Text

E-book Bitcoin and Beyond : Cryptocurrencies, Blockchains and Global Governance

---

Penilaian

---

Imagine having almost instantaneous access to a permanent record of all digital transactions undertaken across the world. Without revealing precisely who and what is involved in these transactions, this digital database grants you nearly real- time overviews of peer- to-peer exchange within and across national borders. Such unprecedented capacity to monitor direct Internet- based interaction between quasi- anonymous individuals who undertake, verify, and publish records of their digital transactions is at the core of promises and fears surround-ing blockchains. This volume explores governance implications for the actors and processes involved inordering, managing, and organising an increasingly digital global political economy arising from growing applications of this set of emergent technologies to Bitcoin and beyond.At their essence, blockchains are digital sequences of numbers coded into computer software that permit the secure exchange, recording, and broadcasting of transactions between individual users operating anywhere in the world with Internet access. Like most technological changes, the development of block-chains drew on and combined several existing technologies. Blockchains incorp-orate digital encryption technologies that mask, to varying degrees, the specific content exchanged as well as the identities of individual users. Algorithms, pre- coded series of step- by-step instructions, are also mobilised in solving complex mathematical equations and arriving at a consensus on the validity of trans-actions within networks of users. Time- stamping technologies then periodically bundle verified transactions into datasets, or ‘blocks’. Linked together sequen-tially, these ‘blocks’ form ‘chains’ that make up larger ‘blockchain’ databases of transactions that broadcast a permanent record of transactions whilst maintaining the anonymity of users and specific content exchanged. Blockchains are intended to be maintained by all users in manners meant to be immutable, unless users arrive at a clear consensus to undertake changes. Ledgers of user- verified transactions were envisioned by the science fiction writer H.G. Wells (2005) in the 1930s and advocated by ‘cypherpunk’ computer hackers seeking to ensure digital privacy as the Internet began evolving later in the twentieth century (Jeong, 2013). The technical blueprint for developing blockchain technology was originally proposed in a white paper published by one Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. Efforts to identify this individual or group of 2 M. Campbell-Verduynindividuals have remained unsuccessful, adding a substantial aura of mystery to this information communication technology (ICT).1 The technical design for blockchains initially circulated on the cryptography mailing list was quickly taken up by an online community of technology enthusiasts, who developed Bitcoin as the first time- stamped ledger of user- verified transactions in 2009. Ini-tially intended to enable the transactions of monetary- like ‘coins’ between users, the Bitcoin blockchain was later adapted for the digital exchange, verification, and broadcasting of a range of other information. As non- proprietary and open- source software, the original Bitcoin ‘protocol’ was replicated in developing other blockchains that exchange not only ‘cryptocurrencies’ (CCs), but also a much wider range of information on everything from ownership rights and con-tractual obligations to votes and citizenship.Applications of blockchain technologies began being noticed beyond technol-ogists and technology enthusiasts a half- decade following the publication of the 2008 white paper. Attention to Bitcoin in particular exploded in 2013 because of a confluence of events internal and external to esoteric online ‘crypto-communities’. Internally, the rise and fall of both the leading ‘exchange’ con-verting CCs to and from state- backed currencies, Tokyo- based Mt. Gox, as well as the infamous online marketplace for illicit goods and services, the Silk Road, received widespread media coverage. Primarily negative and sensationalistic, this attention alerted citizens, firms, and governments to what appeared as the ‘new wild west’ surrounding Bitcoin (Singh, 2015). At the same time, a host of external events focused more positive attention to the potential benefits of the original application of blockchain technologies as alternatives to the widespread government and corporate surveillance revealed in the Edward Snowden leaks; financial instabilities in the eurozone that included the confiscation of deposits in the ‘bailout’ of Cypriot banks; technical glitches at major banks that left cus-tomers unable to access their savings; and confirmation that controversial central bank quantitative easing programmes would be extended well beyond their ori-ginal intention as emergency responses to the 2007–08 global financial crisis. Whether for philosophical, speculative, or security reasons, wider public interest in the promises and perils of Bitcoin occurred in a period of unprecedented vola-tility in the exchange values of the original CC, which rose nearly tenfold from just over US$10, only to fall by nearly half and eventually end 2013 at around US$750.

---

Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

-

No. Panggil

332.4 CAM b

Penerbit

USA : Taylor & Francis., 2018

Deskripsi Fisik

223 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781315211909

Klasifikasi

332.4

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

-

Subjek

Money

Info Detail Spesifik

-

Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

-

Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

Komentar

---

Anda harus masuk sebelum memberikan komentar