Bitcoin Forum

Hello everyone, this is my first post on here. I'm currently in my fourth and final year doing my undergraduate degree in Risk Management here in the UK. I became fascinated in bitcoin several months back and I have decided to write about it as my topic for my dissertation. Due to the nature of my degree I have chosen to focus on the security aspects of bitcoin and how it may evolve as a currency in the years to come. I plan on discussing the August 2016 Bitfinex hack and the impact this had on people's confidence in bitcoin, and so my aims and objectives are to discuss bitcoin's merits as a currency, and whether it truly has the potential to rival fiat currencies in the long-term despite the numerous hacking setbacks etc.

I was also planning on running a questionnaire on here in the future to gauge people's feelings on how they felt before and after the Bitfinex hack in terms of confidence, how you feel the hack has impacted on the community and how you see bitcoin evolving in the next five years etc.

I would be happy to answer any questions and I'm very open to any suggestions or feedback on my planned dissertation! :)

I suggest you start of with the history of bitcoin. Like how it started and how it was popularized by the darknet (you got to research about the silk road. Check out the documentary "darknet".) Then you move on to discuss how Bitcoin works and how secure it is to hold it.

Also research on Mt. Gox and those other entities like Bitfinex. Most of the time they say they got hacked. But in my opinion, they weren't. They just ran with the bitcoins. Theoretically, you can't hack the blockchain. In satoshi's white paper, he discussed that hacking the blockchain would be more expensive than mining it theirselves.

I would like to ask, what is your major?

Focusing on the Bitfinex hack is going to make your dissertation boring IMO.

Anyone with a brain, who is not an active trader, should have not lost a single penny in such an *hack*. The coins that one has on an exchange, are not yours. They are an IOU, and it seems like plenty of people are very ignorant about this.

Zero impact because I was left unaffected. Bitfinex was shady long before that *hack*.

Silk Road, Mt. Gox are much more interesting than Bitfinex.

I appreciate the feedback, thank you! Mt. Gox is something I've been doing a lot of research on and I have been planning on focusing a fair bit on, so it's good to read that you both think that would be a good area to concentrate on! Silk Road I was kind of in limbo about talking about, but I will look at how I could incorporate that more rather than the Bitfinex 'hack' if people feel that is a more interesting topic. I've seen the Dark Web film already, and it is superb.

Thanks again.

I would say that the most interesting part here is going through how Bitcoin was used in the darknet and how they laundered their money through bitcoin. Also, since Bitcoin was a global phenomenon the rise of illegal stuff sold on the internet went international as well. We can't deny that Bitcoin gain popularity because of the darknet, but it has been transitioning to a more mainstream usage like online payment for services and licit products online.

If you're a finance, business or similar majors, then discussing money laundering through bitcoin might be a good approach. Then if it's about security, you could go and discuss how money transactions can be more secure using bitcoins.