Experts Report: Funny Money, or a More Democratizing Alternative? An Overview of Cryptocurrency

TRANSCRIPT

Associate Professor of Computer Science Ioan Raicu: Bitcoin, that was the first cryptocurrency that was launched, was essentially built for a world that you did not trust, for a world that is decentralized, and for a world that has no tie to any real life thing, like gold or like a government that might control the value of a currency.

So I would argue that it’s more secure. It’s more secure because you don't have to trust anyone, right?

When you bank with a major bank, when you have a credit card, you have to trust that entity, that they will keep your account safe, your information safe. Sure, your personal computer could be hacked, but so can their servers.

What does a digital currency solve, that is not tied to something real like a fiat currency, like a like a dollar, a U.S. dollar, or gold? Bitcoin will continue to generate new coins at a slower and slower pace for the next hundred years, right?

So it has the ability to essentially stop inflation completely, whether it’s Bitcoin or another  digital currency, but you can control it at an algorithmic level. So it has the potential of solving a real hard problem in economics, which is inflation.

Another problem that I think it solves is the fact that a large portion of today’s world is unbanked. They don't have the infrastructure. It costs too much money. Banks don't want to work in those environments.

Digital currencies, they, you know, they work anywhere you have an internet connection.

And that’s a very powerful thing to be able to bring to people that don't have a banking system.