Research

Bitcoin: Economics, Technology, and Governance

Year 2015
Author Böhme, Rainer, Nicolas Christin, Benjamin Edelman, and Tyler Moore
Publisher The Journal of Economic Perspectives 29 (2). American Economic Association: 213–38
Link View Research Paper
Categories

Bitcoin / Cryptocurrencies / Regulation / Technical

Bitcoin is an online communication protocal that facilitates the use of a virtual currency, including electronic payments. Since its inception in 2009 by an anonymous group of developers (Nakamoto 2008), Bitcoin has served approximately 62.5 million transactions between 109 million accounts. Bitcoin’s rules were designed by engineers with no apparent influence from lawyers or regulators.