Business Research
Shierell U. Santos –MBA1
The Literature Review
Bibliography
Huhtinen, T. (2014). Bitcoin as a
monetary system. Aalto University
School of Business.
Belomyttseva, O. (2015). Conceptual
framework for the definition and
regulation of virtual currencies.
National Research Tomsk State
University, Tomsk, Russia.
Objectives of the Study
To see how Bitcoin is positioned
as the forerunner of a new
category.
To determine the attitudes and
expectations of Finnish
stakeholders and to recognize the
general perception and future
outlook for Bitcoin.
To examine Bitcoin as an
investment instrument by studying
price drivers and the degree of
predictability of future returns.
The objective of this paper is to
differentiate approaches to
defining virtual currencies in
economics and law.
Title: Train Law
Delineated Factor (Keyword)
Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies,
blockchain, virtual currencies,
regulation, central banking,
monetary policy, decentralization,
disintermediation, monetary
systems, Google, hashrate,
Granger, momentum, inflation,
Mt.Gox, gold, cypherpunks,
cryptography, free market,
intrinsic value.
Virtual currency, Bitcoin,
electronic money, private money,
money surrogates.
Methods
Qualitative methods are
based on a literature review
and an interview study
conducted with Finnish
stakeholders from different
financial institutions and
Bitcoin start-ups.
The quantitative methods
consist of market sizing
calculations, a regression
analysis, and Granger tests.
The regressions utilize novel
variables network hash rate,
network transactions, and
bitcoin supply as explanatory
variables for Bitcoin price.
Conduct a comparative
analysis of financial
regulators’ views on virtual
currencies.
• detecting various
approaches to define virtual
currencies and determine
relevant.
• examine Russian legislation
Results
The thesis develops a categorization
for decentralized cpytocurrencies that
takes into account the historical
development of monetary systems.
The interview study reveals optimism
for the technology behind Bitcoin and
other decentralized systems, while all
interviewees accept the uncertainty
of Bitcoin’s survival. The
stakeholders perceive the main
challenges of Bitcoin to be
technological weaknesses, trust, and
reputational issues. In terms of
market sizing, it is clear that Bitcoin is
not currently a serious threat to fiat
currencies. The price driver analysis
revealed a momentum effect in price
returns, as well as an inflationary
effect caused by the increasing
supply. Network hashrate was found
to forecast future bitcoin returns. The
results from the Granger tests
challenge the causalities of the
regressions.
This analysis of the major regulators’
viewpoints on virtual currencies has
shown no undivided opinion or clear-
cut definition of virtual currencies and
Bitcoin. The issue of whether Bitcoin
can be considered money is still
widely disputed.
1

Baron, J. et. al (2015). National
security implication of virtual
currency examining the potential for
non-state actor deployment. Library
of Congress Santa Monica,
California.
Fulbright, N. (2015). Deciphering
crypto currencies. Financial
institutions energy infrastructure,
mining and commodities transport
technology and innovation Life
Sciences and healthcare.
Why would a non-state actor
deploy a VC?
What political and economic utility
is there to gain?
How might this non state actor go
about such a deployment?
What challenges would it have to
overcome?
How might a government or
organization successfully
technologically disrupt a VC
deployment by a non-state actor,
and what degree of cyber
sophistication would be required?
What additional capabilities
become possible when the
technologies underlying the
development and implementation
of VCs are used for purposes
broader than currency?
To look at how cryptocurrencies
operate and the laws and
regulations that govern their
operation.
To consider potential future
developments both in terms of
usage and governmental and
regulatory proposals for changes
to the regulatory framework.
Virtual currency, Internet protocol,
evolution, commodity, Bitcoin,
Block chain
Cryptocurrency, block chain, cold
storage, double spend, hash, key
pair cryptography, miners, nonce,
private key, public key,
unconfirmed transaction, wallet
related to virtual currencies
regulations.
• determine prospects for the
development of virtual
currencies.
This analysis is based on
extensive literature reviews
and interviews with subject-
matter experts in both the
technical aspects as well the
usage of VCs, it was relied
on published academic
literature, policy literature,
white papers of established
security organizations, and
formal documentation of the
various VCs.
Manual research
Data collection
Sources
Literature review
The development of VCs have the
potential to advance technologies of
relevance to the national-security
community, including increasingly
resilient cyber services to low
sophistication actors, such as
information dissemination and
storage. Increased focus on VCs has
also increased cryptographic
sophistication, which may lead to
increasingly secure software on the
one hand and increasingly efficient
hardware for breaking cryptographic
security on the other.
Use of cryptocurrency has grown
substantially since Satoshi Nakamoto
published the Bitcoin White Paper
and as of April 7, 2015, the total
market capitalisation of Bitcoin was
judged to be about US$3.5 billion.
Bitcoin has experienced a very high
degree of volatility since its inception
(its market capitalisation plunged by
more than 50 per cent in 2014), but
2

Eriksson, B. (2015). A study of
Bitcoin as a currency for email-based
micro-transactions. Linkopings
Universitet, Linkoping, Sweden.
To analyze the availability and
need of an email based Bitcoin
service.
To map how much of an impact
Bitcoin has made and in what
environments it is used the most
nowadays.
Use, Bitcoin, microtransaction,
today, buy, pay, e-mail, service,
site, offline
usage is on the increase with the
number of Bitcoins in circulation
rising to about 14 million in April 2015
and daily Bitcoin transactions
surpassing 100,000 for the first time
in the last quarter of 2014.
Study selection and quality The papers were published by many
assessment. different organizations and held
 Inclusion criteria vastly different views about Bitcoin
 Exclusion criteria and its applications. One thing that
 Sources most papers seemed to agree on
 Date base research were that Bitcoin was mostly used in
 Manual research connection with mobile services.
 Date collecting Nearly every instance where
methods for payments that involved
Bitcoins are mentioned talked about
it in association with mobiles and as
something that were supposed to be
accessed from an app on a mobile
phone.
The number of companies that offers
Bitcoin related services on the net
are huge. Most of them are either
trading companies or virtual wallets.
Of the trading companies there are a
few that offer email related services,
usually in connection to a virtual
wallet service of their own design, but
most focus solely on services similar
to a standard stockbroker or currency
trader. The companies that offer a
digital wallet, but no trading functions
on their site usually has a wider
range of services and does more
often mention email as a way to
transfer bitcoins to others. Since the
nature of Bitcoin is such that you can
send it to anyone as long as you has
their Bitcoin address, which is a text
3

Goldman, Z. et. al (2015). Terrorist
use of virtual currencies: Containing
the potential threat. CNAS.
Lehdonvirta, V. et. al (2011).
Converting the virtual economy into
development potential. infoDev
Washing, DC.
To evaluate potential terrorist
abuse on virtual currency.
To look into the different risk that
involves virtual currency.
To be able to explain the
distinction of virtual economy and
other ICT-related economic
activities.
To be able to describe the main
areas of virtual economy in terms
of economic impact, business
Virtual currency, Bitcoin, terrorist,
fiat, virtual
ICT, virtual economy, value chain,
business model, micro-worker
string that anyone can send by email,
most companies simply mentioned
that aspect, or supposedly took it for
granted that the customers knew this.
Some had their own email solutions
or tools to help users email Bitcoins
on their own, usually by mailing a link
to their sites where the recipient
could sign up and receive the
transfer. There were also a few
companies that offered email
enhancements that allowed the users
to automatically send bitcoins with
their emails if they wanted. That
service was in a great minority, but
deserves a mention.
Manual research Terrorists’ use of virtual currencies
Data collection has thus far been episodic and
Sources relatively uneven, given the greater
Literature review accessibility to virtual currencies by
groups with relatively more technical
sophistication. However, even if
terrorist use of virtual currency has
not yet achieved scale or become a
more systemic security threat, it has
the potential to grow. For the
policymaking community, the true
concern when it comes to terrorist
use of virtual currencies and other
new payment technologies is what
may happen in the future, and their
ability to track developments.
Value chain analysis The “digital economy” of online
Expert interviews services and abundant digital
Market size estimates contents that developed in the late
1990s has given rise to new kinds of
entrepreneurship and earning
opportunities. However, exploiting
these opportunities has required
advanced skills and technologies that
4

Pflaum, I. et. al (2014). National and
extraterritorial regulation of virtual
currency in the age of financial
disintermediation. Georgetown
journal international law.
Ru, M. (2014). Virtual currencies:
passion, prospects and challenges.
World Savings and Retail Banking
Institute.
EU Central Bank. (2015). Virtual
currency schemes –a further
analysis. Frankfurt, Germany.
models and value chains.
To determine how Bitcoin regulate
in United states.
Determine the effects of financial
disintermediation.
To determine the challenges that
virtual currency may face.
To study the acceptance of virtual
currency in other country.
How other country regulate virtual
currency.
To be able to examine the
development on virtual currency.
To observe how virtual currency
regulate with eurosystem.
Virtual currency, bitcoin, block
chain, miners
Virtual currency, goods, services,
asset, liabilities, money, Bitcoin
VC, inventors, issuers, miners,
processing service provider,
users, wallet provider exchanges,
trading platforms
place them outside the reach of
developing countries and poor and
uneducated people. More recently, a
“virtual economy” of digital scarcities
that do not require advanced skills to
exploit has started to emerge from
digital services. Basic ICT
infrastructure and the expenditure of
time and effort rather than
professional skills are often sufficient
to turn these scarcities into income.
Manual research The U.S. Criminal Code contains a
Data gathering set of tools that may be extremely
Sources effective in the absence of a more
Literature reviews coordinated international framework,
but with respect to the U.S. approach
to taxing Bitcoin transactions, there
are areas in significant need of
improvement.
Data gathering Although an innovation is often used
Manual research beyond what it was intended for, it
Literature review could be useful for regulators to
remember that Bitcoin has been
conceived as a response to the view
that completely non-reversible
transactions are not possible.
Regulators concerned about virtual
currency could as a first step focus
on allowing a no-frills payment
transaction, amending where
necessary existing payment
legislation in order to enable
irreversible retail payment
transactions if only for certain values.
Data gathering Based on a further analysis carried
Literature review out by the central banks of the
Manual research Eurosystem during 2014, this report
adds perspective and detail, while
reiterating and confirming the general
consideration of the ECB’s report on
5
virtual currency schemes (2012) that,
although VCS can have positive
aspects in terms of financial
innovation and the provision of
additional payment alternatives for
consumers, it is clear that they also
entail risks. For the tasks of the ECB
as regards monetary policy and price
stability, financial stability, promoting
the smooth operation of payment
systems, and prudential supervision,
the materialisation of these risks
depends on the volume of VCS
issued.