Handbook of Blockchain, Digital Finance, and Inclusion, Volume 1: Cryptocurrency, FinTech, InsurTech, and Regulation explores recent advances in digital banking and cryptocurrency, emphasizing mobile technology and evolving uses of cryptocurrencies as financial assets. Contributors go beyond summaries of standard models to describe new banking business models that will be sustainable and will likely dictate the future of finance. The volume not only emphasizes the financial opportunities made possible by digital banking, such as financial inclusion and impact investing, but it also looks at engineering theories and developments that encourage innovation. Its ability to illuminate present potential and future possibilities make it a unique contribution to the literature. - Explores recent advances in digital banking and cryptocurrency, emphasizing mobile technology and evolving uses of cryptocurrencies as financial assets - Explains the practical consequences of both technologies and economics to readers who want to learn about subjects related to their specialties - Encompasses alternative finance, financial inclusion, impact investing, decentralized consensus ledger and applied cryptography - Provides the only advanced methodical summary of these subjects available today

This book describes the intellectual origins of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. It then looks at the legal issues pertaining to bitcoin, as well as potential innovative applications of bitcoin.

This paper analyzes the legal foundations of central bank digital currency (CBDC) under central bank and monetary law. Absent strong legal foundations, the issuance of CBDC poses legal, financial and reputational risks for central banks. While the appropriate design of the legal framework will up to a degree depend on the design features of the CBDC, some general conclusions can be made. First, most central bank laws do not currently authorize the issuance of CBDC to the general public. Second, from a monetary law perspective, it is not evident that “currency” status can be attributed to CBDC. While the central bank law issue can be solved through rather straithforward law reform, the monetary law issue poses fundmental legal policy challenges.

Incorporating currencies, payment methods, and protocols that computers use to talk to each other, digital currencies are poised to grow in use and importance. The Handbook of Digital Currency gives readers a way to learn about subjects outside their specialties and provides authoritative background and tools for those whose primary source of information is journal articles. Taking a cross-country perspective, its comprehensive view of the field includes history, technicality, IT, finance, economics, legal, tax and regulatory environment. For those who come from different backgrounds with different questions in mind, The Handbook of Digital Currency is an essential starting point. Discusses all major strategies and tactics associated with digital currencies, their uses, and their regulations Presents future scenarios for the growth of digital currencies Written for regulators, crime prevention units, tax authorities, entrepreneurs, micro-financiers, micro-payment businesses, cryptography experts, software developers, venture capitalists, hedge fund managers, hardware manufacturers, credit card providers, money changers, remittance service providers, exchanges, and academics Winner of the 2015 "Outstanding Business Reference Source" by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA)

Explores how the financial industry will be affected by developments in blockchain and cryptocurrencies at the dawn of a new digital age in finance Our financial system is in the midst of a digital revolution. Blockchain, viewed by many experts as “the most important invention since the Internet,” has changed the way we exchange value and information. Although most people are aware of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, few understand how security tokens—digitized forms of traditional ownership certificates—can drive blockchain to reach its fullest potential by offering investors features and innovations that are simply not possible with paper certificates. Digital Finance: Security Tokens and Unlocking the Real Potential of Blockchain explains how the integration of blockchain and security token technology will transform the current financial infrastructure and radically improve efficiency, transparency, and security. Using clear language and an easy-to-follow framework, author Baxter Hines draws upon his decades’ experience in the financial industry to address how the digitization of assets will drive cost reductions, enhance flexibility, and pave the way for new business models and revenue streams for years to come. Filled with real-world case studies and expert insights on the latest opportunities and trends, such as the COVID-19 pandemic’s role in accelerating the adoption of blockchain, this must-have resource: Shows how blockchain and distributed ledger technology are disrupting the financial industry Explains what security tokens are and why they are the next major breakthrough for investing Highlights how blockchain technology has created new and more efficient ways of fund raising and investing Identifies the ways companies like IBM, Fidelity Investments, and AXA are deploying blockchain and tokenized solutions Describes how assets only available to institutional investors could become marketed to the mainstream Discusses the impact that security tokens will have on real assets such as stocks, real estate, bonds, and derivatives Provides insight into how central banks around the world are embracing blockchain and beginning to issue digital currencies Digital Finance: Security Tokens and Unlocking the Real Potential of Blockchain is essential reading for financial professionals, general investors, finance and technology students, regulators, legal professionals, and users of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

This key textbook examines the financial growth and success of digital assets in the contemporary economy. As digital assets and other blockchain applications mature, and regulatory authorities work hard to keep pace, three leading attorneys in the field invite students to consider the legal frameworks pertinent to regulating this new method of exchange. In this, the first textbook of its kind, the authors explore the growth of smart contracts, the application of securities laws to token sales, the regulation of virtual currency businesses, the taxation of digital assets and the intersection of digital assets and criminal law.

An insider's account of the rise of digital money and cryptocurrencies Dubbed "CryptoDad" for his impassioned plea to Congress to acknowledge and respect cryptocurrencies as the inevitable product of a fast-growing technological wave and a free marketplace, Chris Giancarlo is considered one of "the most influential individuals in financial regulation." CryptoDad: The Fight for the Future of Money describes Giancarlo’s own reckoning with the future of the global economy—at the intersection of markets, technology, and public policy—and lays out the fight for a Digital Dollar. CryptoDad is Giancarlo's own personal story, detailing his forays into the world of Wall Street to his tenure as the 13th Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where he pushed for the agency to recognize the digitization of markets. His growing fame as a Twitter presence in this essential debate has given Giancarlo a platform to makes a case for the future of cryptocurrencies as the natural successor to America’s current failing financial market infrastructure. CryptoDad provides readers with: A thorough exploration of digital change and how it affects the lives of everyone in a global economy A revolutionary consideration of regulatory responses to the rapid pace of technological innovation A call to update our aging financial organizations, particularly the infrastructure of money itself, and focus on renewed faith and confidence in free market innovation A foreword by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, two of the biggest names in cryptocurrencies CryptoDad argues that the next digital wave will be the coming Internet of Value, where cryptocurrencies will do the Internet of Information did to immaterial things: make them accessible, distributable, and movable instantly across the globe. This book is an ideal introduction to the importance of technology in the marketplace.

A cutting-edge look at how accelerating financial change, from the end of cash to the rise of cryptocurrencies, will transform economies for better and worse. We think weÕve seen financial innovation. We bank from laptops and buy coffee with the wave of a phone. But these are minor miracles compared with the dizzying experiments now underway around the globe, as businesses and governments alike embrace the possibilities of new financial technologies. As Eswar Prasad explains, the world of finance is at the threshold of major disruption that will affect corporations, bankers, states, and indeed all of us. The transformation of money will fundamentally rewrite how ordinary people live. Above all, Prasad foresees the end of physical cash. The driving force wonÕt be phones or credit cards but rather central banks, spurred by the emergence of cryptocurrencies to develop their own, more stable digital currencies. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies themselves will evolve unpredictably as global corporations like Facebook and Amazon join the game. The changes will be accompanied by snowballing innovations that are reshaping finance and have already begun to revolutionize how we invest, trade, insure, and manage risk. Prasad shows how these and other changes will redefine the very concept of money, unbundling its traditional functions as a unit of account, medium of exchange, and store of value. The promise lies in greater efficiency and flexibility, increased sensitivity to the needs of diverse consumers, and improved market access for the unbanked. The risk is instability, lack of accountability, and erosion of privacy. A lucid, visionary work, The Future of Money shows how to maximize the best and guard against the worst of what is to come.

Can You make money in digital finance? And how! This book looks at digital financial instruments like cryptocurrency (bitcoin) digital securities like stocks, bonds, options contracts, and cryptography. It explains the legal rules of US banking and capital markets law so digital start-ups can confidently enter banking, financial services, and capital markets without fear of losing investments or investors. Traces the history of cryptocurrency from cipherpunks through bitcoin to wikileaks while exposing the law and economics of digital finance.

This handbook focuses on the key issues that continue to hinder the formal development of cryptocurrencies as a mainstream financial asset. It primarily examines reputationally damaging events, particularly those related to illicit behavior. The goal of the handbook is to determine whether some of these events could be mitigated by improved or at least coordinated international regulation. The handbook will be useful for specialist technical audiences such as legal, accounting and financial practices. It will also be beneficial for upper level masters and research students in economics, law, accounting, taxation, investment and portfolio management.