Major project report

On

Study of Cryptocurrency

A Paradigm Shift Towards Globally Accepted Payment

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

For the award of the degree of

Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA)

To

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi

Guided By: Dr. Parmjot Singh Submitted by:

Muskan
Roll No.: 03735101719
Batch: BBA 2019-22

MANAGEMENT EDUCATION AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE

 CONTENTS

S NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.

1. Student’s Declaration 4

2. Certificate from faculty guide 5

3. Acknowledgement 6

4. list of figures 7-8

5. Abstract 9

6. CHAPTER 1- Introduction 10-21

7. CHAPTER 2- Literature Review 22-27

8. CHAPTER 3- Research Methodology 28-31

9. CHAPTER 4- Analysis and Results 32-54

10. Chapter 5- Findings and Limitation 55-56

11. CHAPTER 6- Conclusion 57-58

12. References 59-60

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13. Appendix 61-69

3
 STUDENT’S DECLARATION

This is to certify that I Muskan (03735101719) have completed the Project

report titled “study on cryptocurrency” under the guidance of “Prof.
Parmjot singh sir” in the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award
of the degree of Bachelors in Business Administration” from ―Management
Education and Research Institute, New Delhi.”
It is also certified that it has not been submitted earlier elsewhere.

Signature of the Student: Muskan

Date:

4
 CERTIFICATE FROM FACULTY GUIDE

This is to certify that the project titled - “STUDY ON

CRYPTOCURRENCY” is an
academic work done by ― Muskan --submitted in the partial fulfillment of
the requirement for the award of the degree of ―Bachelors of Business
Administration from Management Education and Research Institute (MERI),
New Delhi, under my guidance and direction.
To the best of my knowledge and belief the data and information presented
by her in the project has not been submitted earlier elsewhere.

Signature of the Guide:

Date:
Name of the Guide:
Designation:

5
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I own my gratitude to those who have their support and without whom the
project would ever have come into existence. I express my gratitude to guide
Prof. Parmjot Singh, Management Education and Research Institute, New
Delhi, for his constant support and guidance throughout the course of our
work. His sincerity and thoroughness have been a constant source of
inspiration for us. It is only his efforts that my endeavours have seen the light
of the day. Last but not least I am thankful to my friends and family who
give me moral support during this project work.

Name: Muskan
Class: BBA-II Shift (Sec-C)
Batch: 2019- 2022

6
 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGU TITLE PAGE

RE NO.
NO.
1 Gender of respondent in questionnaire. 33
2 Age of the respondent in the questionnaire. 34
3 Where do respondents live? 35
4 Highest academic qualification of respondent. 35
5 Employment status of respondent. 36
6 Total combined income of respondents. 37
7 Do respondents know anything about cryptocurrency? 37
8 Have respondents ever bought any cryptocurrency? 38
9 How many cryptocurrency do respondents know yet? 39
10 Year respondents first heard about it? 40
11 Which cryptocurrency do they prefer most? 41
12 Do respondents own any cryptocurrency? 41
13 What do they think about currency divides in 42
geographical locations?
14 Do they trust cryptocurrency technology? 43

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15 respondents review on co-exist in daily life. 43
16 What do they think about private banks issuing money 44
a lot?
17 Who should regulate the currency? 45
18 Review on protection from theft or loss in crypto. 45
19 Review on ease of trade in cryptocurrency. 46
20 Review on increasing interest if less fee to operate. 47
21 Review of increasing interest in non-government 48
regulation.
22 Which mode do they use to store the currency? 48
23 Cryptocurrency is boon or bane for India? 49
24 Should cryptocurrency be approved globally? 50
25 Respondents invest in the stock market? 50

26 Is investing in the stock market similar to crypto? 51

27 which is more risky- stock market or cryptocurrency? 52
28 Do they invest in cryptocurrency on advice of others? 52
29 Do they invest if cryptocurrency is approved in India? 53
30 Reviews on paradigm shift towards globally accepted 54
payment methods.

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 ABSTRACT

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are digital currencies not backed by real assets or tangible
securities. They are traded between consenting parties with no broker and tracked on digital
ledgers. Cryptocurrency is a form of payment that can be exchanged online for goods and
services. ... Cryptocurrencies work using a technology called blockchain. Blockchain is a
decentralized technology spread across many computers that manages and records transactions.
Part of the appeal of this technology is its security. Cryptocurrencies are not illegal in India but
they are not regulated. This means that you can buy and sell Bitcoin, even hold it as an
investment, but there is no governing body to look after or protect it. ... Anyone out there can
start an exchange platform or invent a cryptocurrency. The first decentralized cryptocurrency,
bitcoin, was created in 2009 by presumably pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. In this
research, study of cryptocurrency technology which changes the global mindset for online
payment transactions. We studied about How much people trust technology to invest in
cryptocurrency? and a paradigm shift in the payment method? As from research it shows that
most people are ready to shift their monetary value from physical money to online money via
cryptocurrency. Here we used, exploratory method of research to gather more population reviews
by online mood in little time. It is actually a type of research design which focuses on explaining
the aspects of your study in a detailed manner. This research is important to focus on the
need/wants of people for cryptocurrency in India and will they invest if cryptocurrency is
regulated in India legally?

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

A cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency or crypto is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of

exchange wherein individual; coin ownership records are stored in a ledger existing in a form of
a computerized database using strong cryptocurrency to secure transaction records, to control the
creation of additional coins, and to verify the transfer of coin ownership. It typically does not
exist in physical form (like paper money) and is typically not issued by a central authority.
Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to centralized digital currency
and central banking systems. When a cryptocurrency is minted or created prior to issuance or
issued by a single issuer, it is generally considered centralized. When implemented with
decentralized control, each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology,
typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database.

Bitcoin - is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Since the release of bitcoin, other
cryptocurrencies have been created.

1.1 HISTORY

In 1983, the American cryptographer David Chaum conceived an anonymous cryptographic

electronic money called ecash. Later, in 1995, he implemented it through Digi cash, an early
form of cryptographic electronic payments which required user software in order to withdraw
notes from a bank and designate specific encrypted keys before it can be sent to a recipient. This
allowed the digital currency to be untraceable by the issuing bank, the government, or any third
party.

In 1996, the National Security Agency published a paper entitled How to Make a Mint: The
Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash, describing a Cryptocurrency system, first
publishing it in an MIT mailing list and later in 1997, in The American Law Review (Vol. 46,
Issue 4).

10
In 1998, Wei Dai published a description of "b-money", characterized as an anonymous,
distributed electronic cash system. Shortly thereafter, Nick Szabo described bit gold. Like bitcoin
and other cryptocurrencies that would follow it, bit gold (not to be confused with the later gold-
based exchange, Bit Gold) was described as an electronic currency system which required users
to complete a proof of work function with solutions being cryptographically put together and
published.

The first decentralized cryptocurrency, bitcoin, was created in 2009 by presumably

pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It used SHA-256, a cryptographic hash function, in
its proof-of-work scheme. In April 2011, Name coin was created as an attempt at forming a
decentralized DNS, which would make internet censorship very difficult. Soon after, in October
2011, Litecoin was released. It used script as its hash function instead of SHA-256. Another
notable cryptocurrency, Peercoin used a proof-of-work/proof-of-stake hybrid.

On 6 August 2014, the UK announced its Treasury had commissioned a study of

cryptocurrencies, and what role, if any, they could play in the UK economy. The study was also
to report on whether regulation should be considered.

In March 2018, the word cryptocurrency was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

1.2 ARCHITECTURE

Decentralized cryptocurrency is produced by the entire cryptocurrency system collectively, at a

rate which is defined when the system is created and which is publicly known. In centralized
banking and economic systems such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or
governments control the supply of currency by printing units of fiat money or demanding
additions to digital banking ledgers. In the case of decentralized cryptocurrency, companies or
governments cannot produce new units, and have not so far provided backing for other firms,
banks or corporate entities which hold asset value measured in it. The underlying technical
system upon which decentralized cryptocurrencies are based was created by the group or
individual known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

11
As of May 2018, over 1,800 cryptocurrency specifications existed. Within a cryptocurrency
system, the safety, integrity and balance of ledgers is maintained by a community of mutually
distrustful parties referred to as miners: who use their computers to help validate and timestamp
transactions, adding them to the ledger in accordance with a particular timestamping scheme.

Most cryptocurrencies are designed to gradually decrease the production of that currency,
placing a cap on the total amount of that currency that will ever be in circulation. Compared with
ordinary currencies held by financial institutions or kept as cash on hand, cryptocurrencies can
be more difficult for seizure by law enforcement.

1.3 BLOCKCHAIN

The validity of each cryptocurrency's coins is provided by a blockchain. A blockchain is a

continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using
cryptography. Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block, a
timestamp and transaction data. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification
of the data. It is "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties
efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way".

For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network

collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any
given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which
requires collusion of the network majority.

Blockchains are secure by design and are an example of a distributed computing system with
high Byzantine fault tolerance. Decentralized consensus has therefore been achieved with a
blockchain.

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1.3.1 TIMESTAMPING

Cryptocurrencies use various timestamping schemes to "prove" the validity of transactions added
to the blockchain ledger without the need for a trusted third party.

The first timestamping scheme invented was the proof-of-work scheme. The most widely used
proof-of-work schemes are based on SHA-256 and scrypt. The proof-of-stake is a method of
securing a cryptocurrency network and achieving distributed consensus through requesting users
to show ownership of a certain amount of currency. It is different from proof-of-work systems
that run difficult hashing algorithms to validate electronic transactions. The scheme is largely
dependent on the coin, and there's currently no standard form of it. Some cryptocurrencies use a
combined proof-of-work and proof-of-stake scheme.

1.3.2 MINING

In cryptocurrency networks, mining is a validation of transactions. For this effort, successful

miners obtain new cryptocurrency as a reward. The reward decreases transaction fees by creating
a complementary incentive to contribute to the processing power of the network. The rate of
generating hashes, which validate any transaction, has been increased by the use of specialized
machines such as FPGAs and ASICs running complex hashing algorithms like SHA-256 and
scrypt. This arms race for cheaper-yet-efficient machines has existed since the day the first
cryptocurrency, bitcoin, was introduced in 2009.

1.3.3 GPU PRICE RISE

An increase in cryptocurrency mining increased the demand for graphics cards (GPU) in 2017.
(The computing power of GPUs makes them well-suited to generating hashes.) Popular favorites

13
of cryptocurrency miners such as Nvidia's GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 graphics cards, as well as
AMD's RX 570 and RX 580 GPUs, doubled or tripled in price – or were out of stock.

1.3.4 WALLETS

A cryptocurrency wallet stores the public and private "keys" or "addresses" which can be used to
receive or spend the cryptocurrency. With the private key, it is possible to write in the public
ledger, effectively spending the associated cryptocurrency. With the public key, it is possible for
others to send currency to the wallet.

1.3.5 ANONYMITY

Bitcoin is pseudonymous rather than anonymous in that the cryptocurrency within a wallet is not
tied to people, but rather to one or more specific keys (or "addresses"). Thereby, bitcoin owners
are not identifiable, but all transactions are publicly available in the blockchain. Still,
cryptocurrency exchanges are often required by law to collect the personal information of their
users.

1.3.6 FUNGIBILITY

Most cryptocurrency tokens are fungible and interchangeable. However, unique non-fungible
tokens also exist. Such tokens can serve as assets in games like Crypto Kitties. In economics,
fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are essentially
interchangeable, and each of its parts is indistinguishable from another part.

For example, gold is fungible since a specified amount of pure gold is equivalent to that same
amount of pure gold, whether in the form of coins, ingots, or in other states. Other fungible
commodities include sweet crude oil, company shares, bonds, other precious metals, and
currencies.

Fungibility refers only to the equivalence and indistinguishability of each unit of a commodity
with other units of the same commodity, and not to the exchange of one commodity for another.

14
The peer-to-peer digital currency Bitcoin made its debut in 2009 and with it ushered in a new era
of cryptocurrency. While tax authorities, enforcement agencies, and regulators worldwide are
still debating best practices, one pertinent question: is Bitcoin legal or illegal? The answer—it
depends on the location and activity of the user.

1.4 IS IT LEGAL OR NOT?

Bitcoins are not issued, endorsed, or regulated by any central bank. Instead, they are created
through a computer-generated process known as mining. In addition to being a cryptocurrency
unrelated to any government, Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system since it does not exist in a
physical form. As such, it offers a convenient way to conduct cross-border transactions with no
exchange rate fees. It also allows users to remain anonymous.

Consumers have greater ability to purchase goods and services with Bitcoin directly at online
retailers, pull cash out of Bitcoin ATMs, and use Bitcoin at some brick-and-mortar stores. The
currency is being traded on exchanges, and virtual currency-related ventures and ICOs (initial
coin offering) draw interest from across the investment spectrum. While Bitcoin appears at
glance to be a well-established virtual currency system, there are still no uniform international
laws that regulate Bitcoin.

1.5 Countries that say YES to bitcoin

Bitcoin can be used anonymously to conduct transactions between any account holders,
anywhere and anytime across the globe, which makes it attractive to criminals and terror
organizations. They may use Bitcoin to buy or sell illegal goods like drugs or weapons. Most
countries have not clearly determined the legality of Bitcoin, preferring instead to take a wait-
and-see approach. Some countries have indirectly assented to the legal use of Bitcoin by enacting
some regulatory oversight. However, Bitcoin is never legally acceptable as a substitute for a
country's legal tender.

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1.5.1 THE UNITED STATES

The United States has taken a generally positive stance toward Bitcoin, though several
government agencies work to prevent or reduce Bitcoin use for illegal transactions. Prominent
businesses like Dish Network (DISH), the Microsoft Store, sandwich retailer Subway, and
Overstock.com (OSTK) welcome payment in Bitcoin. The digital currency has also made its way
to the U.S. derivatives markets, which speaks about its increasingly legitimate presence.

The U.S. Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has been
issuing guidance on Bitcoin since 2013. The Treasury has defined Bitcoin not as currency, but as
a money services business (MSB). This places it under the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires
exchanges and payment processors to adhere to certain responsibilities like reporting,
registration, and record keeping. In addition, Bitcoin is categorized as property for taxation
purposes by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

1.5.2 CANADA

Canada considers Bitcoin exchanges to be money service businesses. This brings them under the
purview of the anti-money laundering (AML) laws. Bitcoin exchanges need to register with the
Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), report any
suspicious transactions, abide by the compliance plans, and even keep certain records.

In addition, some major Canadian banks have banned the use of their credit or debit cards for
Bitcoin Transactions.

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1.5.3 AUSTRALIA

Similar to Canada, Australia considers Bitcoin neither money nor a foreign currency, with the
Australian Taxation Office (ATO) ruling it an asset for capital gains tax purposes.

1.5.4 THE EUROPE UNION

On Oct. 22, 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that buying and selling digital
currencies is considered a supply of services, and that this is exempt from value-added tax
(VAT) in all European Union (EU) member states. Additionally, some individual EU countries
have also developed their own Bitcoin stances.

1.5.5 FINLAND

The Central Board of Taxes (CBT) has given Bitcoin a VAT exempt status by classifying it as a
financial service. Bitcoin is treated as a commodity in Finland and not as a currency.

1.6 Countries that say NO to bitcoin

While Bitcoin is welcomed in many parts of the world, a few countries are wary because of its
volatility, decentralized nature, perceived threat to current monetary systems, and links to illicit
activities like drug trafficking and money laundering. Some nations have outright banned the
digital currency, while others have tried to cut off any support from the banking and financial
system essential for its trading and use.

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1.6.1 CHINA

Bitcoin is essentially banned in China. All banks and other financial institutions like payment
processors are prohibited from transacting or dealing in Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency exchanges are
banned. The government has cracked down on miners.

1.6.2 RUSSIA

Bitcoin is not regulated in Russia, though its use as payment for goods or services is illegal.

1.6.3 VIETNAM

Vietnam's government and its state bank maintain that Bitcoin is not a legitimate payment
method, though it is not regulated as an investment.

1.6.4 BOLIVIA, COLUMBIA, ECUADOR

El Banco Central de Bolivia has banned the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Columbia
does not allow Bitcoin use or investment. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were banned in
Ecuador by a majority vote in the national assembly.

Although Bitcoin is now almost 10 years old, many countries still do not have explicit systems
that restrict, regulate, or ban the cryptocurrency. The decentralized and anonymous nature of
Bitcoin has challenged many governments on how to allow legal use while preventing criminal
transactions. Many countries are still analyzing ways to regulate the cryptocurrency. Overall,
Bitcoin remains in a legal gray area for much of the world.

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1.7 MONEY IS NO OBJECT: UNDERSTANDING THE EVOLVING CRYPTOCURRENCY
MARKET

In recent years, cryptocurrency—and in particular, Bitcoin—has demonstrated its value, now

boasting 14 million Bitcoins in circulation. Investors speculating in the future possibilities of this
new technology have driven most of the current market capitalization, and this is likely to remain
the case until a certain measure of price stability and market acceptance is achieved. Apart from
the declared price of cryptocurrency, those invested in it appear to be relying on a perceived
“inherent value” of cryptocurrency. This includes the technology and network itself, the integrity
of the cryptographic code and the decentralized network.

The blockchain public ledger technology (which underlies cryptocurrency) has the potential to
disrupt a wide variety of transactions, in addition to the traditional payments system. These
include stocks, bonds and other financial assets for which records are stored digitally and for
which currently there is a need for a trusted third party to provide verification of the transaction.

Nearly ten years after the introduction of bitcoin, the first and most prominent cryptocurrency,
digital currencies continue to defy the doomsday. Despite being around for less than a decade,
cryptos already show potential to replace traditional fiat currencies and transform the financial
services landscape. But how did they come so far so quickly?

1.7.1 THE BEGINNING

While the concept of online currency predates bitcoin, 2009 marked a defining moment for the
peer-to-peer electronic cash system when an individual (or group) under the pseudonym Satoshi
Nakamoto publicly released the bitcoin software. Bitcoin was created to protect against inflation,
provide security, and put the control of money in the hands of the people.

19
The release kick-started what is now known as bitcoin mining, and indeed the introduction of
alternative currencies, which have been developed, either to address bitcoin’s perceived
shortcomings or to accomplish different goals.

Bitcoin was valued for the first time in 2010 when an early adopter decided to swap 10,000 units
for two pizzas. The token is believed to be worth around $0.00001 when it was first created.

1.7.2 THE EMERGENCE OF ALTERNATIVE CRYPTOCURRENCY

As bitcoin grew in popularity and gained more acceptance, users began to notice some of its
shortcomings. As a result, alternative cryptocurrencies (often referred to as altcoins) were
launched to fix its perceived flaws in areas such as privacy, transaction speed, DNS resolution,
proof-of-stake, among others.

Initial Coin Offering (ICO), a fundraising tool for startups, makes it easier than ever to launch
new cryptocurrencies. The first ICO was held in 2013 by Master coin. Since then, several
cryptocurrencies have begun this way. Some of the most popular cryptocurrencies created
through this means include Ethereum and NEO.

1.7.3 GROWING ACCEPTANCE AND SURGE INTO MAINSTREAM

The popularity of cryptocurrencies is on the rise. Countries like China, Ecuador, Tunisia,
Venezuela, Senegal, Sweden, Estonia, Singapore, etc. have either created their own national
cryptocurrency or are planning to launch one.

In addition, bitcoin and other popular digital currencies appear to be gaining more acceptance as
a growing list of retailers and services now accept them as payment. The market value of digital
currencies is expected to reach $1 trillion this year as positive sentiments continue to rise.

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1.8 CHALLENGES TO MASS ADOPTION

Cryptocurrencies are a suitable medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account.
Possessing these characteristics make them a reliable form of money by any yardstick. However,
some obstacles must be overcome before the general public widely adopts these online-based
currencies.

One of the major barriers to mass adoption of cryptocurrency is volatility. Merchants are
sometimes reluctant to accept cryptocurrencies as payment because their prices fluctuate very
often. Scalability issues, security, and regulatory challenges are other factors that impede further
adoption of digital currencies.

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 CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW

ELI DOURADO (January 2014): This article explains what cryptocurrency is and begins to
answer the new questions that it raises. Cryptocurrency is neither commodity money nor fiat
money – it is a new, experimental kind of money. The cryptocurrency experiment may or may
not ultimately succeed, but it offers a new mix of technical and monetary characteristics that
raise different economic questions than other kinds of currency. Cryptocurrency is the name
given to a system that uses cryptography to allow the secure transfer and exchange of digital
tokens in a distributed and decentralized manner.

MITSURU IWAMURA and TSUTOMU MATSUMOTO (February 2014): Bitcoin has not
emerged out of cryptocurrency competition, but rather became a dominant currency as the first
broad market-based cryptocurrency. But there are more than a hundred cryptocurrencies in the
market, and some are catching up to Bitcoin. Through this competition new technological and
security innovations may emerge. It is worthwhile to consider the Bitcoin system from a wider
perspective.

RYAN FARELL (may 2015): The cryptocurrency market has evolved erratically and at
unprecedented speed over the course of its short lifespan. The majority of it is singularly focused
on Bitcoin rather than a more diverse spread of cryptocurrencies and is steadily being outpaced
by fluid industry developments, including new coins, technological progression, and increasing
government regulation of the markets. Though the fluidity of the industry does, admittedly,
present a challenge to research, a thorough evaluation of the cryptocurrency industry writ large is
necessary.

22
CHARLES W. EVANS (June 2015): the compliance of distributed, autonomous block chain
management systems (BMS) like Bitcoin—also referred to as 'virtual currencies'—with the
requirements of Islamic Banking and Finance. While intended as a narrow financial and
economic analysis, and not as an in-depth analysis, they relate to banking and finance, it shows
that a BMS can conform with the prohibition and incorporate the principles and mutual risk-
sharing. It concludes that Bitcoin or a similar system might be a more appropriate medium of
exchange in Islamic Banking and Finance than riba-backed central bank fiat currency, especially
among the unbanked and in small-scale cross-border trade.

PETER D. DEVRIES (October 2016): Bitcoin, the first and most popular cryptocurrency, is
paving the way as a disruptive technology to long standing and unchanged financial payment
systems that have been in place for many decades. While cryptocurrencies are not likely to
replace traditional fiat currency, they could change the way Internet-connected global markets
interact with each other, clearing away barriers surrounding normative national currencies and
exchange rates. A SWOT analysis of Bitcoin is presented, which illuminates some of the recent
events and movements that could influence whether Bitcoin contributes to a shift in economic
paradigms.

UJAN MUKHOPADHYAY and ANTHONY SKJELLUM (December 2016):

Cryptocurrencies have emerged as important financial software systems. They rely on a secure
distributed ledger data structure; mining is an integral part of such systems. Mining adds records
of past transactions to the distributed ledger known as Blockchain, allowing users to reach
secure, robust consensus for each transaction. Mining also introduces wealth in the form of new
units of currency. Cryptocurrencies lack a central authority to mediate transactions because they
were designed as peer-to-peer systems. They rely on miners to validate transactions.
Cryptocurrencies require strong, secure mining algorithms. In this paper we survey and compare
and contrast current mining techniques as used by major Cryptocurrencies.

23
JOCHEN MICHAELIS (may 2017): Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoins may revolutionize the
financial system by at least partially replacing intermediaries such as central banks and
commercial banks. The blockchain technology enables users to transact on a peer-to-peer basis.
This imposes a serious threat on the financial intermediaries as well as on monetary policy
authorities. Well cryptocurrencies fulfill the functions of a fiat money and discuss the
comparative advantages of cryptocurrencies. We proceed by exploring the implications of digital
currencies for the concept and conduct of monetary policy.

ASMA SALMAN (December 2017): A peer-to-peer system of blockchain, originally started for
a cryptocurrency Bitcoin, has caused major disruptions in the stock market. It has affected many
businesses if not all, but its significance in the financial world is magnanimous. Time series data
and financial models are applied to realize the shocks. Monte Carlo simulation is applied to
assess the dynamic structure of Bitcoin. With greater volume and activity, the banks and
financial intermediaries may become outdated, and the middleman will have no place. It seems
like a distant thought, but the facts are pointing toward its reality.

YUKUN LIU and ALEH TSYVINSKI (august 2018): Cryptocurrencies represent is to

investigate whether their returns behave similarly to other asset classes. In other words, we
assess how investors and markets value current and future prospects of cryptocurrencies. We use
standard tools of empirical asset pricing to comprehensively analyze cryptocurrency risks and
returns. cryptocurrency market specific factors – momentum and the proxies for investor
attention – consistently explain the variations of cryptocurrency returns. This suggests, in
contrast to popular explanations, that markets do not view cryptocurrencies similarly to standard
asset classes. Indeed, cryptocurrency represents an asset class that can be assessed using simple
finance tools. At the same time, cryptocurrencies comprise an asset class which is radically
different from traditional asset classes.

24
JONATHAN CHIU and THORSTEN V. KOEPPL (September 2018): The optimal design of
cryptocurrencies and assess quantitatively how well such currencies can support bilateral trade.
The challenge for cryptocurrencies is to overcome double-spending by relying on competition to
update the blockchain (costly mining) and by delaying settlement. The current Bitcoin scheme
generates a large welfare loss of 1.4% of consumption. This welfare loss can be lowered
substantially to 0.08% by adopting an optimal design that reduces mining and relies exclusively
on money growth rather than transaction fees to finance mining rewards.

KUNDAN DASGUPTA (January 2019): The Internet of Things (IoT) is a paradigm of devices
embedded with sensors, actuators and trans-receivers, connected wirelessly in a network. With
the advent of IoT, with a projection of 7.1 trillion IoT devices by 2020, comes various challenges
such as secure connections, long lasting battery power and so on. The block chain technology in
IoT has become popular in various fields such as providing secure connections for crypto-
currency transactions. However, the usage of Direct Acyclic Graphs (DAG) formed in a block-
less system, and ternary operators instead of the binary, provides much faster response rates with
a higher data handling rate.

GIANCARLO GIUDICI and DMITRI VINOGRADOV (September 2019):

Cryptocurrencies are digital financial assets, for which ownership and transfers of ownership are
guaranteed by a cryptographic decentralized technology. The rise of cryptocurrencies’ value on
the market and the growing popularity around the world open a number of challenges and
concerns for business and industrial economics. Cryptocurrencies have been triggered by the
substantial changes in their prices, claims that the market for cryptocurrencies is a bubble
without any fundamental value, and also concerns about evasion of regulatory and legal
oversight. These concerns have led to calls for increased regulation or even a total ban.

25
DAVID W. PERKINS (April 2020): Cryptocurrencies are digital money in electronic payment
systems that generally do not require government backing or the involvement of an intermediary,
such as a bank. Instead, users of the system validate payments using certain protocols. The
invention and proliferation of cryptocurrencies present numerous risks and related policy issues.
Finally, if cryptocurrency becomes a widely used form of money, it could affect the ability of the
Federal Reserve and other central banks to implement and transmit monetary policy, leading
some observers to argue that central banks should develop their own digital currencies.

MUHAMMAD ASHRAF FAUZI and NORAZHA PAIMAN (august 2020): Bitcoin and
other prominent cryptocurrencies have gained much attention since the last several years.
Globally known as digital coin and virtual currency, this cryptocurrency is gained and traded
within the blockchain system. The blockchain technology adopted in using the cryptocurrency
has raised the eyebrows within the banking sector, government, stakeholders and individual
investors. This paper discussed the opportunities in cryptocurrency such as the security of its
technology, low transaction cost and high investment return.

DR. SHILPI AGRAWAL (October 2020): Cryptocurrency is an attractive model of payment

methods that are effective and secure that could boost companies. They also act as an alternative
method of payment apart from currency notes, which allows users to take part in financial
activities such as transferring, exchange, buying, and selling easily with the blockchain
technology adds on more security to your transaction. Various factors could bring positive
changes to e-commerce or e-business and e-payment sectors which also carries several negative
factors that affect this method of transactions. Cryptocurrency needs to be well regulated and
controlled to gain more trust. But with the high growth of interest in cryptocurrency and
blockchain around the world, banning it in India wouldn't be an option and we shall look forward
to what the RBI takes forward regarding cryptocurrency in India.

26
EMAD BADAWAI and GUY-VINCENT JOURDAN (November 2020): Cryptocurrencies
have been a target for cybercriminal activities because of the pseudo anonymity and privacy they
offer. These attacks have been used to steal millions of USD, abuse millions of connected
devices, and have created even more significant loss in denial of services and productivity losses.
Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency that has become popular in the last ten years. It is peer-
to-peer electronic currency that can be sent from one user to another without the involvement of
a trusted authority such as an administrator or a central bank.

DUBLIN (January 2021): The future of the cryptocurrency market looks promising with
opportunities in the peer-to-peer payment, remittance, e-commerce and retail, and media &
entertainment industries. The major growth drivers for this market are transparency and
immutability of the distributed ledger technology, growing remittance in developing countries,
fluctuating monetary regulations, and a significant increase in venture capital investments.

27
 CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 -OBJECTIVES OF THIS RESEARCH –

1. Is cryptocurrency boon or bane for India?

2. Is it right to have a fastest paradigm shift towards cryptocurrency?
3. Which is more risky- share market or cryptocurrency?
4. Do Indians want to prefer cryptocurrency in their day-to-day life?
5. Are investing in share market & cryptocurrency same?
6. How much people trust the technology to invest in cryptocurrency?

3.2- SOURCES OF THE DATA COLLECTION –

for the study purpose, we used two sources of data:

1. PRIMARY DATA: Here we used questionnaire surveys from people for their views on
the study.
2. SECONDARY DATA: Sources include books, magazines, personal sources, old
published journals and research papers, multiple websites, government records, etc.

3.2.1 -PRIMARY DATA: Primary data is otherwise called raw information. The source
of primary data is the populace test from which you gather the information. The initial
phase in the process is deciding your target populace.
● Primary data means first-hand information collected by an investigator.
● It was collected for the first time.
● It is original and more reliable.
This study is based on the primary data and the data is collected through questionnaire
surveys.

28
 3.2.2- SECONDARY DATA: The sources of secondary data into internal as well as
external sources. Inner sources incorporate data that exists and is stored in your
organization. External data refers to the data that is gathered by other individuals or
associations from your association’s outer environment.
● Secondary data refers to second-hand information.
● It is not originally collected and rather obtained from already published or unpublished
sources.
This study is based also on the secondary data and the data is collected through journals,
magazines, articles, websites, books etc.

3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN –

Research design refers to the overall strategy utilized to carry out research that defines a succinct
and logical plan to tackle established research question through the collection, interpretation,
analysis, and discussion of data. The research design refers to the overall strategy that you choose
to integrate the different components of the study in a coherent and logical way, thereby, ensuring
you will effectively address the research problem; it constitutes the blueprint for the collection,
measurement, and analysis of data.

MOST COMMON RESEARCH DESIGN TYPES

1. DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH DESIGN- This is a theory-based design, where the

researcher is primarily interested in describing the topic that is the subject of the research.
It is applied to case studies, naturalistic observations, surveys, and so on. It lets the
researcher clearly present the problem statement in order to allow others to better
understand the need for this kind of research. Without a clear problem statement, you’re
not doing descriptive but exploratory research.
This study is based on descriptive design.

29
2. CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH DESIGN- Correlational design allows the researcher
to establish some kind of a relation between two closely related topics or variables. It’s a
non-experimental research design type that requires at least two groups of data. It can be
applied to case-control studies and observational studies.

3. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGN- Whether it is a field experiment, a controlled

experiment, or a quasi-experiment, this is one of the research designs types that establishes
a relation between the cause and effect of a particular happening. It contributes to solving
a particular problem by manipulating the independent variables to observe the change they
have on the dependent one. For example, you can experiment with changing the price and
observe the effect it has on customer satisfaction.

4. DIAGNOSTIC RESEARCH DESIGN- The research design type that aims to examine
the underlying cause of a certain situation or phenomenon. It can help you find out more
about the factors that lead to specific issues or challenges your customers might be facing.
This design usually consists of three research phases – (1) problem inception, (2) problem
diagnosis, and (3) problem solution.

5. EXPLANATORY RESEARCH DESIGN- This design is used to further expand,

explore, and explain the researcher’s ideas and theories. This type of research design is
used to elaborate on the unexplored aspects of a particular topic and try to explain the
missing pieces.

30
3.4 RESEARCH SAMPLE SIZE - Sample size determination is the act of choosing the number
of observations or replicates to include in a statistical sample. The sample size is an important
feature of any empirical study in which the goal is to make inferences about a population from a
sample.

The sample size of this research study is 107 respondents.

3.5 RESEARCH SAMPLING TECHNIQUE - A sampling technique is the name or other

identification of the specific process by which the entities of the sample have been selected.

Simple random sampling technique is used for the study.

31
 CHAPTER 4 – ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

QUESTIONNAIRE: -

A STUDY OF CRYPTOCURRENCY: A PARADIGM SHIFT TOWARDS GLOBALLY

ACCEPTED PAYMENT METHOD

A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it

nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized
networks based on blockchain technology—a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network
of computers. A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any
central authority, rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or
manipulation.

Cryptocurrencies face criticism for a number of reasons, including their use for illegal activities,
exchange rate volatility, and vulnerabilities of the infrastructure underlying them. However, they
also have been praised for their portability, divisibility, inflation resistance, and transparency.

Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum and other coins have become very popular in India over the last six
months and millions of new investors have joined the crypto wave. The RBI and government
have no other option but to come up with regulations to provide security to these investors.

QUESTIONNAIRE-

1. Name of respondent-____________
2. Email address of respondent-____________
3. Gender of respondent-
Male -

32
 Female-

FIGURE 1: gender of the respondent in the questionnaire\

Interpretation: Out of 107 responses only 105 responses have filled their gender among
them 50 are male and 55 are female category.

4. Age of the respondent:

18-34-___
35-44-___
45-60-___
60+-___

33
 FIGURE 2- age of the respondents in questionnaire.

Interpretation- Out of 107 respondents only 105 responses have filled their age among
them 64 are from age group of 18-34, 26 are from the age group of 35-44, 15 are from
age group of 44-60 and no one is from group 60+.

5. Where do you live-

Asia-___
America-___
Europe-___
Africa-___

34
 FIGURE 3: where do respondents of the questionnaire live?
Interpretation: Out of 107 responses only 104 responses have filled their area among
them 96 are from Asia, 4 are from America, 4 are from Europe and no one from Africa.

6. What is your highest academic qualification?

High school-__
Graduate degree-___
Master’s degree-___
College student-___

35
 FIGURE 4: highest academic qualification of respondents
Interpretation: out of 107 respondents only 103 responses has filled their academic
qualifications among them 14 are from high school, 26 are done with graduate degree, 25
aree done with master’s degree and 38 are college students.

7. Describe your employment status-

Still studying-___
Employed-___
Unemployed-___
Looking for work-___

FIGURE 5: employment status of respondent of questionnaire.

Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 100 responses have filled their employment
status among them 40 are still studying, 52 are employed, 6 are unemployed and 12 are
looking for work.

8. Total combined income you earn-

Still studying-___
0-9999-___
10000-19999-___
20000 or more-___
Others-____

36
 FIGURE 6: total combined income of respondents of questionnaire.
Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 105 responses has filled their income status
among them 43 are still studying, 20 are from income group of 0-9999, 15 are from
income group of 10000-19999, 17 are from income group of 20000 or more and 10 are
from other income group.

9. Do you know anything about cryptocurrencies?

Yes -__
No-____

37
 FIGURE 7: Do respondents know anything about the cryptocurrency of the
questionnaire.
Interpretation: out of 107 respondents only 105 responses have filled that they know or
not among them 74 know about cryptocurrency and 31 don’t know about cryptocurrency.

10. Have you ever bought cryptocurrency?

Yes-__
No-___
No opinion-___

FIGURE 8: have respondents ever bought any cryptocurrency or questionnaire.

Interpretation: out of 107 respondents only 105 responses have filled in whether they
bought or not and among them 17 have bought cryptocurrency, 64 have not bought any
cryptocurrencies and 24 had no opinion on it.

11. How many cryptocurrencies do you know yet?

A lot-___
Some-___
No much-____
Just hearing about it now in this questionnaire-___

38
 FIGURE 9- how many cryptocurrencies do respondents know of yet?
Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 102 have filled responses that they know
cryptocurrency or not and among them 17 people know a lot, 33 people know some of
the cryptocurrency, 29 don’t know much about cryptocurrencies and 23 know from other
sources.

12. Year you first heard about cryptocurrency?

2009-2011-___
2012-2014-____
2015-2017-____
Others-____

39
 FIGURE 10: the year in which respondents first heard about the cryptocurrency of
questionnaire.
Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 103 have filled their responses when they
heard about cryptocurrency. Among them 4 people know it from the year group 2009-
2011, 19 people know it from the year group 2012-2014, 51 know it from the year group
2015-2017 and the rest know it from other years and sources.

13. Which cryptocurrency do you prefer most?

Bitcoin-____
Ethereum-___
Ripple-___
Hash graph-___
IOTA-____
Others-____

40
 FIGURE 11: respondents of questionnaire prefer which cryptocurrency most
Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 87 have filled their responses about which
they prefer most in cryptocurrency and among them 65 prefers Bitcoin, 11 prefers
Ethereum, 4 prefers Ripple, no one prefers Hash group and IOTA and 7 prefers others.

14. Do you own cryptocurrency?

Yes –_____
No -___

FIGURE 12- do respondents of questionnaire own any cryptocurrency

41
 Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 104 have filled responses among them only 15
own cryptocurrencies and 89 do not own any cryptocurrency.

15. Do you think currencies should be divided by geographical locations?

Yes-____
No-___
No opinion-___

FIGURE 13: respondents think currencies should be divided or not geographically

located.
Interpretations: out of 107 responses only 105 have filled their responses among them
31 are in favor of dividing geographical location in currencies, 32 are not in favor of
dividing and 42 have no opinion in dividing geographical locations in currencies.

16. Do you think in the case of cryptocurrency, you trust its technology?
Yes -___
No-___
Maybe-___

42
 FIGURE 14: respondents of questionnaire trusting on cryptocurrency technology
Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 105 have filled responses among them 50 had
trust on technology, 18 don’t trust on its technology and 37 are not so sure about it.

17. Do you think different cryptocurrencies can co-exist in our daily life?
Yes -___
No-___
Maybe-___

FIGURE 15: respondents reviews on co-existence in daily life

43
 Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 103 have filled their responses on co-exist of
cryptocurrency in daily life, among them 48 are in favor, 9 are not and 46 are not so sure
about it.

18. Do you believe private banks issues too much money?

Yes -__
No -___
No opinion-___

FIGURE 16: respondents of questionnaire believing that private bank issue too much
money
Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 104 have filled their responses on issuing too
much money, among them 29 believed, 26 not believed and 49 have no opinion on
issuing too much money from a private bank.

19. You think currencies should be regulated by

public authorities (ex: state)
private authorities (ex: non-government)

44
 FIGURE 17: respondents of questionnaire review on regulation of currency
Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 102 have filled responses on regulation of
currency, among them 76 wants currency regulated by public authorities and 26 wants
currency regulated by private authorities.

20. Do you think authorities should regulate cryptocurrencies in order to protect

crypto-holders from potential theft and loss?
Yes -___
No -___
Maybe -____

FIGURE 18: respondents review on protection from theft or loss on cryptocurrency

45
 Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 103 have filled their response on authorities
should regulate cryptocurrency in order to protect crypto-holders from theft or loss and
among them 67 are agreed, 11 are not agreed, and 25 are not so sure.

21. Do you find it easy to trade in cryptocurrencies?

Yes -___
No-___
Maybe -___
No opinion-____

FIGURE 19: respondents in questionnaire review on ease of trade in cryptocurrency

Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 102 have filled their responses about whether
they feel ease in trading in cryptocurrency, among them 23 agree, 8 do not find ease in
trading, 17 are not sure and 54 have no opinion.

22. Unlike other currencies, cryptocurrency requires much less fee to operate. Would
this increase your interest in using cryptocurrency?
Yes -___
No-__
Maybe -___

46
 FIGURE 20: respondents review on increasing interest if less fee to operate
Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 102 have filled responses that if there is less
fee to operate, it increases their interest or not and among them 43 are in favor to increase
their interest in less fee, 13 are not in favor to increase interest in less fee and 46 are not
so sure about it.

23. Cryptocurrency is non-government regulated which offers users more freedom.

Would this increase your interest in investing in cryptocurrency?
Yes- ___
No-___
Maybe -___

47
 FIGURE 21: respondents review that increasing interest on non-government regulate
Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 103 have filled their responses on increasing
interest if non-government regulation and among them 27 are agree in increasing interest
if cryptocurrency is regulated by non-government, 32 are not agree in non-government
regulations and 44 are not so sure about it.

24. If you deal, then where do you generally store your cryptocurrency?
Exchange wallet-___
Paper form-___
Online/software wallet-___
No opinion-___

48
 FIGURE 22: if respondent’s deal, which mode they store their currency in
cryptocurrency.
Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 103 have filled their responses about if they
deal in cryptocurrency then which mode they use to store their currency, in which 20
people use an exchange wallet, 9 use paper form, 41 will go with an online wallet and 33
have no opinion about it.

25. Is cryptocurrency Boon or Bane to the Indian economy?

Boon-___
Bane-___

FIGURE 23: respondents review is cryptocurrency is boon or bane for India

Interpretation- out of 107 responses only 104 have filled responses about their reviews
on if cryptocurrency is boon or bane and among them 82 state that it is boon for India and
22 state that it is bane for India.

26. Should cryptocurrency be approved globally?

Yes-___
No-___
Maybe-___

49
 FIGURE 24: respondents review on that should cryptocurrency approve globally
Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 103 has filled their responses on opinion
should cryptocurrency be approved globally and among them 60 are in favor to approve
globally, 16 are not in favor to approve globally and 27 are not so sure about it.

27. Do you invest in the stock market?

Yes-___
No-___

FIGURE 25: respondents invest in stock market

50
 Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 103 have filled their response on investment in
stock market and among them 39 are investing in stock market and rest 64 are not
investing in stock market.

28. Do you think investing in the stock market is similar to investing in cryptocurrency?
Yes-__
No-__
Maybe-___

FIGURE 26: respondents review is investing in stock market is similar to cryptocurrency

Interpretation- out of 107 responses only 103 have filled their responses about investing
in stock market is similar to cryptocurrency and among them 17 are agree, 27 are not
agree and 59 are not sure about it.

29. In your opinion, which is riskier to invest?

Stock market-___
Cryptocurrency-___

51
 FIGURE 27: respondents review on more risk-stock market or cryptocurrency
Interpretation- out of 107 responses only 102 have filled their responses about riskier
between stock market and cryptocurrency and among them 56 state that stock market is
risky than cryptocurrency and 46 state that cryptocurrency is riskier than stock market.

30. Will you invest in cryptocurrencies based on the advice of someone else?
Yes-___
No-___
Maybe-___

FIGURE 28: will respondent invest in cryptocurrency on advice of someone else

52
 Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 103 have filled their responses about investing
on someone else's advice and among them 16 will invest on someone else's advice, 41
will not invest on advice of someone else and 46 are not sure about it.

31. If cryptocurrencies are approved in India, would you invest in it?

yes-___
no- ___
maybe-____

FIGURE 29: respondents reviews in investing in cryptocurrency if it approved in India

Interpretation: out of 107 responses only 102 have filled responses about investing in
cryptocurrency if it will be approved in India, among them 41 will invest if it approved,
14 will not invest and 47 are not sure about it.

32. As an Indian, would you prefer a paradigm shift towards cryptocurrency as a

payment method?
Yes-__
No-___
Maybe-___

53
No Opinion-___

FIGURE 30: respondents in questionnaire reviews on paradigm shift towards

cryptocurrency
Interpretation- out of 107 responses only 103 have filled responses on paradigm shift
towards cryptocurrency as a payment method and among them 47 prefers shift towards
cryptocurrency as an Indian, 11 are not prefer shift in payment method as an Indian, 26
are not sure about it and 19 have no opinion on it.

54
 CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS AND LIMITATIONS

5.1 FINDINGS:

- Is cryptocurrency boon or bane for India: Out of 107 responses only 104 state their
point of view. Among them 82 believe cryptocurrency is boon for India and 22
believe that cryptocurrency is bane for Indian economy. It shows that a lot of people
are in favor of cryptocurrency regulation in India.

- Is it right to have a fastest paradigm shift towards cryptocurrency: Out of 107

responses only 103 have an opinion that 47 think that it is right to have the fastest
paradigm move towards cryptocurrency as money payment and rest are not sure about
it? It represents that some people are in favor but more than 50% of people don’t
think that it's right to move towards cryptocurrency.

- Which is more risky- stock market or cryptocurrency? Out of 107 responses only
102 shared their experience through questionnaires in which they state that 56 people
shared that stock market is riskier than cryptocurrency and 46 state that
cryptocurrency is riskier than share market. This gives a finding that if people invest
in either the stock market or cryptocurrency, they have a fear of risk.

- Are Indians want to prefer cryptocurrency in their day-to-day life: Out of 107
responses only 103 people share their views on issuing cryptocurrency in day-to-day
life. Among them 48 are preferring that cryptocurrency should co-exist in daily life
and the rest are not sure about day-to-day cryptocurrency methods. That means most
of the population wants to deal with cryptocurrency in daily life.

- Are investing in share market & cryptocurrency same? In reference to the

questionnaire, out of 107 responses only 103 share their views that if they invest in
the stock market it is similar to cryptocurrency in dealing currency. Among them 17

55
 people stated that both are similar to investing. But the rest are not sure about the
similarity between stock market & cryptocurrency.

- How much people trust the technology to investing in cryptocurrency: in references

out of 107 responses only 105 has filled their opinion in which 50 trust the
technology of cryptocurrency and ensure to buy/purchase frequently most other side
50 rest don’t trust the technology and considers it risky as theft and loss in online
platforms.

5.2 LIMITATIONS:
- While collecting the responses through the questionnaire there were some responses
where in the samples did not answer the questionnaire in the intended manner. Thus,
to overcome these misleading responses, we discarded some of the responses.
- The sample respondents may not represent the entire population.
- The study is limited by time and financial resources.
- The respondents may be casual while answering the query.
- Consumer behavior is dynamic in nature and it is tough to make robust conclusions
from the study.
- Online procedure of the cryptocurrency questionnaire is a slow procedure and it's
difficult to engage the respondents to fill in their feedback.
- Respondents have less knowledge/no information about cryptocurrency which affects
their opinions in the questionnaire. less knowledge=less awareness.

56
 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION

- There should be more programs by the government to make the population of India to
seek knowledge about cryptocurrency and the more they start knowing then they will
be more active regarding investment in cryptocurrency.

- Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin still have numerous significant obstacles to

overcome before they could totally replace current currency systems. In addition to
battling the current economic system, cryptocurrencies have some internal challenges
to overcome. Attempting to convert the entire world financial system to the Bitcoin
model, for example, could cause such a massive growth in blockchain size that the
distributed ledger model would become impractical. It is also still unclear whether
blockchain technology could be successfully adapted to use cases which require very
high speeds with high volumes.

- Because cryptocurrencies require only an Internet connection, and are not dependent
on established institutions such as banks, they are ideally suited for societies without
a well-developed financial infrastructure.

- In the very far future, global and democratized cryptocurrencies have the potential to
replace government-backed fiat currencies as the primary means of conducting
financial transactions.

57
- The future of Cryptocurrency concept is promising, revealing more opportunities to
bring positive changes and progress to e-Business and e-Payment sectors. With the
rapid progress and improvement of technology, cryptocurrency will not stop
progressing. There are advanced steps towards improving and expanding the
cryptocurrency concept.

58
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2. Dutch Central Bank Presents Results of Cryptocurrency Experiments, by Michael del Castillo.
CoinDesk. Accessed 29 September 2016 from http://www.coindesk.com/dutch-central-bank-
cryptocurrency-experiments/
3. Citi: Bitcoin is an Opportunity for Banks, Not a Threat, by Pete Rizzo. CoinDesk. Accessed 29
September 2016 from http://www.coindesk.com/citi-bitcoin-banks-remittances-wont-disrupt/
4. Goldman Sachs on blockchain, by Pete Rizzo. CoinDesk. Accessed 29 September 2016 from
http://www.coindesk.com/goldman-sachs-blockchain-tech-save-capital-markets-12-billion/
5. https://hbr.org/2016/05/the-impact-of-the-blockchain-goes-beyond-financial-services
6. Banks find Blockchain hard to put into practice, by Kadhim Shubber. Financial Times. Accessed 29
September 2016 from https://www.ft.com/content/0288caea-7382-11e6-bf48-b372cdb1043a
7. Microsoft Bets That Bitcoin-Style Blockchains Will Be Big Business, by Tom Simonite. MIT
Technology Review. Accessed 20 September from
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/545806/microsoft-bets-that-bitcoin-style-blockchains-will-be-
big-business/
8. No, Big Companies Aren’t Really Accepting BitCoin, by Jacob Davidson. Time. Accessed 29
September 2016 from http://time.com/money/3658361/dell-microsoft-expedia-bitcoin/
9. Central banks beat Bitcoin at their own game with rival supercurrency, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.
The Telegraph. Accessed 20 September 2016 from
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/03/13/central-banks-beat-bitcoin-at-own-game-with-rival-
supercurrency/
10. Adhami, S., Giudici, G., & Martinazzi, S. (2018). Why do businesses go crypto? An empirical
analysis of initial coin offerings. Journal of Economics & Business,100, 64–75.
11. Adhami, S. & Guegan, D. (2020). Crypto assets: the role of ICO tokens within a well-diversified
portfolio. Journal of Industrial & Business Economics(forthcoming).
12. Azar, O. H. (2007). The slowdown in first-response times of economics journals: Can it be beneficial?
Economic Inquiry,45(1), 179–187.
13. Hall, R. E. 1982. Monetary trends in the United States and the United Kingdom: areview from the
perspective of new developments in monetary economics. Journal ofEconomic Literature, 20: 1552–6.
14. Nakamoto, Satoshi. “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” 2008;
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf.
15. Jonathan Chiu† andThorsten V. Koep “the economics of cryptocurrency -bitcoin and beyond”
september 2018.https://www.bis.org/events/eopix_1810/chiu_paper.pdf

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16. mohammad ashraf fauzi August 2020Journal of Asian Finance Economics and Business 7(8):695-
704,https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343675556_Bitcoin_and_Cryptocurrency_Challenges_
Opportunities_and_Future_Works
17. shilpi aggarwal.”the sanctioning of cryptocurrency:positive or negative ramification in india.Volume -
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(IJAR)/recent_issues_pdf/2020/October/the-sanctioning-of-cryptocurrency-positive-and-negative-
ramifications-in-india_October_2020_2910565815_8612232.pdf

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 APPENDIX

QUESTIONNAIRE:

“A STUDY OF CRYPTOCURRENCY- A PARADIGM SHIFT TOWARDS GLOBALLY

ACCEPTED PAYMENT METHODS”

In India, during recent years, the utilization of technology, including blockchain, to fuel nancial
transactions has increased significantly. Such improvement has not gone unnoticed by most
regulators, for example, the Reserve Bank Of India ("RBI"). While the current government has
boosted advancement to develop a computerized or cashless economy, cryptocurrency despite
everything stays an outlier. The RBI considered the utilization of cryptocurrency in open markets
around 2013 and has since reacted by advising clients, holders, and brokers of the utilization of
"virtual money" while staying quiet on the legitimacy of its utilization, including in 2017. So
also, different controllers, for example, the enforcement directorate and income tax department,
have been quick in their activities to close down organizations related to cryptographic money by
leading strikes under the appearance that the utilization of digital money was infringing upon
outside trade and against illegal tax avoidance guidelines. Since the arrival of Bitcoin in 2009,
cryptocurrencies have become increasingly popular, promising a fast, secure, low cost
international payments solution. Bitcoin, the most famous of these cryptocurrencies, has already
permitted many people and companies to develop and flourish, while many also rely on trading
as their source of income. The economy is slowly shifting to adapt to these needs and
cryptocurrencies have a great potential in satisfying them.

1. Name of respondent__________
2. email of respondent__________

3. gender of respondent

male

female

61
4. Age of respondent

18-34

35-44

45-60

60+

5. Where do you live

Europe

Asia

America

Africa

6. What is your highest academic qualification?

high school

graduate degree

master's degree

college student

7. Describe your employment status?

still studying

employed

not employed

62
 looking for work

8. Total combined income you earn

still studying

0 - 9999

10000- 19999

20000 or more

Other:

9. Do you know anything about cryptocurrencies?

yes

No

10. Have you ever bought cryptocurrency?

Yes

No

no opinion

11. How many cryptocurrencies do you know yet ?

a lot

some

not much

63
 just hearing about it now in this questionnaire

12. Year you first heard about cryptocurrencies?

2009 - 2011

2012 - 2014

2015 to 2017

Other:

13. Which cryptocurrency do you prefer most?

bitcoin

etherium

ripple

hash graph

IOTA

Other:

14. Do you own cryptocurrency?

Yes

No

15. Do you think currencies should be divided by geographical locations?

Yes

No

64
 no opinion

16. Do you think in the case of cryptocurrency, you trust its technology?

Yes

No

Maybe

17. Do you think different cryptocurrencies can co-exist in our daily life?

Yes

No

Maybe

18. Do you believe private banks issue too much money?

Yes

No

no opinion

19. You think currencies should be regulated by

public authorities ( ex: state)

private authorities (ex: non- government)

65
20. Do you think authorities should regulate cryptocurrencies in order to protect
crypto-holders from potential theft and loss?

Yes

No

Maybe

21. Do you find it easy to trade in cryptocurrencies?

Yes

No

Maybe

no opinion

22. Unlike other currencies, cryptocurrency requires much less fee to operate. Would
this increase your interest in using cryptocurrency?

Yes

No

Maybe

23. Cryptocurrency is non-government regulated which offers users more freedom.

Would this increase your interest in investing in cryptocurrency?

Yes

No

Maybe

66
24. If you deal, then where do you generally store your cryptocurrency?

exchange wallet

paper form

online/ software wallet

no opinion

25. Is cryptocurrency Boon or Bane to the Indian economy?

boon

bane

26. Should cryptocurrency be approved globally?

Yes

No

Maybe

27. Do you invest in the stock market?

Yes

No

28. Do you think, Investing in stock market is similar to invest in cryptocurrency

67
 Yes

No

Maybe

29. In your opinion, which is more risky to invest?

stock market

cryptocurrency

30. Will you invest in cryptocurrencies based on the advice of someone else?

Yes

No

Maybe

31. If cryptocurrencies are approved in India, would you invest in it?

Yes

No

Maybe

32. As an Indian, would you prefer a paradigm shift towards cryptocurrency as a

payment method?

Yes

No

may be

68
no opinion

69