In a short period of time virtual currencies have gained significant traction and become an economic reality, with Bitcoin being the most dominant among over 500 virtual currencies. Bitcoin and other virtual currencies present a particularly difficult and unique jurisdictional challenge to...

SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) provides a network for financial institutions to send and receive information about financial transactions in the form of secure standardized messages. Here we analyze the global network created by flows of a particular type of...

In this paper, we gather together the minimum units of Bitcoin identity (the individual addresses), and group them into approximations of business entities, what we call “super clusters”. While these clusters can remain largely anonymous, we are able to ascribe many of them to particular...

Using recent pooled data from a number of developed nations, this research uniquely examines whether the composition of payment instruments has a bearing on the prevalence of corruption in a country. Our results suggest that the choice of instruments matters. Paper credit transfer transactions...

A private initiative that has created a virtual currency and a payment system based on cryptography and decentralized management, Bitcoin is considered not only an interesting, but also a disruptive technical innovation by many observers. A number of regulatory and supervisory bodies have issued...

In this study, we provide a systemic perspective on central bank digital currencies (CBDC). We separate existing proposals for CBDCs into the perspective of new payment objects, made available by central banks to a broader public, and new payment systems, operated by central banks. From a...

Dieses Büchlein erscheint in einer Reihe von Attac, einer globalisierungskritischen Nichtregierungsorganisation. Die Autoren setzen sich zum Ziel, ihren Leser*innen eine Einführung in finanztechnische Zusammenhänge zu vermitteln. Geld fassen sie dabei als gesellschaftliches Gut auf, das viele...

We use a simple model to study whether private payment systems based on bank deposits can provide the optimal level of safety. In the model, bank deposits backed by projects are subject to default risk that can be mitigated by a depositor's ex ante and ex post monitoring. Safe payment...