This thesis analyzes a continuity between the changes of the exchange rates of the cryptocurrencies and the dynamics of the created content on the Internet by their users. The main goals of this thesis are to analyze unstructured data focusing on the development of the topics for different cryptocurrencies and to interconnect the key topics with the changes of the exchange rates of this cryptocurrencies. In order to successfully obtain goals I describe process and methods of the analysis unstructured data, explain the issues of the cryptocurrencies, identify a source of the downloading data and choose some cryptocurrencies for subsequent analysis. The contribution of this thesis is the identification of the development key topics in the chosen source, finding topics, which are the most under discussion about the chosen five cryptocurrencies. Also this thesis detects the existence of the reaction of the users to the changes of exchange rates of the chosen cryptocurrencies and describes it. Particular contribution of this thesis is a practical demonstration of the application the elected technology for analyzing unstructured data. Also additional contribution is the methods using in the analytical part. Structure of this thesis is divided to the three main parts. The first part describes the analysis of unstructured data theoretically and explain the issues of cryptocurrencies. The second part devotes a draft of the solution for creating an analytical part. The third part maps the most discussion cryptocurrencies in the chosen source, identifies the development of the key topics for five chosen cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Nxt, Dash, Monero and Counterparty and interconnects the key topics this cryptocurrencies with changes their exchange rates in relation to American dollar.

The main goal of this diploma thesis is to explore the area of virtual currency Bitcoin and assess the use of this currency in today's economy. Thesis first mentions the cryptocurrency market, the technology and other altcoins. It further analyzes the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in detail, its foundation, history and mining. The text also explores the volatility of this currency in the recent years, the question of regulation by states and technological threats to the network. In the final chapter diploma thesis examines the possibilities for individuals to obtain this currency and the use of Bitcoin by enterprises.

abstract: The lack of fungibility in Bitcoin has forced its userbase to seek out tools that can heighten their anonymity. Third-party Bitcoin mixers utilize obfuscation techniques to protect participants from blockchain analysis. In recent years, various centralized and decentralized Bitcoin mixing implementations have been proposed in academic literature. Although these methods depict a threat-free environment for users to preserve their anonymity, public Bitcoin mixers continue to be associated with theft and poor implementation. This research explores the public Bitcoin mixer ecosystem to identify if today's mixing services have adopted academically proposed solutions. This is done through real-world interactions with publicly available mixers to analyze both implementation and resistance to common threats in the mixing landscape. First, proposed decentralized and centralized mixing protocols found in literature are outlined. Then, data is presented from 19 publicly announced mixing services available on the deep web and clearnet. The services are categorized based on popularity with the Bitcoin community and experiments are conducted on five public mixing services: ChipMixer, MixTum, Bitcoin Mixer, CryptoMixer, and Sudoku Wallet. The results of the experiments highlight a clear gap between public and proposed Bitcoin mixers in both implementation and security. Today's mixing services focus on presenting users with a false sense of control to gain their trust rather then employing secure mixing techniques. As a result, the five selected services lack implementation of academically proposed techniques and display poor resistance to common mixer-related threats. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2020

Magister Legum - LLM / Our lives, work, and behaviour have been changed both positively and negatively by the digital presence that has grown tremendously over the last three decades, and with this exponential growth, we cannot predict where we will be, digitally-speaking, in the years to come. As it stands in South Africa and the majority of the world today, we find that the law is yet to catch up to the technological explosion, in particular to the concept of digital assets. Digital material that is produced and purchased form a big part of our daily lives as we continue to consume media online, use social media platforms, and invest in cryptocurrency. The question of whether South African law makes sufficient provision for the incorporation of digital assets and, in particular, cryptocurrency in inter vivos or testamentary trust is yet to be fully established.

The increasingly adapted technology called blockchain can be viewed as a distributed append-only time-stamped data structure which is made possible by a distributed peer-to-peer network. The network uses cryptography and different consensus mechanisms to ensure immutability, security, transparency, and speed in a decentralized fashion. A permissionless decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is an application deployed on a blockchain that enables people to govern and coordinate themselves in a decentralized manner through self-executing rules where anyone can join. A foundational function of a DAO is the voting system which dictates how the governance of the DAO is conducted. Voting systems in DAOs are currently not well researched and the currently used solutions have flaws, they are either not secure or they have the risk of resulting in unfair outcomes. This is the problem that this project focuses on. The problem was approached by conducting research in the field and through the conclusions of the research a new solution for a voting system was proposed and implemented. The proposed solution can be used to gain inspiration in further studies or be tested and developed to evaluate it in practice.

Forskningsfråga: Vilka faktorer har drivit intresset för handeln av bitcoin det senaste  året och vad kan förklara dem? Syfte: Syftet med den här studien är att få en ökad förståelse för varför bitcoin har blivit extra uppmärksammat det senaste året samt att undersöka vilka faktorer det ökade intresset beror på. Studien syftar även till att bekräfta eller förkasta de hypoteser som tar form  i de valda teorierna.  Metod:  En kvalitativ och kvantitativ studie med en abduktiv ansats där empirin samlades in via enkäter och två intervjuer med experter inom ämnet.   Slutsats:  Studiens slutsats visar att intresset för handeln med bitcoin till en viss del styrs av hur kryptovalutan framställs i media och andra sociala sammanhang. Utöver att flockbeteendet spelar roll är egenskaperna bitcoin besitter också avgörande. Flertalet anser att kryptovalutan är värdig att investera för att den är decentraliserad, den ses som ett inflationsskydd och den ger en hög avkastning. / Research question:  Which factors have driven the interest in bitcoin the last year, and what can explain this? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to get a better understanding of why Bitcoin has received increased attention the past year and to explore which factors have had an impact on the increased interest. The study also aims to confirm or reject the hypotheses which can be found in the theory chapter.  Method: A qualitative and quantitative study with an abductive approach   where the empirical data was collected through a survey and   through two interviews with bitcoin experts.   Conclusion: The study concludes that the increased interest in bitcoin trading  partially depends on how it is portrayed by media and by other social participants. In addition to the fact that sheep-like behavior is an important factor, the quality bitcoin possesses is also crucial. The majority of our respondents believe that the cryptocurrency is a worthy investment because of its qualities such as decentralization, protection against inflation and a high return.

During the last decade, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has grown in  popularity as a viable alternative to conventional financial institutions and centralized  markets. In 2021, the crypto industry's total market capitalization increased by nearly  10000 percent since its creation, reaching a total market capitalization at around 2  trillion, and culminating in all-time high record peaks that stunned the entire financial  world. The study of this current subject was conducted in order to determine the key  factors that contributed to the sudden increase in the use of this emerging technology,  which is still perceived to be in its infancy at least. Since the study is targeted for only in  Colombian citizens, a general analysis of prior research on technological disruption of  the relationship between global investors and technology acceptance was conducted  to ensure an effective overview of this phenomena. Furthermore, a variety of  technological adoption models were analyzed in order to determine the most suitable  one for this study. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was  explicitly adapted for the purposes of this thesis, since it was found to be the most  important and productive model for evaluating cryptocurrency adoption among  Colombian citizens. The study approach explores people's technology interaction habits,  which are then re-tested by a survey. Over the course of 4 days, were gathered 106  responses from crypto users and non-users using an online survey plus 154 using an  snowball data gathering method for a total of 260. Furthermore, ten Colombians users  who own cryptocurrencies were approached, and open-ended interviews were performed  again using the modified UTAUT model, which aimed to reach a better  understanding of the driving factors behind technological acceptance. Finally, additional  methods are suggested as the blockchain technology grows gaining great levels of  mainstream acceptance as the time passes. The final motivation of this research is to  provide a scientific analysis in order to help regulators in Colombia to assess the  projected forthcoming Crypto-Technology revolution

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Cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular in the business and financial world. With arguments for and against, people praising it and people demanding a ban, the highest financial returns and the worst economic falls, it is widely discussed and splits the world. This research has taken the focus of experienced Swedish private investors and analyzed the factors that affect their decisions in terms of cryptocurrency investments. Previous research had found patterns within the demographic and strategies of the investors as well as the risks, diversifying or hedging opportunities, and government regulations associated with cryptocurrencies. These findings were used to form semi- structured interviews where the investors would express their opinions and decisions. This resulted in new contributions to the research in terms of the allocation of private investments in cryptocurrencies and the lack of strategy in the investments. Research was also confirmed in terms of government regulations, what drives these risky investments, and the skeptical future of cryptocurrencies.

All human interaction can be depicted as exchanges. We exchange trivial information, feelings, assets and more. Valuable exchanges have one thing in common; they all require some degree of trust. In today’s society we rely on institutionalized trust when commencing an exchange of value. Typically, this role is filled by a vast ecosystem consisting of commercial banks, clearinghouses and other third parties. The recent rise of Bitcoin, Ethereum and consequent attention on the underlying technology, blockchain, questions the future of current ecosystem. This report aims at uncovering what blockchain is, what different implementations are currently available and how it would affect today’s ecosystem. It does so through semistructured interviews with actors within the current ecosystem as well as weighing in the views of blockchain evangelists. It highlights five key aspects that are crucial when implementing blockchain technology within the existing banking paradigm. Today’s organized societies require law and order which, to a large extent, is limited within the realm of public blockchain technology. With the insight of society’s infrastructural limitations, this paper argue that the current transaction system of our society favors a permissioned implementation with trusted nodes. Such a system would result in more efficient financial markets and lower costs of transacting. However, this paper acknowledge the virtues and reasons behind the rise of public blockchains. Given recent developments within the field and interesting concepts, the report does not dare to exclude a future of banking relying on public blockchain technology as the underlying database.