Cryptocurrency and Legal Ethics

Tanvi Upadhyay
MLSAKIIT
Published in
5 min readMay 5, 2023

“Anything which is widely accepted in payment for goods or the discharge of other kinds of business obligation is called money.” — D.H. Robertson

Understanding The Evolution Of Money

Image: Evolution of Currencies

Have you ever wondered if there would be a change in the way money is used as people and technology advance? Since the days of the previous era, trades have been conducted significantly using commodity money. To meet the demands of the expanding trade, trades then evolved to use conventional currency. Contrary to the ability to print money, money is only available in certain resources.

If there is a currency devaluation, the value of the currency may be zero, but the value of money cannot be zero. To explain, let’s take the example of a gold bar with a fixed value that can be sold internationally.

The government of the entire country can control the currency to suit its interests, and it occasionally manipulates it as well to accomplish market objectives. Customs duties shall be paid on all transactions involving a foreign currency.

Image: Custom duties on every transaction

Towards Transnational Digital Currency

Recently, cryptocurrency has been a contentious topic. It differs from ordinary bills and has grown in widespread acceptance in recent years.

Cryptocurrency is a digital payment system that does not rely on banks for transaction verification. Bitcoin payments exist solely as encrypted data in a networked database. Transactions pertaining to Bitcoin funds are recorded in a public ledger.

They are volatile, but they also can provide amazing opportunities. They are not printed; instead, they are created by people and, increasingly, businesses operating computers all across the world.

Fiat money is a government-issued currency that is not backed by any commodity such as gold, whereas cryptocurrency allows the individual who owns to trade assets without the use of middlemen, giving the owner more control over funds and fewer customs. It is the electronic creation and archives of virtual or digital money. Online payments are secure here since no third parties are used. Because of the convenience of cross-border payments, Bitcoin is the first example of a rising category of money as a cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrencies existed before Bitcoin but did not receive enough public attention for a few years after its introduction in 2009. Several further attempts eventually led to the creation of Bitcoin, which took several decades to become the popular cryptocurrency it is today.

“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work.” — Satoshi Nakamoto

Who actually is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Satoshi Nakamoto is an anonymous identifier that is frequently seen in the market by Bitcoin users. The owner of the name has never been identified. Several others wondered if it was a fabricated title for a person or group of people with an entirely distinct identity.

What propelled cryptocurrency to the forefront?

The ability to pay money anonymously is the reason why cryptocurrencies have become extravagantly popular in the market. That is, by utilising a cryptocurrency wallet, users can send or receive money anonymously. Because, unlike cash and credit cards, your transaction history is not connected to your name or any other form of identification, they are therefore proven secure.

Bitcoins have shown to be a great way to keep track of transactions for customs charges. A Bitcoin exchange also transfers ownership, thus neither party is given the authority to carry out transactions with the same value. provide the investors with an extended timeframe called the time horizon to stay invested in the schemes and help the market to evolve.

Image: Transactions in Crypto are in total anonymity

Ultimately there are innumerable reasons why cryptocurrency has become so popular. Whether it is government crackdowns or financial experts making bold claims, either the way you look at it, there appears to be a gradual development in the market. So, if you want to get into cryptocurrency then you need to stay up to date daily as things change constantly.

Drawbacks of Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies will be vulnerable to cyber security breaches and could end up in the hands of hackers. Mitigating this will necessitate ongoing security infrastructure upkeep.

Among the most challenging concerns for Bitcoin users is carrying out large transactions at once and using Bitcoin for routine transactions, as these transactions may take longer to process and finish. ‘Mining’ in a Bitcoin is enabled by computing power on a distributed network. This network also processes Bitcoin transactions, effectively making Bitcoin its payment network.

Image: Price Volatility

Many people are sceptical of cryptocurrencies, yet they have complete faith in blockchain technology as a whole. It’s feasible that certain governments agree that cryptocurrency technology should be widely adopted and utilised. Transactions can be maintained across multiple computers utilising a completely decentralised public digital ledger, preventing any records from being modified in the past.

No investor, regardless of how small the investment, should part with money they cannot afford to lose. On the other hand, cryptocurrencies are particularly subject to social engineering and disinformation risks.

In reality, some countries continue to expressly prohibit the use of cryptocurrencies. The People’s Republic of China, the most renowned but far from alone example, recently and abruptly banned all cryptocurrency commerce and mining in 2021.

Cryptocurrency failed to demonstrate either a “haven” or inflation-fighting properties when exposed to actual market volatility or the first real bouts of inflation in developed markets.

Conclusion

Overall, cryptocurrencies provide a variety of attributes that distinguish them as a distinct and unconventional kind of digital currency. They do, however, carry potential liabilities and constraints that consumers should be vigilant about before investing in or utilising them.

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