Pilani, Just any Other Village, or a Town of Miners?
Cryptocurrency is a de rigueur topic when it comes to finance. We have all heard of it and have atleast a basic idea of how it is affecting the world. But how would it be if we could shrink cryptocurrency from a global platform to an institutional level? If its access could be restricted? If every institute had its very own cryptocurrency? What would be its implications then?
I am currently an engineering student studying at BITS Pilani, and I have often speculated about this topic and its implications. If this were to become a reality, firstly, it would definitely be called The “BITScoin”. I will be using the word BITScoin to refer to a campus-exclusive cryptocurrency, but one is free to use whatever s/he wishes.
· So why use cryptocurrency at a college campus?
Cryptocurrency is designed from the ground up to take advantage of the internet and how it works. Instead of relying on traditional financial institutions who verify and guarantee your transactions, cryptocurrency transactions are verified by the user’s computers logged in to the currency’s network. Since the currency is protected and encrypted, it becomes impossible to increase the money supply over a predefined algorithmic rate. All users are aware of the algorithmic rate. Therefore, since each algorithm has a roof limit, no cryptocurrency can be produced or ”mined” beyond that.
Cryptocurrency can be converted into. other forms of currency and deposited into user’s accounts at lightning speed and very low transaction fees
· Most Cryptocurrency can be transacted anonymously, and can be used as discrete online cash anywhere in the world. Users. therefore do not have to pay for any currency conversion fees.
· While not 100% immune from theft, Cryptocurrencies are incredibly safe to use and difficult for malicious hackers to break due to the complex algorithms used.
· Most cryptocurrencies can be saved offline either in a ”paper” wallet or on are movable storage hard drive which can be disconnected from the internet when not in use.
· It won’t get affected by inflation as usually cryptocurrencies are generated in limited numbers, which most probably will be the case with BITScoin too.
· BITScoin like other cryptocurrencies will be divisible to atleast 8 decimal places, which eases smaller transactions
· Why not to use BITScoin:
· The machines required for mining cryptocurrency are quite expensive and occupy a lot of space, both of which are not easily available to students.
· To solve the above problems, the first thing which comes to the mind is to involve the college authorities, so that the college somehow manages the process, but doing so will be a direct attack on the decentralized character of cryptocurrencies, something which they are well known for.
· Execution of the entire process requires skilled labour
· The price of BITScoin will change depending on its demand, and if this change is as rapid as in other cryptocurrencies, it will only be unfair to students.
· The usage of immensely complex algorithms is required, and hence, we can’t be certain of an error-free program. Bugs or glitches may not always be unavoidable.
· This brings us to the point of trust, people have been ignorant about this topic and hence do not trust it. There had also been an incident in the past where Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan stated that Bitin was not reliable, which had caused the rate of Bitcoin which was soaring at about $13,000 to drop to $8,000.
Cryptocurrency has various applications in the college world like payment of fees, awareness about trading and finance will witness a sudden upsurge to name a few. But my objective in this write up was to enlist all factors which could affect the implementation of this idea. One might come up with more ideas and implications of this scheme and s/he should, all I wanted to do was to provide the framework.