Tag Archives: Bitcoin

Safe as houses? iQoncept Jean-Philippe Serbera, Sheffield Hallam University Cryptocurrencies have had an exceptional year, reaching a combined value of more than US$3 trillion (£2.2 trillion) for the first time in November. The market seems to have benefited from the public having time on their hands during pandemic lockdowns. Also, large investment funds and banks have stepped in, not least …

The crypto wars are hotting up. Wit Olszewski Daniel Broby, University of Strathclyde The world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency, ether, has been touching all-time highs in price ahead of a major upgrade of its underlying platform, ethereum. Ether is currently worth in aggregate just shy of US$500 billion (£363 billion). That’s still slightly less than half that of the biggest …

24K-Production/Shutterstock Sankar Sivarajah, University of Bradford and Kamran Mahroof, University of Bradford The cryptocurrency bitcoin now uses up more electricity a year than the whole of Argentina, according to recent estimates from the University of Cambridge. That’s because the creation of a bitcoin, in a process called mining, is achieved by powerful computers that work night and day to decode …

Anucha Cheechang/Shutterstock Peter Howson, Northumbria University, Newcastle Huge concrete data centres, permanently plugged into power plants and telephone exchanges, maintain much of online life. But the infrastructure behind internet-based cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, dogecoin and ethereum is more like a rusty travelling circus. And right now, that circus is on the road. Bitcoin relies on a network of millions of …

Children in a classroom in Gondar in the Amhara Region. Ethiopia has signed a deal to register 5 million school children using blockchain. Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images Iwa Salami, University of East London At the launch of bitcoin in 2009 the size of the potential of the underlying technology, the blockchain, was not fully appreciated. What has not been fully …

The Ys and wherefores. AnaKins27 Daniel Broby, University of Strathclyde China is making promising progress with testing its digital yuan currency. It has announced the success of a pilot in Suzhou City, near Shanghai in eastern China, where 181,000 consumers were given ¥55 (£6) of free money in digital wallets to spend at participating outlets in the Double Fifth shopping …

Hamza Mudassir, Cambridge Judge Business School There’s a global shortage in semiconductors, and it’s becoming increasingly serious. The US is currently reviewing its supply of the technology, following a landmark executive order from President Joe Biden. The president also pledged US$37 billion (£26 billion) to cover the short-term costs of rebuilding and securing America’s supply of semiconductors, which are a …

The accounting profession and others in the financial services industry are at risk of extinction due to technological advances. (Adeolu Eletu/Unsplash) Erica Pimentel, Concordia University Blockchain technology threatens to upend the financial sector. While this presents an opportunity to reduce costs for businesses and consumers alike, it may also make some professions, like accounting, obsolete. What can financial professionals do …

Shutterstock Jason Potts, RMIT University and Kelsie Nabben, RMIT University Bitcoin continues to trade close to its all-time high reached this month. Its price is now around US $34,000 — up about 77% over the past month and 305% over the past year. First launched in 2009 as a digital currency, Bitcoin was for a while used as digital money …

Welcome to web 3.0. Inked Pixels Paul J Ennis, University College Dublin and Donncha Kavanagh, University College Dublin The price of the world’s second largest cryptocurrency, ether, hit a new all-time high of US$1,440 (£1,050) on January 19. This breached a previous high set three years ago and gave ether a total value (market capitalisation) of US$160 billion, although it …