Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Digital money'

This thesis aims to answer the question how our relation to money will look like in a potential cashless society.  In a world where all cash has disappeared and the only existing way of paying is digital, what will the notion of money be? How are we interacting with it? How is it affecting our way of spending and saving? With the digitalization of money comes a lot of potential problems that may not be as clear in the beginning, and are being over shadowed by the much clearer and easier to grasp benefits. People tend to spend much more when using a card instead of paying with cash. Overspending a budget is easy when borrowing money through services such as “Buy now, Pay later” - payments. There is no difference between paying 50 units and 5000 units when doing it through the internet.  What will this do to us in a future society? By using Sweden as a context, this thesis is exploring how the transition to a cashless society will look like and the consequences it may have. Initially having a user centered-focus, trying to solve problem, the project takes a turn and switches to a more speculative point of view, exploring different possibilities of how we can connect and interact with money. The final proposal includes three probes acting as conversation pieces, enabling a discussion regarding the removing of cash.

Electronic money (e-money), defined in the CPMI’s A glossary of terms used in payments and settlement systems as “value stored electronically in a device such as a chip card or a hard drive in a personal computer”, is also commonly used around the world. Some jurisdictions have developed specific legislation regulating e-money (e.g. the E-Money Directive in the EU).

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2014.
61
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
The question about where the money goes is something really interesting for all the companies in the Internet ecosystem. While there is a huge interest, no clear answers have been provided, partially because the ecosystem keeps changing. This thesis aims to answer this question by looking at how consumers spend their money in the different parts and services associated to the Internet. Besides looking at the money that consumers spend, this research also looks at the money that is in the ecosystem in things such as online advertising, which has been seen as one of the sources of revenues for many companies. Three countries have been evaluated in this thesis, to show the situation in different parts of the world. US, UK and Spain have been the chosen countries and the comparison of the results gives a very good idea of the situation in Europe and US. A quantitative analysis has been done including six main categories: wireless, wireline voice, wireline video, wireline broadband access, ecommerce and online advertising. The results show big differences in expenditures among three different countries and analyze the potential reasons. Finally, the research also aims to identify new business opportunities for telecomm operators associated to the different categories identified in the quantitative analysis. Given the current status of the Internet ecosystem, most of the business opportunities imply the creation of partnerships with Internet companies, so these recommendations could be also applicable to Internet companies.
by Israel Valentin Vinagrero.
S.M. in Engineering and Management

This study looks at the price mechanism of the digital quasi-currency bitcoin. Through statistical analysis of secondary data a probable significant results regarding correlation and regression between price and different independent variables have been established. The final analysis is pointing towards network effects being a part of the determinants for the crypto-currency’s price. Complimentary to the quantitative study explained above, an implementation of hermeneutic analysis based on secondary theoretical sources, journalistic opinion and a professional qualified judgment has aided the author and study in conceptual understanding. This interpretation has semantic character, and takes a Socratic kickoff regarding the nature of bitcoin as a financial instrument. The analysis runs back and forth throughout the course of the study and finally intertwines with qualitative results in the discussion. It is the author’s impression that a significant dimorphism surrounds bitcoin, calling for a conceptual differentiation leading to practical rethinking. The study takes the shape of a case-study conducted over four months. The author’s location during the process of writing was Stockholm Sweden, but the gathered data is of transnational character.
Den här studien tittar på prismekanismen hos den digitala kvasi-valören bitcoin. Genom statistisk analys av sekundärdata har sannolikt signifikanta resultat angående korrelation och linjärregrission mellan pris och olika oberoende variabler ettablerats. Den slutgiltiga analysen pekar mot att nätverksvariabler är delaktiga i avgörandet av krypto-valutans pris. Komplimentärt till den kvantitativa studen förklarad ovanför så har en implementation av hermeneutisk analys basserad på sekundära källor, journalistiska åsikter och ett professionellt kvalifiserat uttalande hjälpt författaren samt studien i dess konceptuella förståelse. Denna tolkning har semantisk karaktär, och tar Sokratisk avstamp gällande bitcoins natur som ett finansielt instrument. Analysen går fram och tillbaka genom uppsatsens gång, för att slutligen sammanvävas med de kvantitativa resultaten i uppsatsens diskussion. Det är denna förfatares intryck att en signifikant dimorphism omsluter bitcoin och kallar för en konceptuel differensiering som leder till praktiskt nytänkande. Studen tar formen av en fallstudie som genomförts om loppet av fyra månader. Författarens plats genom skrivandeprocessen var Stockholm Sverige, men den samlade datan har transnationell karaktär.

Customers’ use of digital banking has reshaped traditional banking, and senior level bank executives must know how to leverage this innovation to improve customer service to increase profitability. Using the technology acceptance model as the conceptual framework, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore effective digital banking strategies that senior level executives used to improve customer service to increase profitability. The target population for this study included senior-level executives from 3 banks in Mauritius possessing successful development and implementation experience in digital banking strategies to improve customer service. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and organizational documents, which were analyzed in accordance with Yin’s 5-phase data analysis process consisting of pattern matching, explanation building, time-series analysis, program logic models, and cross-case synthesis. The use of member checking and methodological triangulation increased the trustworthiness of data interpretations. Three themes emerged from the analysis of data: use of mobile strategies to migrate customers to digital banking, challenges to migrate customers to digital banking, and digital banking innovation. The implications of this study for positive social change include improving convenience to customers; promoting green banking; and providing easy access to banking to the poor, those with physical disabilities, and those living in remote and rural areas.

The past decade has offered up some fintech innovations that are gradually reshaping the financial sector. Phasing out of paper currencies together with the populatization of the private digital currencies has propelled central banks to consider issuance of their digital currencies – so called Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). In particular, the Central Bank of Sweden has started its e-krona project in 2017. Despite the rising interest in the study of CBDC among the academic, as well as tech and policy practitioners’ communities all over the world, the research of the CBDC remains fragmented and limited. Therefore, this thesis aims to study the impact of CBDC on the conduct of monetary policy and for the preservation of financial and monetary stability that is an important, but underresearched topic. As such, the purpose of this research is to explore how the Central Bank of Sweden plans to use CBDC for addressing the central banks’ main objectives of monetary and financial stability. To reach this purpose, an exploratory qualitative case study has been conducted. The results are based on six semi-structured interviews conducted with the practitioners from the Central Bank of Sweden, Finansinspektionen, Swedish Bankers’ Association, and the Swedish House of Finance. The results of this study show that the Central Bank of Sweden has started studying the possibilities and implications of CBDC in the spring of 2017. The analysis focusses on the need of CBDC for Sweden, as well as the possibilities it opens up and implications it entails for the financial system. At the moment of the conduction of this study, the Central Bank of Sweden has been working on solving two next challenges – examining legal issues and existing technology. As such, a pilot project to test the e-krona concept for the general public and diverse security challenges has been planned for 2020-2021. Next, this study has also investigated the possible impact of the introduction of CBDC on the conduction of monetary policy and preservation of monetary and financial stability. First, this study has shown that the impact of the introduction of CBDC on quantitative easing would depend on the design of the CBDC. As such, if CBDC would be interest-bearing, it would have no impact on quantitative easing. If CBDC would, however, have no interest rate, the effectiveness of quantitative easing would be put in jeopardy. As such, a zero interest rate on CBDC would be a lower bound for policy rate and would make setting a negative policy rate impossible. Some economists argue that introducing CBDC would be a replacement for quantitative easing. The introduction of interest-bearing CBDC, however, would ease the setting of a negative policy rate and might enhance the operation of monetary policy. However, this research has shown that introduction of CBDC with a negative interest rate is unlikely. Second, this study has concluded that the necessity and the effectiveness of the helicopter money concept are widely questioned by scholars and practitioners. It is agreed that introducing CBDC would help to distribute the helicopter money, but the concept itself is often inapplicable. Thus, this research has concluded that helicopter money remains just an idea that is vastly supported by scholars and is a no-go policy for practitioners. Third, the study has also shown that CBDC’s impact on the transmission mechanism is still not clear. As such, scholars argue that CBDC would have a big impact on interest rate channel, as it will increase a pass-through to the to lending rates, as well as on the assets’ channel, as CBDC might become an alternative to bank deposits if it offers a higher interest rate. Practitioners agree that the introduction of interest-bearing CBDC would strengthen the transmission mechanism of the interest rate channel and would lead to the direct and almost instant correlation between the policy rate and the CBDC account interest rate. Some practitioners, however, believe that under the condition of the positive policy rate the transmission mechanisms would not be affected other than marginally. Lastly, an interest-bearing CBDC is considered to be dangerous for financial stability in the scholarly research. It is expected to compete with bank deposits and lead to bank runs, which would result in the drain of the funding from the banking system. Some practitioners agree with these conclusions, however, the majority disagrees and perceives CBDC to be an asset to diversify the savings portfolio, which would potentially bring more deposits to commercial banks and extend the banking system. It is agreed that CBDC would entail risks for financial stability if people lose trust in the whole banking sector and move all of their assets to the Central Bank accounts. However, if the Central Bank puts these assets back into the financial system, CBDC would not entail any risks.
Under det senaste decenniet har nya högteknologiska innovationer skapats som gradvist har förändrat den finansiella sektorn i grunden. Utfasning av pappersvalutor i kombination med populariseringen av privata digitala valutor har drivit och inspirerat centralbanker att skapa egna digitala valutor, så kallade CBDC (central bank digital currency). 2017 startade den svenska centralbanken, Sveriges riksbank, sitt e-krona projekt. Trots ökat intresset för studier av digital centralbanksvaluta, både bland akademiker men även inom experter och poltitiker över hela världen, saknas mycket forskning. Denna uppsats kommer att studera effekterna av digital centralbanksvaluta på penningpolitiken i relation till det finansiella och monetära systemets stabilitet. Syftet är att undersöka hur Sveriges riksbank planerar att använda en digital centralbanksvaluta för att vidare kunna uppfylla sitt primära syfte, som är att stabilisera ekonomin. För att uppnå detta, har en kvalitativ studie genomförts. Resultaten är baserade på sex stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer med anställda i olika beslutsfattande positioner inom Riksbanken, Finansinspektionen, Svenska Bankföreningen och Finanshuset. Resultaten av denna studie visar att Riksbanken har börjat undersöka möjligheterna och långvariga implikationerna av en digital centralbanksvaluta. För tillfället arbetar man med två utmaningar: att undersöka det juridiska ramverket samt tillgänglig teknologi. Pilottesterna av e-krona har påbörjats 2020, ytterligare tester har planerats för 2020 - 2021. Ytterligare har denna studie undersökt införandet av digital centralbanksvaluta möjliga effekter på penningpolitiken och långsiktig finansiell stabilitet. Inverkan av en digital centralbanksvaluta på den kvantitativa lättnaden skulle variera beroende på utformningen av den digitala valutan. Om den digitala valutan skulle vara räntebärande så skulle den inte ha någon effekt på den kvantitativa lättnaden, däremot om den var det skulle detta kunna påverka Riksbankens möjligeter att köpa statsobligationer. Det finns också diskussion hurvida man kan använda en digital centralbanksvaluta för att underlätta genomförandet av negativ styrränta. Dessutom visar denna studie också att nödvändighet och positiva effekter av så kallade helikopterpengar är starkt ifrågasatt, även om en digital centralbanksvaluta skulle kunna användas för att distribuera sådana monetära medel. Denna studie visar även att det är oklart om digital centralbanksvaluta skulle ha en effekt på den penningspolitiska transmissionsmekanismen. Många är dock övertygade att det skulle ha effekt på räntekanalen då det skulle öka genomströmningen mellan styrräntan och räntan på CBDC-kontot. Slutligen skulle en räntebärande digital centralbanksvaluta kunna vara farlig för finansiell stabilitet, då det kan stimulera snabba variationer i värde och sätta igång stora uttag från bankkonton. Dock, är detta farlig bara om människor tappar förtroende för hela banksektorn. Om inte är fallet, medför digital centralbanksvaluta inga risker och skulle kunna istället ses som en finansiell tillgång och öka insättningar på privata banker.

Sparti elektroninės komercijos plėtra ir augimas natūraliai sąlygojo modernių, online aplinkai pritaikytų atsiskaitymo, mokėjimo sistemų atsiradimą. Itin svarbu tai, kad technologijų tobulėjimo pasėkoje ne tik eksponentiškai išaugo perduodamos informacijos kiekis, tačiau pakito pačios informacijos prigimtis – ji pati savaime, per se, tapo ekonominę vertę turinčiu objektu. Vartotojų noras saugiai atsiskaityti internete įtakojo, kad „online“ aplinkoje mažėja naudojimas tokių tradicinių atsiskaitymo priemonių kaip mokėjimo kortelės. Interneto vartotojai vis rečiau pasitiki šiuo mokėjimo įrankiu, kadangi vartotojai, pateikdami pardavėjui savo mokėjimo kortelės duomenis, susiduria su neteisėta šių duomenų panaudojimo rizika. Šiame darbe pateikiamas siūlomas dalinai prijungties režime veikiančios elektroninių pinigų cirkuliacijos sistemos, skirtos mažiems ir vidutiniams mokėjimams, modelis, besiremiantis sukurta Payword mikromokėjimų sistemos koncepcija.
Fast developing and growing of e-commerce determined the coming of modern payment systems. Intention of users to pay safely on the internet impacted the decrease of use of traditional payment system such as credit cards. It’s started to look for and design alternative ways of payment, such as smart cards systems or systems using software for saving monetary value. Traditional payment systems currently used by most e-commerce sites are not suitable for high volume, tiny valued transactions. There is a need of payment system that is cost effective, secure and easy to use. The purpose of this work is to propose a model of semi-online electronic money circulation system for small and average payments, which is based on a concept of R. Rivest and A. Shamir created micropayment system called Payword. The proposed model’s architecture and protocol are explained in detail. To increase performance of the system there was done a research to find out which hash algorithm and electronic signature algorithm is most suitable for the proposed model.

Digital currencies represent complementary alternatives to fiat money in the conventional mental models of exchange. Blockchain, as the underlying technology of Bitcoin, holds a potential to influence a peer-to-peer exchange in the perspective of trust and ownership. The underlying technologies of digital currencies may be part of concepts, where designers have a possibility to define their own exchange articles for specific needs of the exchange. The ambition of this report is to illustrate the possibilities for the initiation of a peer-to-peer exchange with use of the underlying technologies beyond Bitcoin. The explorative approach provided me material for the retrospective reflection to achieve this ambition. The thesis project consisted three iterations, one experiment, and a literature overview. The main conceptual work illustrates the result of explorative research, where blockchain ensures trust between participating parties. This ecosystem uses the principles of sharing economy for initialisation of exchange within the community. This concept demonstrates potential opportunities for future transactions, in which the exchange article replaces fiat money.

У студентському повідомленні розглядаються проблеми розвитку інформаційних технологій та грошових операцій.
В студенческом сообщении рассматриваются проблемы развития информационных технологий и денежных операций.
The student's report addresses the problems of the development of information technology and money transactions.
немає

The main objective of this diploma thesis is to find out the potential of digital currencies to replace contemporary fiat currency. Specifically, the thesis is focused on cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which currently has the highest market value. The thesis is divided into three main chapters. The first one focuses on money itself and its function, not only today but also throughout the history. Second chapter explains substance and functioning of Bitcoin, as well as its role in the current monetary system. Likewise the question of regulatory measures and competition of altcoins is being examined. Final part analyses the future of digital currencies and it compares pros and cons of Bitcoin and money we use today. Furthermore, it is discussed whether Bitcoin is the next bubble in the financial market. In the end, main problems which Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies deal with are mentioned and a possible future development is outlined.

The digital payment industry has become one of the fastest evolving markets in the world, but in the wake of its rapid advancement, an ever increasing gap between academic theory and the actual reality of this market widens - and especially so when it comes to entry theory. It is widely acknowledged that the world is moving towards an ever more homogeneous economy, but despite the fact that payment preferences differ greatly from country to country - research on this subject continues to revolve mainly around localized efforts. But as historical inequalities between poor and rich societies continue to dissipate - learning from nations at the forefront of technological advancement increases the likelihood that the developed strategy becomes applicable to an increased number of countries. By selecting a nation most conducive to technological growth, the purpose of this report is to map the present dynamics in its digital payment industry using both recent and traditional market entry theory. However, studies geared towards globalized strategy formulation cannot be assumed as having guaranteed access to internal company-data at all times. So in order to facilitate such studies, the level of dependency on primary data required for conducting such research needs to be understood first, which is why the work in this report is constrained strictly to data of secondary nature. This, not only to further map the characteristics of this market, but also to see how open the market is to public inspection. Ultimately, the academic contribution becomes that of providing a road-map towards adapting currently available market entry theory to suit the rapidly evolving conditions of the digital payment industry from a global perspective and, when failing to do so, the aim is to also explore avenues for further research towards this end goal.

Around the globe, countries move away from banknotes and coins in the favor of digitized payments. A number of findings from academic research conclude various benefits associated with decreased cash usage, such as enhanced economic development, less costs for governments and banks, financial transparency as well as lower economic-related crime rates. In a light of various benefits moving towards cashless payments, it is hypothesized that there also could be a relationship between how innovative a country is and how much cash circulates in economy. The relationship could be both-sided like less cash circulation can trigger innovation and, at the same time, adoption of cashless payments could be driven by how innovative a country is. To be able to investigate a potential correlation, a correlation analysis is conducted between the two variables: an innovation level of a country and cash circulation in econom. The Global Innovation Index score will be used to summarize various factors that provide an overview of national innovation performance, and percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be used for currency in circulation. According to the findings, the hypothesis that there is a correlation between cash circulation and innovation performance in a country could not be rejected with a 5% significance level.
Runt om i världen öppnar länder upp för att gå från kontanta betalningsmedel mot digitala betallösningar. Enligt tidigare forskning, leder minskad kontanthantering till flertalet fördelar såsom kraftigare ekonomisk tillväxt, ökad transparens, minskade kostnader samt minskad ekonomiskt brottslighet. De fördelar som kontantlösa betalningar skapar kan vara kopplade till hur innovativt ett land är och hur mycket kontanta medel som cirkulerar i ett lands ekonomi. Ett potentiellt samband mellan mängd kontanter som cirkulerar i ett samhälle och innovation i ett land kan vara tvåsidigt, till exempel att minskade mängder kontanter i ekonomin kan skapa innovation eller så kan kontantlösa betalningar skapas av hög innovationsnivån i ett land. För att kunna undersöka ett potentiellt samband, utförs en korrelationsanalys mellan de två variablerna: nationell innovationsnivå och mängd kontanter i cirkulation i ekonomin. Global Innovation Index används för att sammanfatta olika faktorer som ger en översikt över den nationella innovationsnivå per land och en procentandel av bruttonationalprodukten (BNP) kommer att användas för mängd valuta i omlopp. Enligt framkomna resultat från korrelationsanalysen kunde hypotesen om att det finns ett samband mellan kassaflöde och innovationsnivå i ett land inte förkastas.

For the past decades, the Swedish public’s payment habits have changed, where the majority of the public has abandoned the old way of making payments, using cash, and instead opted for more modern payment solutions, digital money. The difference between cash and digital money is that cash is physical and only issued by the Riksbank, whereas digital money is created by and stored on accounts at commercial banks. The question of what role the state should have on the payment market is an important point of discussion. But it is not categorically a new question; the Swedish government is tackling essentially the same problem today as it has been doing many times before. Today’s problem is to some extent however manifested in a different way. During the 20th century, discussions were held whether or not the Riksbank should have the exclusive right to issue banknotes. It was considered unnecessary, inappropriate and dangerous. The idea that the Riksbank could cover the entire economy’s need for banknotes was, according to the commercial banks, unreasonable. Nonetheless, in 1904 the exclusive right became fait accompli; the government intervened and gave the Riksbank the banknote monopoly. We are now finding ourselves facing a similar situation, where there is a difference of opinion regarding the Riksbank’s role on the payment market. It is therefore nothing new, but rather an expected task for the government, and thus the central bank, to analyze major changes and draw conclusions from them. The problem is essentially about cash being phased out by digital means of payment. In order to therefore solve the problem, the Riksbank has started a project to investigate whether or not the Riksbank should issue digital cash to the Swedish public, what the Riksbank calls an e-krona. To introduce an e-krona would be a major step, but for the public to not have access to a government alternative, seeing as cash usage is declining, is also a major step. No decision has been made yet regarding whether the e-krona will be introduced on the market or not. A decision that however has been made, is that the Riksbank is now working on building an e-krona to develop and assess the technique. Nonetheless, an introduction would undoubtedly have consequences for both the Riksbank and the commercial banks, which ultimately means it would have effects on the economy as a whole. What about regulatory aspects; is the Riksbank even allowed to issue an e-krona under current legislation? The answer is affirmative, to a certain extent. There are furthermore many other uncertainties regarding how an e-krona would affect the economy; the Riksbank does not fully answer many of the system issues in its project reports. The question of whether or not it even is up to the Riksbank to make a decision on the matter of an introduction is also questioned by the author in the thesis.

碩士
國立高雄師範大學
視覺設計學系
99
In this study, includes the artist's source of inspiration and motivation purposes, the researcher created the relevant research and analysis, background knowledge and related theories of order, the creation of technology and process description; final results of the researcher on the creation of self-assessment and review, but also for the creation of future researcher to provide more technical resource and practical experience of the recommendations. In this creative project “Digital Motion Image Production – Money Story”, through digital image creation and video production techniques create a short story. Attempt to via this short story to express the creator’s social values and the problems of current status. Using match moving technique to compose 2D video footages and 3D environment models is the main technology base in this production project. The style of image is filled with Taiwan’s signs and symbols collage pictures, which is a presentation of Taiwan’s popular culture images. The interaction between roles and scenes is the focus of the dynamic design, using “mise en scène” skill to make an interesting combination of various objects. The concept of story tells about an ordinary worker to survive in many stress situations in black humor, ironic way. And it’s all about weakness and helpless, when facing all the living problems. The story describes a white-collar worker still have to make living after being laid off work, with labor in exchange for money, relative to the background in the luxury and much of the completion of the main characters never seem out of reach. Waiting for one day in the lottery and become lucky that billionaire… It’s looks like simple narrative of experience and fantasy characters. Essentially on the environment and the sharp social satire and ridicule proposed. In addition to the story than funny and also show the current severe social problems. This article includes the artist's source of inspiration and motivation purposes, the researcher created the relevant research and analysis, background knowledge and related theories of order, the creation of technology and process description. Finally, researcher has proposed the creation of self-assessment and review results. The research results available to the creators of technology resources and more practical experience of the recommendations.

The present thesis studies how a widely-accessible and interest-bearing CBDC affects the inside-outside money competition mechanism and in turn monetary equilibria. Consumers perception of CBDC as an alternative to bank deposits and the structure of the banking sector are crucial factors to determine the CBDC role in such a mechanism. Given imperfect competition in the banking sector, CBDC is found to be an effective monetary policy tool capable of influencing households’ money-holdings directly through the deposit rate channel. In particular, the higher the substitutability across the two forms of digital money, the higher the correlation between the interest rates they bear.
A presente tese estuda como uma CBDC acessível pelo público e com juros afeta o mecanismo de competição pela moeda e, por sua vez, os equilíbrios monetários. A percepção dos consumidores sobre a CBDC como alternativa aos depósitos bancários e a estrutura do setor bancário são fatores cruciais para determinar o papel da CBDC nesse mecanismo. Dada a concorrência imperfeita no setor bancário, constata-se que o CBDC é um instrumento eficaz de política monetária capaz de influenciar os agregados familiares diretamente através do canal de taxa de depósito. Em particular, quanto maior a substituibilidade entre as duas formas de moeda digital, maior a correlação entre as suas taxas de juros

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Management by Research Johannesburg, 2014
The use of mobile phones to access banking services potentially overcomes the spatial and cost barriers associated with traditional bank infrastructure, yet questions remain whether low income people will adopt mobile banking and other forms of digital money. Physical money remains the dominant store of value and payment instrument in many parts of the developing world, including South Africa. The purpose of this research is to gain a greater understanding about what money (physical and digital money) means to low income people in South Africa and to consider “if”, “how”, and under what conditions, digital money may come to be used (and when and where it will not be used) by low income people as a substitute for physical money. The socio-technical model is the foundation of the conceptual framework informing the research and the research findings can be incorporated into the evolving socio-technical network of digital money. The research assumes an interpretive philosophical paradigm and takes a social constructionist perspective. Qualitative methods are used to obtain the data. The research participants were a group of low income people who live and work in a very specific area of Alexandra, in Johannesburg. The five themes for the meaning of money that emerged were; Money as Hedonism, Money as Love, Money as Food, Money as Development of Self and Children, and Money as Support Structures. Physical money and digital money have different meanings to the research participants and low income people in Alexandra have a strong and positive relationship with physical money. The research found that low income people will more readily use digital money where the transaction involves goods or services that have “meaning”. They will use digital money if a decree is made to use digital money or if digital money provides utility such as receiving money, transferring money over distance or buying pre-paid airtime. Illegal activity, low value transactions, and a shortage of digital money are situations where the research participants will not use digital money as a substitute for physical money. These conditions, as well as the cost of digital money relative to physical money, are the impediments to the evolution of the digital money socio-technical system in Alexandra. Keywords: Mobile payments, cell phone banking, digital money, physical money, socio-technical model, meaning of money.

Num mundo cada vez mais globalizado, temos vindo a assistir à emergência da moeda digital e do seu potencial para aumentar a eficiência dos sistemas de pagamento existentes. No entanto, o dinheiro digital pode também ocultar riscos sérios que se podem transformar em perdas financeiras significativas para os seus utilizadores. Perante este cenário os bancos centrais estão preocupados com a manutenção da estabilidade e eficiência do sistema financeiro e em preservar a confiança nas suas moedas, pois as inovações nos pagamentos podem ter implicações importantes para a segurança do sistema bancário. Com o presente estudo pretende-se efetuar uma revisão sistemática do atual estado da arte da literatura científica sobre a moeda digital, focada sobretudo no caso específico da bitcoin, de modo a investigar a forma como este fenómeno tem sido estudado até à presente data. Tendo como base uma síntese crítica sobre os resultados obtidos, nomeadamente o locus e foco das questões, teorias, métodos e descobertas abordados na literatura pesquisada, pretende-se contribuir para a construção de uma visão mais integrada de um fenómeno que se encontra em expansão. Para o efeito, foi utilizada uma abordagem metodológica quantitativa, a qual proporciona ao leitor uma visão mais abrangente da temática abordada. Foi selecionado um corpus de 140 artigos publicados em fontes indexadas no site Scopus, com o qual foi construída uma base de dados. Essa base de dados serviu depois para efetuar uma análise bibliométrica para estudar a evolução do estado da arte sobre a bitcoin por parte da literatura científica.
In an increasingly globalized world, we have been witnessing the emergence of digital currency and its potential to increase the efficiency of existing payment systems. However, digital money can also hide serious risks that can turn into significant financial losses for its users. Against this background, central banks are concerned about maintaining the stability and efficiency of the financial system and maintaining confidence in their currencies, as innovations in payments can have important implications for the security of the banking system. In addition, there is great uncertainty about what will be the economic benefit of the digital currency and its effects on the effectiveness of monetary policy. With the present study we intend to carry out a systematic review of the current state of the art of the scientific literature on digital currency, focused mainly on the specific case of bitcoin, in order to investigate the way this phenomenon has been studied to date. Based on a critical synthesis of the results obtained, namely the locus and focus of the issues, theories, methods and discoveries addressed in the researched literature, it is intended to contribute to the construction of a more integrated vision of a phenomenon that is expanding. For this purpose, a quantitative methodological approach, which provides the reader with a more comprehensive view of the subject matter, was used. A corpus of 140 research studies published in sources indexed in the Scopus was selected, with which a database was built. This database was then used to perform a bibliometric analysis to study the evolution of the state of the art on Bitcoin by the scientific literature.

by Shek Wong.
Thesis submitted in: December 1997.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-[94]).
Abstract also in Chinese.
Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- Electronic Commerce --- p.3
Chapter 1.2 --- Electronic Cash --- p.7
Chapter 1.3 --- What This Report Contains --- p.9
Chapter 2 --- Cryptographic Background --- p.11
Chapter 2.1 --- Euler Totient Function --- p.12
Chapter 2.2 --- Fermat's Little Theorem --- p.12
Chapter 2.3 --- Quadratic Residues --- p.12
Chapter 2.4 --- Legendre Symbol --- p.13
Chapter 2.5 --- Jacobi Symbol --- p.14
Chapter 2.6 --- Blum Integer --- p.16
Chapter 2.7 --- Williams Integer --- p.18
Chapter 2.8 --- The Quadratic Residuosity Problem --- p.19
Chapter 2.9 --- The Factorization Problem --- p.20
Chapter 2.10 --- The Discrete Logarithm Problem --- p.20
Chapter 2.11 --- One-way Functions --- p.21
Chapter 2.12 --- Blind Signature --- p.22
Chapter 2.13 --- Cut-and-choose Methodology --- p.24
Chapter 3 --- Anatomy and Panorama of Electronic Cash --- p.26
Chapter 3.1 --- Anatomy of Electronic Cash --- p.26
Chapter 3.1.1 --- Three Functions and Six Criteria --- p.28
Chapter 3.1.2 --- Untraceable --- p.29
Chapter 3.1.3 --- Online and Off-line --- p.30
Chapter 3.1.4 --- Security --- p.32
Chapter 3.1.5 --- Transferability --- p.33
Chapter 3.2 --- Panorama of Electronic Cash --- p.34
Chapter 3.2.1 --- First Model of Off-line Electronic Cash --- p.34
Chapter 3.2.2 --- Successors --- p.35
Chapter 3.2.3 --- Binary Tree Based Divisible Electronic Cash --- p.36
Chapter 4 --- Spending Limit Enforced Electronic Cash --- p.37
Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction to Spending Limit Enforced Electronic Cash --- p.37
Chapter 4.2 --- The Scheme --- p.41
Chapter 4.3 --- An Example --- p.44
Chapter 4.4 --- Techniques --- p.47
Chapter 4.5 --- Security and Efficiency --- p.51
Chapter 5 --- Interest-bearing Electronic Cash --- p.53
Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction to Interest-bearing Electronic Cash --- p.53
Chapter 5.2 --- An Example --- p.55
Chapter 5.3 --- The Scheme --- p.55
Chapter 5.4 --- Security --- p.57
Chapter 5.5 --- An Integrated Scheme --- p.58
Chapter 5.6 --- Applications --- p.59
Chapter 6 --- Abacus Type Electronic Cash --- p.61
Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.61
Chapter 6.2 --- Abacus Model --- p.63
Chapter 6.3 --- Divisible Abacus Electronic Coins --- p.66
Chapter 6.3.1 --- Binary Tree Abacus Approach --- p.66
Chapter 6.3.2 --- Multi-tree Approach --- p.57
Chapter 6.3.3 --- Analysis --- p.69
Chapter 6.4 --- Abacus Electronic Cash System --- p.71
Chapter 6.4.1 --- Opening Protocol --- p.71
Chapter 6.4.2 --- Withdrawal Protocol --- p.74
Chapter 6.4.3 --- Payment and Deposit Protocol --- p.75
Chapter 6.5 --- Anonymity and System Efficiency --- p.78
Chapter 7 --- Conclusions --- p.80
Chapter A --- Internet Payment Systems --- p.82
Chapter A.1 --- Bare Web FORM --- p.82
Chapter A.2 --- Secure Web FORM Payment System --- p.85
Chapter A.3 --- Membership Type Payment System --- p.86
Chapter A.4 --- Agent Based Payment System --- p.87
Chapter A.5 --- Internet-based POS --- p.87
B Papers derived from this thesis --- p.89
Bibliography --- p.90

To study the impact of digital payments on the velocity of money circulation, this paper selects the velocity of money circulation at the M2 level in the Chinese market from FY2012 to 202112 quarters as the dependent variable, the size of digital payment transactions as the independent variable, and gross national product, inflation rate and opportunity cost of money as control variables. In terms of model selection, since the inflation rate and opportunity cost of money are monthly data, while the transaction size of digital payment and the circulation speed of money at the M2 level are quarterly data, the MIDAS series model is chosen to compare with the traditional OLS model, and it is found that MIDAS-PDL has the best fitting effect and prediction accuracy. Through the empirical results of the MIDAS-PDL model, we find that for the Chinese market, digital payments have a significant positive effect on the velocity of money circulation, in addition, inflation has a significant positive effect on the velocity of money circulation, while the opportunity cost of money has a significant negative effect on the velocity of money circulation.

Cryptocurrencies have been in vogue ever since Bitcoin first appeared in 2008. From that moment on, a new potential market started evolving and is nowadays a daily topic for everyone involved in the financial and monetary markets. Cryptocurrencies presented themselves as a viable alternative to traditional currencies, with a lot of new interesting features, but also several aspects that split the opinions between those who understand it as a great alternative for the future and the more skeptical ones who still question its legality and use. Nowadays, cryptocurrency is one of the most interesting topics in the financial markets due to all the controversy associated, as well as the public acceptance, responsible for the huge prices that these coins have been reaching. In this dissertation, we aim to analyze every aspect concerning cryptocurrencies. With the intention to clarify the most important details about this new market, all these details have been scrutinized, from the several different types of cryptocurrencies and its behavior, to the factors that have an impact in cryptocurrencies prices. Cryptocurrency is still a trendy and unknown subject to many people, and that was the motivation and the main objective of this dissertation, to clarify everyone about this topic before thinking of investing in any of these new cryptocurrencies.
As cripto moedas tem estado em moda desde que a Bitcoin apareceu em 2008. A partir desse momento, começou-se a verificar o aparecimento de um novo mercado, que é, atualmente, um assunto diário para todos os envolvidos nos mercados financeiros e monetários. As cripto moedas têm-se apresentado como uma alternativa viável às moedas tradicionais, com várias características interessantes, mas também alguns aspetos que têm dividido as opiniões entre aqueles que as consideram como uma excelente alternativa de futuro e os mais céticos, que ainda questionam a sua legalidade e utilização. Atualmente, as cripto moedas são um dos tópicos mais interessantes dos mercados financeiros devido a toda a controvérsia associada, bem como a aceitação por parte do público, responsável pelos preços elevados que estas moedas têm atingido. Nesta dissertação, a intenção foi analisar todos os aspetos relacionados com as cripto moedas. Com a intenção de clarificar os detalhes mais importantes deste novo mercado, todos estes detalhes foram examinados, desde os diversos tipos de cripto moedas e o seu comportamento, aos fatores que podem ter impacto nos preços das cripto moedas. As cripto moedas continuam a ser um tópico atual e desconhecido para muitas pessoas, e essa foi a motivação e o objetivo principal desta dissertação, clarificar todas as pessoas sobre este tópico antes de pensarem em investir em qualquer uma destas cripto moedas.

The subject of the thesis is the parallel digital economy created around the monetary innovation called Bitcoin and the interaction between this technology and its users. Bitcoin is a new kind of digital money and a payment system. Transactions are cryptographically verified by users and subsequently recorded in a publicly distributed account book called blockchain. Bitcoin, as an open-source project, has created a worldwide community of Internet-connected users who are further transforming this cryptocurrency by their specific use. Ethnographic research took place during the meetings of the community surrounding the Prague place called Parallel Polis in the period of years 2017-2018 and was subsequently extended to the "online" world. Bitcoin forms the intersection between technology and the economy, and therefore emphasis is placed on exploring the dynamics that this complex phenomenon creates. The work examines the social practices that actors are constantly shaping on the basis of their various motivations through their participation in Bitcoin and the complex ideas connected with it. It examines the visions, attitudes and practices of the "bitcoiners", who support the functioning of this system and allows its very own existence. These ideas are characterized by certain paradoxes and dilemmas...

Over a long period of time, the expression “Cash is King” has been considered an undeniable fact. However, due to technological developments inrecent years, the payment industry has undergone major transformations, with the emergence of new payment methods such as Near Field Communication (NFC), mobile payment, or cryptocurrencies (i.e. bitcoin).This Work Project, conducted within a Direct Research Internship at SIBS SGPS, aims to propose an analysis of the dematerialization of currency, focusing on the impact created by this change in the payments industry, Portuguese society as well as onSIBS’s business.

碩士
國立交通大學
資訊管理研究所
86
Digital money is one of payment instruments invented for electronic commerce. One major advantage of using this instrument is that the privacy of users, who hold or pay digital money, can be well protected. Such strength of privacy protection may be abused by outlaws, however. In recent developments of digital money, there have been several efforts trying to protect users'' privacy and , in the meantime, to provide necessary traceability for the purpose of law enforcement.In this thesis, the author offers a comprehensive survey of the stateof the art. He also offers the design of a new system, called Hidden-Identity-Attached Digital Money System(HIADMA), which hides theholder''s identity in an attachment to the digital money. As other scheme, HIADMS depends on a law enforcement unit, that is a Trusted Third Party (TTY), to decipher the identity of a user when necessary. Without the intervention of the Trusted Third Party, the anonymity of users remains well protected. The intervention must be regulated by laws. Instead of using sophisticated mathematics as that in other schemes, HIADMS uses cryptographic primitives that have been known as international standards. The rapid development of electronic commerce has created strong demands of standardization of those of those cryptographic primitives. Because of this strategy, our approach wouldbe more intelligible to the general public and is feasible of implementation in the real world.

The thesis is focused on the topic of virtual cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The theoretical part is divided into several chapters. First of all, there is a chapter containing basic information about the currency's history, its development to the present, as well as principles of operation of this currency. Because it is a currency based on cryptographic principles next chapter summarizing cryptographic techniques, which is necessary to know for subsequent analysis of this currency. In other parts is elaborated a detailed analysis of the principles of Bitcoin. The main point of this analysis is a system of transactions, decentralized history, then joining the transactions into blocks and in the end creating blockchain. It also explains the principle of P2P networks. The practical part of this work focuses on the analysis and design of payment applications for mobile devices. There used open-source libraries such BitcoinJ. The application is developed in Java programming language with plugin for portable devices, which work under the operating system Android. For the purposes of analysis and design of graphical user interface is used UML diagrams. The specification of the UML diagrams was utilized by freely available graphics software and the result is also included in this work.

Financial exclusion is a major developmental problem. Perception has it that financial exclusion emanates from the lack of access to banking and financial services, and the general understanding is that ICT-based access to such services is the solution. In this research, which was undertaken in Ghana, Critical Realism (CR) revealed deeper causes (generative mechanisms) that underlie financial exclusion. The research followed a mixed-method approach. The CR approach guided the research to create an initial model from which hypotheses were deduced and tested; the design science approach, guided the research to create the design theory and an instantiation of an application that uses the design theory; and the quantitative method, was used to evaluate the hypotheses. CR revealed how, in a credit economy, people have a need for credit to pursue business or education opportunities. The generative mechanisms identified have revealed how the credit market for the unbanked includes the reality that a wellfunctioning credit market is self-sustaining with two mechanisms: signalling and adoption. The signalling mechanism facilitates users’ access to credit, which they in turn are able to spend on more services. On the other hand, the adoption mechanism enables the development of more services making the market more valuable, thus attracting more users in a self-feeding loop. The key findings suggest that being banked does not necessarily lead to financial inclusion and financial wellbeing. Transactional banking only serves as an "enrichment agenda for the banks", with minimal benefit to the people. There are also other non-financial technologies such as sharing and social technologies that have an effect on the provision of credit; in addition to their main purpose of saving and/or earning income, for the unbanked, by sharing resources. In Ghana, despite having bank accounts, most of the banked do not use them, because of cost and inappropriate services. This research reveals that the unexamined notion of being banked as a fundamental requirement for financial inclusion may require further investigation. The research has found that the unbanked keeping to themselves and the use of cash creates anonymity and makes them invisible to formal financial institutions, who prefer identity over anonymity, thus contributing to their financial exclusion. The following design needs were identified: inexpensive credit and value-added services such as saving groups, financial accounting services, service to report delinquent customers and education. The research offers a conceptualization of a financial inclusion ICT artefact to draw attention to the multifaceted and complex environment financial inclusion effort is immersed. This calls for an integrated approach since the issues with financial exclusion extend beyond financials and have an effect on the broader society. The research, therefore, proposes a substantive framework for improving the design and development of financial inclusive systems, which helps build trust using obligation transactions. It offers an approach to computing an individual’s financial inclusiveness, which also helps safeguard his/her financial wellbeing. The thesis makes a contribution to Information Systems theory in proposing a framework on financial inclusion using ICT. The contribution to practice is the design of an ICT artefact.
School of Computing
Ph. D. (Computer Science)