Prospects and Risks Involved in Usage of Virtual Currency and Its Impact on Environment

Categories: ScienceTechnology

Abstract

Crypto Currency or Computer Generated Currency is a digital currency with capability to unsettle current payment systems and possibly even financial systems. Even now at their present stage, such crypto currency like Bit coin, Etherum offer a diversity of discernments about market scheme and the conduct of buyers and sellers. Automated money involves a monetary system in which trades activate a credit for one account and a corresponding debit to another.

Central banks clench the authority to regulate the wide-ranging quantity of money in transmission.

In contradiction of this framework, taking example of Bit coin which can be assumed as the first extensively adopted currency to provide complete scarcity of a currency supply by design. Moreover, the method of dispensing coins and authenticating transactions is significantly tougher than in usual bookkeeping systems. For the meantime, Bit coin provides new currency to private parties at a measured speed in directive to provide a motivation for those parties to uphold its bookkeeping system, as well as verifying the legitimacy of trades.

Get quality help now
Dr. Karlyna PhD
Dr. Karlyna PhD
checked Verified writer

Proficient in: Science

star star star star 4.7 (235)

“ Amazing writer! I am really satisfied with her work. An excellent price as well. ”

avatar avatar avatar
+84 relevant experts are online
Hire writer

Each Computer-generated currency is so fashioned by a rig and is preserved in a virtual wallet and the safety rest upon the third party application in current research both of them are shown to be penetrable, also the Energy cost of mining a single Bit coin is costing the environment a hefty hand , this article presents the platform’s design principles and properties for a nontechnical spectators; analyses its past, present, and future uses; and points out risks and regulatory issues as Virtual Currency interacts with the conventional financial system and the real economy.

Get to Know The Price Estimate For Your Paper
Topic
Number of pages
Email Invalid email

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

"You must agree to out terms of services and privacy policy"
Write my paper

You won’t be charged yet!

Introduction

Virtual currency is based on public key cryptography, which requires users to digitally sign their payments to prove ownership. Therefore, a salient aspect of Virtual currency is the wallet key management: loss of the private keys effectively means loss of funds; exposure of the public keys conveys privacy loss. It is an online communication protocol that facilitates the use of a virtual currency, including electronic payments. Virtual currency lacks a centralized authority to distribute coins or to track who holds which coins. Consequently, the process of issuing currency and verifying transactions is considerably more difficult than in classic bookkeeping systems.

Meanwhile, Virtual currency issues new currency to private parties at a controlled pace in order to provide an incentive for those parties to maintain its bookkeeping system, including verifying the validity of transactions. Each Virtual currency is so produced by a rig and is maintained in a virtual wallet and the security depends upon the third party application, in recent research both of them are shown to be penetrable, also the Energy cost of mining a single Virtual currency is costing the environment a hefty hand.

Development of security mechanisms for VCs could encourage the development of advanced cryptographic techniques, such as secure multiparty computation, which seeks to perform distributed computation while preserving the confidentiality of inputs and outputs in the presence of malicious activity. VCs portray the newest step in the direction of decentralized virtual facilities.

In particular, the historical trend suggests the development of a resilient public cyber key terrain, which is defined as the ability of unsophisticated cyber actors to have persistent, assured contact to virtual facilities irrespective of whether an extremely erudite national actor opposes their use. This has consequences for nationwide firewalls, admittance to terrorist groups, the achievability of nation-state cyber-attacks increases, and the capability to uphold uninterruptible and unidentified encrypted links decreases.

Virtual currency has the potential to be a fertile area for social science research. Scholars should appreciate VC’s contained environment with a clear set of rules (albeit not free from frictions), the publicly available record of transactions (unusual for most means of exchange), and the wide-ranging accessibility of data even further than the block chain (counting market prices and tradeoff sizes).

The unique idea of Virtual currency presented one set of replies, but as fresh elements approach the facility, it turn out to be less clear that early scheme verdicts meet prevalent requirements. It is also ambiguous whether a single facility can meet all requirements. For illustration, persons who seek superior confidentiality may be willing to agree to take superior technical intricacy and possibly greater costs.However, recruiting mainstream consumers and merchants seems to call for a focus on simplicity and lower prices. Virtual currency may be able to accommodate a community of experimentation built on its foundations.

Bit Coin System and Generation

VC structures are secretive (private) sector systems which is a dynamic expansion in the development supported by improvements in encryption and network computing that are pouring transformational revolution in the international economy, counting in how goods, facilities and possessions are swapped and in many cases, ease peer-to-peer exchange by passing traditional central clearinghouses. There has been chronological evolution of currencies, from Gold to VCs. Often people prefer transactions that are secure and anonymous and also prefer that the transactions that take place in a system are stable, robust, and stress-free.

The ordinary Bit coin application comprises of number of features. Usually, it creates a “wallet” file for the user that can store bit coins (anonymously); it makes an individual node for the consumer in the peer-to-peer Bit coin network that can be used with a decent internet connection; and also delivers right of entry to the “block chain” data structure that authenticates all previous Bit coin activity. Computer generated currency have played important role in gaming communities and in loyalty programs, such as air company frequent traveler programs to keep record of convertible membership points that may not otherwise have value in terms of a fiat currency.

Removal of fiat currency is the main advantage of introduction of the virtual currency as it completely eradicates the possibility of production of fiat currency. There is no lope left out for double spending, which is a major problem in normal currency system Bit coin depend on on two essential technologies from cryptography: which are public private key cryptography to stockpile and spend money; and cryptographic authentication of trades.

The Generation of bitcoin is done through mining rigs which comprises of high end graphic cards which are generally used in gaming sectors or for graphics development as these graphic cards have high processing ratio in comparison to routine processors also this has made the all-time historical increase in demand of graphic cards.

Virtual Currency Security

Bit coin or any other virtual currency possess different type of risks which are needed to be solved differently. Installing a VC may be a smart alternative for non-state actors who look to disrupt sovereignty and increase their own political or economic power by displacing state-based currencies.

Messages encrypted with a public key can only be descrambled by someone who possesses the corresponding private key, allowing anyone to encrypt a message that only the specified recipient can read, this becomes a tool of non-state actors and hackers or criminals to circulate information or trades which can be used in illicit activities.Similarly, communications encoded with a private key can only be descrambled with the matching public key, permitting a definite sender to generate a communication that can be established to be reliable. VC dispositions are mostly attractive in developing countries and in countries experiencing internal disorder, where the present fiscal structure is either inadequate or destabilized and pertinent non-state actors are present here comprising terrorist groups, rebellious groups, drug cartels, and other illegal organizations.

The use of an well-known computer generated currency , such as Bit coin, as a money by a non-state actor would provide political power gain in certain area to specific people as it is anonymous and decentralized. Susceptible to cyber-attack by an erudite adversary, while facing numerous of the similar application challenges as a fresh VC. Bit coin rests the transactional pathway of selection for ‘Dark Markets’ (online black markets existing on the Dark Web) such as the ill-reputed Silk Road and its plentiful inheritors. Any user holding bit coins aspects market threat via fluctuation in the exchange rate between bit coin and other currencies.

Bit coin users also experience a shallow markets problem: for example, a person seeking to trade a large amount of bit coin typically cannot do so quickly without affecting the market price. Given centralization in the Bit coin ecosystem, counterparty risk has become substantial. Exchanges often act as defacto banks, as users convert currency to bit coin but then leave the bitcoin in the exchange. The irreversibility of Bitcoin payments creates heightened transaction risk. If bit coins are sent due to error or fraud, the Bitcoin system offers no built-in mechanism to undo the error.

Of course, a buyer and seller can voluntarily agree to correct errors, but the Bitcoin protocol has no mechanism to retake the funds by force. Transaction risk also arises when receiving payments. As discussed above, Bitcoin transactions do not clear (and hence are not final) until they have been added to the authoritative block chain. Transaction batches are only added every ten minutes on average. This creates at least two potential avenues for abuse.

First, there is a low but persistent risk that what was once viewed as the authoritative block chain will later be cast aside, as voted on by a majority of participants, canceling any transactions recorded in that version of the block chain. Second, malevolent participants could double-spend bit coins, particularly through rapid transactions before the block chain is updated.

Bit Coin Environmental Impact

Bitcoin mining is an energy-hungry process and due to exponential growth it might consume the world’s entire electrical energy by February 2020. Bitcoin- extremely energy-hungry by design, is the currency that requires a huge amount of hash calculations for its ultimate goal of processing financial transactions without intermediaries (peer-to-peer). The primary fuel for each of these calculations is electricity. The Bitcoin network can be estimated to consume at least 2.55 gig watts of electricity currently, and potentially 7.67 gig watts in the future.

Beyond the electricity required to run the network, there are the materials required to make ASIC miners and GPUs as well as air conditioning, etc. which affects environment in following measures.

Bitcoin mining environmental impact is 100% attached to the “green performance” (or lack thereof) of the global energy grid. If the global grid isn’t almost emission-free by 2050, the renewable energy industry should be ashamed at the lack of their market success. But if the grid is emissions-free, Bitcoin will have insignificant environmental impact. The demand of such currencies place on the energy system are enormous, and this drives up carbon emissions which in turn add to the overall global warming effect as the cumulative emissions from bitcoin would be enough to push global warming beyond 2C in 22 years.

Bit coins are “mined” in a process that is computationally demanding, with heavy hardware requirements, but the elusive nature of this process means that determining its carbon footprint can prove complicated. Mining for the digital currency requires tons of energy, as powerful computers direct raw computing power at the mathematical process that creates coins.

And to produce that energy, power plants have to spew almost as much carbon as an actual mining industry. Carbon emissions vary by country, according to the study: Mining farms in Canada emit the least amount of CO2, owing to the availability of alternative energy sources in the country. But China's crypto operations, on the other hand, emit four times more CO2 emissions than Canada, which has prompted scrutiny from regulators.

Safe Smart Virtual Currency Contract

Bitcoin offers a rudimentary scripting system that is neither expressive nor user-friendly. A line of work in both academia and industry has attempted to design various smart contract applications in a way that retrofits Bit coin’s scripting language A contract is an instance of a computer program that runs on the block chain, i.e., executed by all consensus nodes. A smart contract consists of program code, a storage file, and an account balance.

Any user can create a contract by posting a transaction to the block chain. The program code of a contract is fixed when the contract is created, and cannot be changed. Smart contracts eliminate intermediaries by setting payment conditions into code in the block chain. A smart contract thus encodes the terms of a traditional contract into a computer program and executes them automatically. With block chain technology, smart contracts can in principle be self-executing and self-enforcing, without the need for intermediaries. They could encapsulate complex terms and conditions such as those found in many financial derivatives, which are often contingent on external events such as the prices of financial instruments or their volatility.

The potential benefits of using smart contracts are increased speed, efficiency, and trust that the contract will be executed as agreed. Smart contracts could overcome moral hazard problems (for example, strategic default) and reduce costs of verification and enforcement. Development of international standards and best practices could be considered to provide guidance on the most appropriate regulatory responses in different fields, thereby promoting harmonization across jurisdictions as such standards could also set out frameworks for cooperation and coordination across countries over the sharing of information and the investigation and prosecution of cross-border offenses.

Preventive measures including customer due diligence (CDD) —transaction monitoring, and record keeping, and obligations to report suspicious transactions are an important component of national AML/CFT frameworks, and can assist in detecting, prosecuting and deterring instances of ML,predicate offenses, and TF.

Conclusion

With the relative disparate needs of the various groups that are or might utilize the various forms of crypto currency, it is clear that no currency will meet the relative demands for all. Bitcoin may be able to accommodate a community of experimentation built on its foundations. Mixers already close the most obvious privacy shortcomings in Bit coin’s early design, while pools help reduce risk for miners, and wallets address some of consumers’ usability and security concerns whereas relying on the high levels of security that the Bitcoin protocol offers is not enough to guarantee safe transactions.

Lack of a standard that defines the properties of the Bitcoin wallets leads to security misconceptions and ad-hoc implementations that hide vulnerabilities. The best of our knowledge, is the first effort to address security aspects of Bitcoin wallets and stress the importance of securing the implementations of low-level communications. We chose to analyze smart-card based wallets as they are perceived to be the most secure and tamper resilient means for key management.

History of all great works is to witness that no great work was ever done without either the active or passive support of a person’s surrounding & one’s close quarters. Thus it is not hard to conclude how active assistance from JECRC Faculty could prohibitively impact the execution of this research paper. We are highly thankful to our learned faculties.

References

  1.  Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 29, Number 2—Spring 2015
  2. Gkaniatsou, A & Arapinis, M 2017, Low-Level Attacks in BitcoinWallets. In ISC 2017: 20th International
  3.  S. Barber, X. Boyen, E. Shi, and E. Uzun. Bitter to better - how to make bit coin a better Currency. In Financial Cryptography and Data Security - 16th International Conference, FC 2012, Kralendijk, Bonaire, February 27-March 2, 2012, Revised Selected Papers, pages 399–414, 2012.
Updated: Feb 12, 2024
Cite this page

Prospects and Risks Involved in Usage of Virtual Currency and Its Impact on Environment. (2024, Feb 12). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/document/prospects-and-risks-involved-in-usage-of-virtual-currency-and-its-impact-on-environment

Live chat  with support 24/7

👋 Hi! I’m your smart assistant Amy!

Don’t know where to start? Type your requirements and I’ll connect you to an academic expert within 3 minutes.

get help with your assignment