Leaders Research Series: Breaking down the trends behind Davos 2020
The World Economic Forum’s Davos conference this week is perhaps its most critical yet as we enter a new decade of unprecedented financial, social and economic uncertainty with limited runway to change direction. For those business leaders not at Davos, this four-part research series breaks down and explains the emerging trends that are at the center of the discussions and offers unique insights to the WEF itself.
How blockchain is reshaping our economic, environmental and social orders Pt III
To conclude the Blockchain Beyond 2020 series, we look at how digital currencies and token-economics are being used to reorganize human behavior and ideals around money and how the wealth gap may be addressed with alternative digital currencies that provide a form of basic income to provide more financial independence.
Ransomware Payments in the Bitcoin Ecosystem
Ransomware can prevent a user from accessing a device and its files until a ransom is paid to the attacker, most frequently in Bitcoin. With over 500 known ransomware families, it has become one of the dominant cybercrime threats for law enforcement, security professionals and the public. However, a more comprehensive, evidence-based picture on the global direct financial impact of ransomware attacks is still missing. In this paper, we present a data-driven method for identifying and gathering information on Bitcoin transactions related to illicit activity based on footprints left on the public Bitcoin blockchain. We implement this method on-top-of the GraphSense open-source platform and apply it to empirically analyze transactions related to 35 ransomware families. We estimate the lower bound direct financial impact of each ransomware family and find that, from 2013 to mid-2017, the market for ransomware payments has a minimum worth of USD 12, 768, 536 (22, 967.54 BTC). We also find that the market is highly skewed with only a few number of players responsible for the majority of the payments. Based on these research findings, policy-makers and law enforcement agencies can use the statistics provided to understand the size of the illicit market and make informed decisions on how best to address the threat.
IMF head foresees the end of banking and the triumph of cryptocurrency
In a remarkably frank talk at a Bank of England conference, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund has speculated that Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have as much of a future as the Internet itself. It could displace central banks, conventional banking, and challenge the monopoly of national monies. Christine Lagarde — a Paris native who has held her position at the IMF since 2011 — says the only substantial problems with existing cryptocurrency are fixable over time.
Inflation and Deflation; Bitcoin And Fiat (Op-Ed)
Aside from its other desirable properties, the bitcoin protocol includes a schedule for future bitcoin creation, which can inform the inflation expectations of rational consumers in a much more reliable way.
