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Discussion Paper
Deciphering Americans’ Views on Cryptocurrencies
Having witnessed the dramatic rise and fall in the value of cryptocurrencies over the past year, we wanted to learn more about what motivates people to participate in this market. To find out, we included a special set of questions in the May 2018 Survey of Consumer Expectations, a project of the New York Fed’s Center for Microeconomic Data. This blog post summarizes the results of that survey, shedding light on U.S. consumers’ depth of participation in cryptocurrencies and their motives for entering this new market.
Discussion Paper
Blockchain and Financial Market Innovation
Blockchain technology is likely to be a key source of future financial market innovation. It allows the creation of immutable records of transactions accessible by all participants in a network. A blockchaindatabase is made up of a number of blocks “chained” together through a reference in each block to the previous block. Each block records one or more transactions, which are essentially changes in the listed owner of assets. New blocks are added to the existing chain through a consensus mechanism in which members of the blockchain network confirm transactions as valid.While all are in ...
Journal Article
A Short Introduction to the World of Cryptocurrencies
In this article, we give a short introduction to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. The focus of the introduction is on Bitcoin, but many elements are shared by other blockchain implementations and alternative cryptoassets. The article covers the original idea and motivation, the mode of operation and possible applications of cryptocurrencies, and blockchain technology. We conclude that Bitcoin has a wide range of interesting applications and that cryptoassets are well suited to become an important asset class.
Working Paper
Blockchain Economics
The fundamental problem in digital record-keeping is establishing consensus on an update to a ledger, e.g., a payment. Consensus must be achieved in the presence of faults—situations in which some computers are offline or fail to function appropriately. Traditional centralized record-keeping systems rely on trust in a single entity to achieve consensus. Blockchains decentralize record-keeping, dispensing with the need for trust in a single entity, but some instead build a consensus based on the wasteful expenditure of computational resources (proof-of-work). An ideal method of consensus ...
Faster Payments, More Disruptions
New payment technologies have transformed the banking system by increasing the efficiency and mechanisms to transfer funds. How will these innovations disrupt the banking system?
Working Paper
Beneath the Crypto Currents: The Hidden Effect of Crypto “Whales”
Cryptocurrency markets are often characterized by market manipulation or, at the very least, by a sharp distinction between large and sophisticated investors and small retail investors. While traditional assets often see a divergence in the success of institutional traders and retail traders, we find an even more pronounced difference regarding the holders of Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by volume. We see a significant difference in how large holders of ETH behave compared with smaller holders of ETH relative to price movements and the volatility of the cryptocurrency. We ...