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A study of the relationship between economic and technical aspects of bitcoin

Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2019.

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Other Authors: Mare, Eben
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2020
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Mare, Eben
author_browse Mare, Eben
author_facet Mare, Eben
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2020 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2019.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:40:13.301Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2020
publishDateRange 2020
publishDateSort 2020
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/77835 A study of the relationship between economic and technical aspects of bitcoin Mare, Eben u95059751@tuks.co.za Kirsten, Johan Frederik UCTD bitcoin cryptocurrency stochastic price model arbitrage trade sovereign cryptocurrency money service business Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2019. This study investigates the cryptocurrency called bitcoin. A cryptocurrency is a type of currency that depends on cryptography to issue new units instead of depending on government decree like fiat currencies. The study will first explain some of the technical details that make bitcoin work. This is necessary to lay groundwork to get to the actual aim of the study, namely investigating the economic aspects of bitcoin. The study will evaluate bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, along with fiat currencies against certain definitions. In the process it will introduce a new subclass of cryptocurrency - the sovereign cryptocurrency. Bitcoin’s implied monetary policy will also be discussed, as well as the problems it creates for central banks. A hypothesis on the behaviour of the bitcoin price will be explained and research will be provided to support the acceptance of the hypothesis. Using this hypothesis, a stochastic pricing model for bitcoin will be derived. Arbitrage trading strategies will also be provided that explain certain price constraints that operate in the bitcoin market. The dissertation will also introduce a means to improve the anonymity of a user of bitcoin and will reason that improvements such as these and others will increase the use of bitcoin. Therefore, improvements to anonymity will increase the economic relevance of bitcoin and increase its competitive edge over the traditional banking system. It will be reasoned, based on the possible problems created by bitcoin’s monetary policy, as well as the growth projections implied by the stochastic pricing model, and the increased economic relevance due to improvements in anonymity, that central banks would need to create their own cryptocurrency that conforms to certain requirements – the previously introduced sovereign cryptocurrency. The study will conclude by explaining the technical changes needed for a fork of bitcoin to become a sovereign cryptocurrency, as well as a mathematical model to control the monetary policy of the sovereign cryptocurrency. As its aim, adaptive monetary policy will have stable prices for the economy using the sovereign cryptocurrency to price its goods and services. Please note, that while every effort was made to use published references, the field of cryptocurrencies is very young and changing constantly. Thus, most publications on the subject are simply placed on websites on the internet. This is especially true for the work relating to the founding of the field, and the data sources of the operation of the cryptocurrencies. Therefore a lot of the references do refer to websites on the internet. Mathematics and Applied Mathematics MSc Unrestricted 2020-12-29T11:50:51Z 2020-12-29T11:50:51Z 2020/04/16 2019 Dissertation Kirsten, JF 2019, A study of the relationship between economic and technical aspects of bitcoin, MSc Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/77835> A2020 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/77835 en © 2020 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
bitcoin
cryptocurrency
stochastic price model
arbitrage trade
sovereign cryptocurrency
money service business
A study of the relationship between economic and technical aspects of bitcoin
title A study of the relationship between economic and technical aspects of bitcoin
title_full A study of the relationship between economic and technical aspects of bitcoin
title_fullStr A study of the relationship between economic and technical aspects of bitcoin
title_full_unstemmed A study of the relationship between economic and technical aspects of bitcoin
title_short A study of the relationship between economic and technical aspects of bitcoin
title_sort study of the relationship between economic and technical aspects of bitcoin
topic UCTD
bitcoin
cryptocurrency
stochastic price model
arbitrage trade
sovereign cryptocurrency
money service business
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/77835