2018-06-06
35 分钟Welcome to LSEIQ, a podcast from the London School of Economics and Political Science,
where we ask leading social scientists and other experts to answer an intelligent question about economics,
politics or society.
In 2008,
a personal group going under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper setting out the fundamentals of a peer-to-peer electronic cash system called Bitcoin.
This would do away with the need to rely on financial institutions acting as trusted third parties to process electronic payments.
Instead, money would be sent directly from one party to another.
Transactions would be verified and recorded permanently on the blockchain.
This digital ledger would be distributed across a large network of computers and guard against a risk specific to digital currency that it can be fraudulently spent twice.
Technology, Satoshi Nakamoto claimed, would replace the need for trust.
Bitcoin was the first decentralized cryptocurrency and hundreds of others have been created since.
In this episode of LSEIQ, Sue Windybank asks,
are cryptocurrencies the future of money, a speculative bubble that will burst or something else?
That's 9% up on the day, 1,700% up since the start of the year.
Can it go higher?
This report comes from Reuters in December 2017.
Since then, Bitcoin has continued its rollercoaster of volatility and, as of mid-May 2018,
when we were putting this podcast together, one Bitcoin cost only around $8,000.
By the time we publish, who knows?
Natasha Postel Vinay is an assistant professor in LSEI's Department for Economic History.