Cryptocurrencies have developed and widely spread within recent years. Their anonymous and decentralised characteristics have attracted criminals who leverage these technologies to sell and purchase illicit goods on the black market while concealing their identities and avoid prosecution. The new development of cryptocurrencies and their underlying architecture blockchain has had positive and negative effects on the success of law enforcement investigations. It is perceived as a threat when there are factors that increase the complexity of law enforcement investigations due to the use of highly anonymous cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin mixers. Cryptocurrencies are also perceived as a threat when criminals use them for money laundering purposes. Conversely, the rise of cryptocurrencies also introduces new opportunities for law enforcement investigations. Records of cryptocurrency transactions in the blockchain help law enforcement to trace suspicious addresses by the emergence and improvement of analysis tools. In parallel, anti- money laundering (AML) regulations and the financial authorities have proved to play a key role in fighting against money laundering and gather information on suspicious activities carried out through financial institutions. The analysis of this dissertation sets forth that...

In this study, I examine how an online cryptocurrency community discusses the issue of climate change. In particular, I examine distinctive themes present within discussions that occur on the r/CryptoCurrency forum hosted by reddit.com. Existing research has demonstrated that there are significant carbon emissions linked to cryptocurrency. However, cryptocurrency primarily exists as a peer-to-peer system, meaning that the individual perceptions of cryptocurrency adopters may provide insight into how to address the emissions problem. Using latent Dirichlet allocation and publicly available textual data from Reddit, I find that Reddit's cryptocurrency community engages in robust discussions pertaining to the energy needed to power cryptocurrency systems, most of which is generated from fossil fuels. Therefore, the discussions identified in this study suggest that the social aspect of cryptocurrency may be important when examining the links between cryptocurrency and climate change since they help identify what subjects related to climate change are important for this community.

The global economy is undergoing radical changes due to the significant proliferation of virtual currencies as well as other crypto assets. The international community is still grappling with this phenomenon and very few countries have started to regulate virtual currencies and related activities. South Africa is among the countries which has not yet drafted regulations to regulate and supervise the use of virtual currencies and related activities. There is however, a need to regulate these activities in South Africa because of the growing interest among consumers to invest and participate in this market, the effect they will have on the country’s financial sector and they present substantial risks to the financial stability of the country. This paper will have a general discussion about various aspects of virtual currencies and the risks that they present to the economy. It will briefly discuss international approaches to regulating virtual currencies before going into a detailed discussion and comparison on the regulatory approaches adopted by the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China. South regulatory response to virtual currencies and related activities will be discussed and following that discussion a regulatory framework for regulating virtual currencies in South Africa will proposed. The paper will conclude with a summary of what was discussed and a proposal for the way forward. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Emmanuel Phasha Jeanette Phasha / Mercantile Law / LLM / Unrestricted

Cieľom tejto práce je navrhnúť platformu na spracovanie a preskúmavanie blockchainu vybraných kryptomien pri použití IPFS. Na riešenie tohoto problému bolo potrobné navrhnúť vlastný decentralizovaný a distribuovaný databázový systém, ktorý podporuje pokročilé dotazy. Vytvorené riešenie poskytuje prehľadné grafické užívateľské rozhranie, ktoré slúži na vizualizáciu dát a taktiež API, vďaka ktorému sa dá systém jednoducho napojiť na iné aplikácie. Prínosom tejto práce je nový pohľad na zpracovávanie blockchainu čo otvára nové možnosti v~jeho prehľadávaní.

Legal aspects of cryptocurrencies Abstract The aim of this work is to analyse the legal aspects of cryptocurrencies, especially focusing on their position within the legal system, legal binding of so-called smart contracts and their proper taxation in the field of personal income, legal entities and value added tax. The main content of the work is divided into six chapters. These six chapters are preceded by an introduction, which contains the reasons for choosing the topic, the chosen goal and the individual sub-goals and methods by which these goals are achieved. The last part is followed by a conclusion, which contains a summary of individual findings and recommendations for further research. The first chapter briefly deals with the history of cryptocurrencies, respectively describes the origin and life of two important precursors of the cryptocurrency bitcoin, E-Cash and E-Gold. The second chapter contains an analysis of the concept of cryptocurrency in relation to concepts such as currency, money, electronic money, digital and virtual currency. The content also includes the position of cryptocurrencies in the Czech legal system, an analysis of the fulfilment of the defining features of a security and the effects of their inclusion in the issue of combating the legalization of proceeds from crime. The...

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Magister Legum - LLM / There is a lot of speculation regarding potential benefits that the adoption of cryptocurrency use and cryptocurrency intermediation may have for the African continent due to the macro-economic instability of African financial markets caused by hyperinflation; high rate of unbanked populations; and the need for an alternative currency to the weak; and sometimes unavailable and unreliable African fiat money. Preiss notes that the intangible nature of cryptocurrency means that governments have no access to such cryptocurrency and cannot physically remove wealth from the citizens. He further notes that cryptocurrency not only provides a solution to the unbanked but is also a method of allowing economically and politically subjugated populations to control their wealth. Cryptocurrency intermediation in the form of cryptocurrency remittance services have been established in Africa as an alternative to Western Union, MoneyGram and many others. Examples include cryptocurrency remittance and transfer services provided by cryptocurrency-based intermediaries, which are third parties facilitating cryptocurrency related transactions, and in some cases provide storage of cryptocurrency to their users. In Africa, examples of such cryptocurrency-based intermediaries include, such as BTCGhana; BitPesa and Belfrics.

This paper will show the effect of cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin and Litecoin, on a diversified portfolio of traditional and alternative assets. By using weekly closing price of these data, I use a single-index model to find betas, Sharpe ratios, and asset correlations. Then using the Markowitz Portfolio Optimization model to find optimal weights both with and without percentage restrictions. To date there is little academic research into cryptocurrency portfolio management. This paper expands upon a similar study done in the summer of 20131 through the Université Libre de Bruxelles. However, their data was from before a major spike in Bitcoin demand in November that same year, and did not include Litecoin. This paper fills the gap.

The thesis "Analysis of current cryptocurrency with focus on Bitcoin, securing the proceeds of crime." deals with the securing of cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The thesis describes selected current cryptocurrencies and their differences from Bitcoin. The thesis is focused on the issue of finding and securing cryptocurrencies in investigated devices detained in criminal activity. Based on the results of the research, optimal procedures for the provision and forensic analysis of cryptocurrencies are suggested.

Bitcoin has gained more recognition than ever before, and the interest in cryptocurrencies seems to grow exponentially. Without any central government regulating Bitcoin, a global user group has adopted this new technology, which is designed to be used as a currency for trading without banks. Empirical studies focus on revealing the true characteristic of cryptocurrencies. Are they a currency, an asset or something else? This paper explores the potential of Bitcoin as a financial asset when used for hedging and portfolio diversification. A regression analysis will be performed to analyse if Bitcoin can be used as a hedge against OMXS30. This analysis yields insignificant values, which leads to a complication in the conclusion. The result imply that Bitcoin is an inadequate hedge, but may possess diversification properties. Studying Bitcoin in relation to OMXS30, Dow Jones, Nikkei 225, Gold and Oil results in correlation values close to zero. By using the mean-variance optimization method, two portfolios are created, one including and one excluding Bitcoin. We show that by including Bitcoin in the portfolio the risk can be decreased on a given return rate. Considering the low and insignificant correlation values with other assets and the better riskreturn ratio when Bitcoin is included in a portfolio, we conclude that Bitcoin can be a suitable diversification tool.