Bitcoin – Currency with a future or just a fad?

By Dheepan Ratha Krishnan, Yap Jo-Yee

June 2014 UTTER ECONOMICS
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Bitcoin is attracting people from all walks of life, from small entrepreneurs to global investors. But what is it really? And perhaps the most important question of all – is it reliable?Bitcoin, unlike traditional currencies, is highly decentralised and functions without government regulation or central banks, underpinned by a peer-to-peer computer network made up of its users’ machines. Bitcoins are mathematically generated as computers in the network crunch numbers to find solutions to an algorithm, a procedure known as “mining”....

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Dheepan Ratha Krishnan

is a research analyst at the Penang Institute.

Yap Jo-Yee

is a research analyst at Penang Institute whose interests range from development issues to behavioural economics. Her latest goal is to use ggplot2 without Google’s help.


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