Little over a decade has passed since Blockchain gave birth to its prodigy Bitcoin, but Bitcoin despite all the hype (which was referred to as “big bang” by many) failed to become a simple (stable) global crypto-currency for everyday life to enable users worldwide to purchase...

This paper reviews what cryptocurrencies are, and it frames them within the context of historical monetary experiences and contemporary monetary economics. The paper argues that, as pure duciary private money, cryptocurrencies are a bubble without a fundamental value and that they will not...

We study a model of financial intermediation, payment choice, and privacy in the digital economy. Cash preserves anonymity but cannot be used for more efficient online transactions. By contrast, bank deposits can be used online but do not preserve anonymity. Banks use the information contained...

Consumers appear to still be sceptical about mobile payment systems. As a result, the theoretical framework proposed as well as evaluated in this study, concentrates on elements that influence customer behaviour towards the digital payment system, fintech and CBDC are accepted. The empirical...

In just six years, bitcoin has gone from a relatively obscure piece of code to an internationally recognized form of payment. Yet, opinions about bitcoin’s future are mixed. After considering the major factors affecting bitcoin’s future use, I offer some modest predictions. In brief, I...

Bitcoin is digital energy. This is part metaphor, part description. It is part explanation, part prophecy. It is part engineering, part finance. The digital energy that is Bitcoin is not mechanical, chemical, or electrical. It is the same “stuff” that saves you time when you draw on a store...

Digitalization - the use of data, digital platforms and advanced analytics - has quickly become widespread in today's society. This has introduced new opportunities, but it has also created new barriers and exacerbated existing inequities. This is likewise true in the realm of payments, where...

In the evolution of money, the advent of cryptocurrencies would have been an inevitable and a natural phenomenon, but the farfetched implications of the 2008 global credit mayhem only accelerated their arrival. Facebook's claim of the Libra Blockchain as a decentralized network is far from...

We examine all available 146 Proof-of-Work based cryptocurrencies that started trading prior to the end of 2014 and track their performance until December 2018. We find that about 60% of those cryptocurrencies were eventually in default. The substantial sums of money involved mean those...