 2014).
Because money is nothing more than a common numeraire that reduces the
search costs associated with conducting beneficial trades, and also because money
is a psychological abstraction, literally anything can serve in this capacity as long
as people are willing to accept it as a medium of exchange, so long as it maintains
its purchasing power over time, and as long as it can serve as a convenient unit of
measure. A government edict is technically not necessary to create money.
At this particular stage, one of the attractions of bitcoins and virtual curren-
cies is its freedom from government regulation, as shown by its not being under
the purview of the Federal Reserve and the reluctance of any government agency
to take on its regulation. As such, bitcoins have taken on the form of an economic
disruption likened to a stock market investment. Thus, its value rises and falls as a
result of the decisions of those in the market. In addition, at this stage, aside from
the questioning of the government's role in protecting those who dabble in bitcoins,
its existence has not produced a political disruption because the trade in bitcoins
is but a minute part of financial transactions nationwide or worldwide to cause an
economic upheaval that leads to a political one.
The field of virtual currencies and bitcoins as an area of research is a fertile one
because material on it is unfolding right before our very eyes. There are therefore
numerous areas for further research, beginning with knowledge about the various
international virtual currencies in existence and their usefulness. The “cryptocur-
rency” craze has spawned more than 80 entrants to the field wanting to be recog-
nized as legitimate media for exchange. Where will such lead? Will it lead to the
proliferation of currencies? Or will it lead to the acceptance of only a few? Will it
lead to national regulation? Will it lead to international regulation? How it will
change the way nations deal with each other in terms of foreign transactions?
Bitcoins have brought to the forefront of the agenda several crucial questions
that are ironically begging for responses from the very government that bitcoins
was supposed to be immune from.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the research help provided by Chelsea Fischer and Tiana Goglio,
undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Author Biographies
Dr. Cecilia G. Manrique
is a professor and former chair of the Political Science/
Public Administration Department, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She
Search WWH ::
Custom Search