A much longer list of uncategorized scholarly works on Bitcoin can be found here.
| Title | Authors | Date | Type | Summary | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Bit of a Problem: National and Extraterritorial Regulation of Virtual Currency in the Age of Financial Disintermediation | Pflaum, Isaac Hateley, Emmeline |
2014 | Publication | This paper discusses what Bitcoin is, why it is important, and how it has been regulated to date. It uses Silk Road as a case study of how the U.S. Criminal Code can be used to regulate Virtual Currency in the absence of international coordination. | Read More |
| An Analysis of Anonymity in the Bitcoin System | Reid, Fergal Harrigan, Martin |
May. 7, 2012 | Publication | This paper considers the topological structure of two networks derived from Bitcoin’s public transaction history. It argues that the two networks share a non-trivial topological structure, provide complementary views of the Bitcoin system and have implications for anonymity. | Read More |
| Analysis of Bitcoin Pooled Mining Reward Systems | Rosenfeld, Meni | Nov. 17, 2011 | Publication | This paper describes the various scoring systems used to calculate rewards of participants in Bitcoin pooled mining and explains the problems each were designed to solve. | Read More |
| Application of FinCEN’s Regulations to a Virtual Currency Payment System | FinCEN | Oct. 27, 2014 | Administrative Guidance | Application of FinCEN’s regulations to a virtual currency trading system | Read More |
| Application of FinCEN’s Regulations to a Virtual Currency Trading Platform | FinCEN | Oct. 27, 2014 | Administrative Guidance | Application of FinCEN’s Regulations to a Virtual Currency Trading Platform | Read More |
| Application of FinCEN’s Regulations to Virtual Currency Mining Operations | FinCEN | Jan. 30, 2014 | Administrative Guidance | Application of FinCEN’s regulations to virtual currency mining operations. | Read More |
| Application of FinCEN’s Regulations to Virtual Currency Software Development and Certain Investment Activity | FinCEN | Jan. 30, 2014 | Administrative Guidance | Application of FinCEN’s regulations to virtual currency software development and certain investment activity. | Read More |
| Application of FinCEN’s Regulatioons to Persons Administering, Exchanging, or Using Virtual Currencies | FinCEN | Mar. 18, 2013 | Administrative Guidance | Application of FinCEN’s Regulations to Persons Administering, Exchanging, or Using Virtual Currencies | Read More |
| Bitcoin and Beyond: The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Virtual Currencies | Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Andolfatto, David |
Aug. 2014 | Administrative Guidance | This paper discusses the rising popularity of virtual currencies, with an emphasis on Bitcoin. It answers what they are, how they work, and other commonly asked questions. | Read More |
| Bitcoin NFC | Bronleewe, David Allen | Aug. 2011 | Publication | This paper describes the development of Bitcoin NFC, an Android app designed to send bitcoins from one Android device to another. | Read More |
| Bitcoin Transaction Malleability and MtGox | Decker, Christian Wattenhofer, Roger |
Mar. 2014 | Publication | In February 2014 MtGox closed and filed for bankruptcy claiming that attackers used malleability attacks to drain its accounts. This paper shows that while malleability attacks are real, there were no widespread attacks before the closure of MtGox. | Read More |
| Bitcoin: A First Assessment | Woo, David Gordon, Ian Iaralov, Vadim Bank of America, Merrill Lynch |
Dec. 5, 2013 | Publication | Concludes that Bitcoin could become a major means of payment for e-commerce and may emerge as a serious competitor to traditional money-transfer providers. Additionally, Bitcoin’s role as a store of value can compromise its viability as a medium of exchange. Its high volatility is hindering its general acceptance as a means of payments for on-line commerce. | Read More |
| Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System | Nakamoto, Satoshi | Nov. 2008 | Publication | This paper was Satoshi Nakamoto’s White Paper that first described Bitcoin and how a peer-to-peer electronic cash system would work. | Read More |
| Bitcoin: An Alternative Digital Currency | Grinberg, Reuben | Nov. 11, 2011 | Publication | This paper explains how Bitcoin works and compares it to other forms of payments. It also explores whether it can become a stable currency. | Read More |
| Bitcoin: More than a Bit Risky | Financial Industry Regulatory Authority | May. 7, 2014 | Administrative Guidance | The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority issued this alert to caution investors about the risks of buying and using digital currencies. | Read More |
| Bitcoin: Questions, Answers, and Analysis of Legal Issues | Congressional Research Service | Jul. 15, 2014 | Administrative Guidance | This report answers some basic questions about Bitcoin, summarizes reasons for and against its adoption;.and discusses the legal and regulatory issues raised by Bitcoin and other digital currencies. | Read More |
| Client Alert: Recent Developments in the Regulation of Bitcoin under State and Federal Securities Laws | Hunton & Williams Kimpel, Scott |
Mar. 2014 | Law Firm | Hunton & Williams published this alert to advise its clients about some of the things they should consider when dealing with Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. | Read More |
| Coining Bitcoin’s “Legal-Bits”: Examining the Regulatory Framework for Bitcoin and Virtual Currencies | Ly, Matthew Kien-Meng | May. 2014 | Publication | This paper explains what Bitcoin is, why people use it, and why the government should care. In addition, it contemplates applying existing legal frameworks to the regulation of Bitcoin. | Read More |
| Davis Polk Summary of Published Comments on and Expected Changes to BitLicense | Davis Polk | Nov. 7, 2014 | Law Firm | Davis Polk summarizes 35 public comment letters published in response to New York’s BitLicense proposal. | Read More |
| Economics of Bitcoin: Is Bitcoin an alternative to currencies and gold? | Surda, Peter | Nov. 19, 2012 | Publication | This paper presents an economic analysis of Bitcoin from a libertarian’s point of view. Of particular interest is the evolution of money, competition among media of exchange, and the concept of money supply. | Read More |
| Enabling Blockchain Innovations with Pegged Sidechains | Back, Adam Corallo, Matt Dashjr, Luke Friedenbach, Matt; Maxwell, Gregory; Miller, Andrew, Poelstra; Timon, Jorge; Wuille, Pieter |
Oct. 22, 2014 | Publication | This paper proposes a new technology, pegged sidechains, which enables bitcoins and other ledger assets to be transferred between multiple blockchains. This gives users access to new and innovative cryptocurrency systems using the assets they already own. By reusing Bitcoin’s currency, these systems can more easily interoperate with each other and with Bitcoin, avoiding the liquidity shortages and market fluctuations associated with new currencies. | Read More |
| FATF Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach: Prepaid Cards, Mobile Payments and Internet-Based Payment Systems | Financial Action Task Force | Jun. 2013 | Publication | The paper proposes guidance on the risk-based approach to AML/CFT measures and regulation in relation to NPPS of prepaid cards, mobile payments, and Internet-based payment services. | Read More |
| FTC Complaint against Butterfly Labs | Federal Trade Commission | Sep. 15, 2014 | Court Document | Complaint for permanent injunction and other remedies against Butterfly Labs, a company that sold Bitcoin mining machines and services but failed to deliver them. | Read More |
| How to Ensure Bitcoin Security | Antonopoulos, Andreas M. | Oct. 10, 2014 | Publication | This paper discusses 5 things people should do to secure their Bitcoin wallets. | Read More |
| How to Make Bitcoin a Better Currency | Barber, Simon Boyen, Xavier Shi, Elaine Uzun, Ersin |
Publication | This paper investigates what made Bitcoin successful and looks at how Bitcoin can achieve long-term stabilitity. | Read More | |
| Investor Alert: Bitcoin and Other Virtual Currency-Related Investments | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | May 07, 2014 | Administrative Guidance | This Investor Alert was made to inform investors about the risks of investing in Bitcoin and other forms of virtual currency. | Read More |
| Investor Alert: Ponzi Schemes Using Virtual Currencies | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | Jul. 23, 2013 | Administrative Guidance | This Investor Alert warns individual investors about fraudulent investment schemes that may involve Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. | Read More |
| IRS Virtual Currency Guidance | Internal Revenue Service | Mar. 25, 2014 | Administrative Guidance | This notice describes how existing general tax principles apply to transactions using virtual currency. | Read More |
| Merkelized Abstract Syntax Trees | Rubin, Jeremy Naik, Manali Subramanian, Nitya |
Dec. 16, 2014 | Publication | This paper presents a formalization and implementation of Russel O’Connor and Pieter Wuille’s work regarding Merkle trees. Using Merkelized Abstract Syntax Trees in the Bitcoin protocol would increase the complexity of contracts permitted on the network, while simultaneously manitaining the security of broadcasted data. Additionally, contracts may contain privileged, secret branches of execution. | Read More |
| Model State Consumer and Investor Guidance on Virtual Currency | Conference of State Bank Supervisors | Apr. 23, 2014 | Administrative Guidance | This guidance assists state regulators in providing consumers with information about virtual currency and factors consumers should consider when transacting with or investing in virtual currency. | Read More |
| Money is Memory | Kocherlakota, Narayana R. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis |
Oct. 1996 | Publication | This paper examines the sts of feasible allocations in a large class of economic environments in which commitment is impossible. The main proposition proves that any allocation that is feasible in an anvironment, the converse may or may not be true. Hence, from a technological point of view, money is equivalent to a primative form of memory. | Read More |
| NYSDFS Proposed BitLicense Regulations | New York State Department of Financial Services | Jul. 17, 2014 | State Regulator | New York was the first state to try and regulate Virtual Currencies. This was its origanal proposal. | Read More |
| On Subversive Miner Strategies and Block Withholding Attack in Bitcoin Digital Currency | Courtois, Nicolas T. Bahack, Lear |
Dec. 2, 2014 | Publication | This paper looks at miner strategies with particular attention paid to subversive and dishonest strategies. | Read More |
| On The Longest Chair Rule and Programmed Self-Destruction of Crypto Currencies | Courtois, Nicolas T. | 2014 | Publication | This paper looks at The Longest Chain Rule, the monetary supply policies, and the mechanisms that implement them. | Read More |
| Overview of Colored Coins | Rosenfeld, Meni | Dec. 4, 2012 | Publication | By carefully tracking the origin of a given bitcoin, it is possible to color a set of coins to distinguish it from the rest. These colored bitcoins make use of the existing Bitcoin infrastructure and can be stored and transferred without the need for a third party. This paper discusses the implementation details of colored coins and some of their use cases. | Read More |
| Private Key Recovery Combination Attacks: On Extreme Fragility of Popular Bitcoin Key Management, Wallet and Cold Storage Solutions in Presence of Poor RNG Events | Courtois, Nicolas T. Emirdag, Pinar Valsorda, Filippo |
2014 | Publication | This paper considers the question of management and operational security in bitcoin digital currency storage systems. It studies the security of two of the most used bitcoin HD Wallet key management solutions. | Read More |
| Proving Your Bitcoin Reserves | Wilcox, Zak | Feb. 27, 2014 | Online Article | It argues that it is theoretically straightforward, using a Merkle tree-based technique, to verify a website’s bitcoin holdings. | Read More |
| Quantitative Analysis of the Full Bitcoin | Ron, Dorit Shamir, Adi |
Apr. 2013 | Publication | This paper answers a number of questions about the typical behavior of Bitcoin users, such as how they acquire and spend bitcoins, the balance they keep, and how they move bitcoins between accounts in order to protect their privacy. | Read More |
| Record of Meeting-Does Bitcoin pose a threat to the banking system, economic activity, or financial stability? (p. 10) | Federal Advisory Council and Board of Directors | May 09, 2014 | Administrative Guidance | In Item 5, the Federal Reserve Board addresses the question, “Does Bitcoin pose a threat to the banking system, economic activity, or financial stability?” | Read More |
| Regulating Cryptocurrencies in the United States: Current Issues and Future Directions | Middlebrook, Stephen T. Hughes, Sarah Jane |
2014 | Publication | This paper reviews developments in 2013 and evaluates them against the backdrop federal and state financial regulations. | Read More |
| Regulating Digital Currencies: Bringing Bitcoin within the Reach of the IMF | Plassaras, Nicholas | Apr. 7, 2013 | Publication | This paper examines the potentially destabilizing effects of digital currencies on the International Foreign Currency Exchange. It argues that the Exchange, which is responsible for coordinating the stability of foreign exchange rates, is ill-equipped to handle the widespread use of bitcoins in the foreign exchange market. | Read More |
| Regulatory Treatment of Virtual Currencies Under the Kansas Money Transmitter Act | Kansas Office of the State Bank Commissioner | Jun. 6, 2014 | State Regulator | This document clarifies the applicability of the Kansas Money Transmitter Act to persons or entities engaged in the use and/or transmission of virtual currencies. | Read More |
| Regulatory Treatment of Virtual Currencies Under the Texas Money Services Act | Texas Department of Banking | Apr. 3, 2014 | State Regulator | This document outlines the policy of the Texas Department of Banking with regard to virtual currencies and the Department’s interpretation of the Texas Money Service Act. It seeks to establish the regulatory treatment of virtual currencies under existing statutory definitions. | Read More |
| Risks to consumers posed by virtual currencies | Consumber Finance Protection Bureau | Aug. 2014 | Administrative Guidance | The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau published this document to warn consumers about the risks posed by virtual currencies. | Read More |
| SEC v. Shavers | Eastern District of Texas | Sep. 18, 2014 | Court Document | The criminal case against Trendon Shavers, the founder and operator of the Bitcoin Savings and Trust, who was accused of operating a Ponzi Scheme. | Read More |
| Speculative Tech: The Bitcoin Legal Quagmire & the Neet for Legal Innovation | Farmer Jr., Paul H. | 2014 | Publication | This paper discusses the need to legally define Bitcoin in a pragmatic way so that it can flourish. | Read More |
| Taxing and Regulating BitcoinL The Government’s Game of Catch Up | McLeod, Patrick | 2014 | Publication | This paper examines how cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin, fits within existing U.S. tax laws and discusses how the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should address this issue. It conculdes that Bitcoins are financial instruments, and more specifically commmodities, and therefore should be classified as such for tax purposes. | Read More |
| The Economics of Bitcoin Mining, or Bitcoin in the Presence of Adversaries | Kroll, Joshua A. Davey, Ian C. Felten, Edward W. |
Jun. 2013 | Publication | Bitcoin depends on a combination of cryptography, distributed algorithms, and incentive-driven behavior. This paper examines Bitcoin as a consensus game and considers the economics of Bitcoin mining. | Read More |
| The Economics of Digital Currencies | Ali, Robleh Barrdear, John Clews, Roger Southgate, James |
Oct. 2014 | Publication | The bulletin reaches 3 key conclusions. 1. Although digital currencies could, in theory, serve as money for anybody with an internet-enabled device, at present they act as money only to a limited extent and only for relatively few people. 2. The economics of the schemes as currently designed, both in terms of individuals’ incentives and at a macroeconomic level, pose significant challenges to their widespread adoption. 3. Digital currencies do not currently pose a material risk to monetary or financial stability in the U.K. The bank will continue to monitor developments in this area. | Read More |
| The Nature of the Form: Legal and Regulatory Issues Surrounding the Bitcoin Digital Currency | Doguet, Joshua | 2013 | Publication | This paper looks at shortcomings of the current financial system and explains how Bitcoin’s architecture overcomes many of them. | Read More |
| The Unreasonable Fundamental Incertitudes Behind Bitcoin Mining | Courtois, Nicolas T. Grajek, Marek Naik, Rahul |
Apr. 10, 2014 | Publication | This paper delves into the cryptographic process, which allows one to make money by mining bitcoins. It reformulates this problem as a Constrained Input Small Output (CISO) hashing problem and reduces it to a pure block cipher problem. | Read More |
| Traveling the Silk Road: a measurement analysis of a large anonymous online marketplace | Christin, Nicolas | Jul. 30, 2012 | Publication | This paper analyzes Silk Road by looking at data during an eight month period from 2011-12. It outlines the type of goods being sold on Silk Road as well as the revenues made by both sellers and Silk Road operators. | Read More |
| Trust, Identity, and Disclosure: Are Bitcoin Exchanges the Next Virtual Havens for Money Laundering and Tax Evasion? | Gruber, Sarah | 2013 | Publication | This paper discusses two risks posed by Bitcoin: money laundering and tax evasion. It does this by analyzing existing domestic and international law. | Read More |
| Two Bitcoins at the Price of One? Double-Spending Attacks on Fast Payments in Bitcoin | Karame, Ghassan Androulaki, Elli |
2012 | Publication | This paper analyzes the security of using Bitcoin for fast payments, where the time between the exchange of currency and goods is short. It focuses on double spending attacks on fast payments and demonstrates that these attacks can be mounted at low cost on currently depoloyed versions of Bitcoin. | Read More |
| U.S. v Ulbricht | U.S.D.C. S.D.N.Y. | Jul. 9, 2014 | Court Document | Complaint against Silk Road’s creator, Ross Ulbricht. It was the first court to rule that bitcoins fell within the definition of “funds” under the money laundering statute. | Read More |
| Valuing a Bitcoin | Naber, Michael Gadfly Capital |
Dec. 12, 2013 | Publication | Because markets attribute things value based on how much people want them, and because people want nominal assets for the purposes of facilitating trade and storing wealth, an investor trying to value the bitcoin should consider how well bitcoin meets these purposes in comparison to the world’s other nominal assets. This paper examines how bitcoins compare to the world’s other nominal assets. | Read More |
| Virtual Currencies: Key Definitions and Potential AML/CFT Risks | Financial Action Task Force | Jun. 2014 | Publication | This paper builds on the 2013 Payment Products and Services Guidance by suggesting a conceptual framework for understanding and addressing the anti-money laundering / countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) risks associated with virtual currencies. | Read More |
| Virtual Currency Regulation | Washington Department of Financial Institutions | 2014 | State Regulator | The State of Washington published this to guide people in its regulation of Virtual Currencies. | Read More |
| Virtual currency schemes | European Central Bank | Oct. 2012 | Publication | This paper explains what virtual currencies are and identifies the threats they pose. | Read More |
| Whack-a-Mole: Why Prosecuting Digital Currency Exchanges Won’t Stop Online Money Laundering | Christopher, Catherine Martin | 2014 | Publication | This paper describes U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) laws, the use of Bitcoin as a money-laundering verhicle, and the problems it causes for law enforcement. | Read More |