Your help is needed! Bachelor Thesis

[mt111051]

Hello guys,

as a student I have to write my bachelor thesis now and I chose to write about virtual currencies, mainly Bitcoin!

Now as I'm fairly new to the topic and probably only scratched on the surface of the whole system so far I'd like to ask you for opinions, advice, impulses, etc. since many of you already have a lot of experience.

What topics would you think are interesting or crucial to write about? (Safety/Risks, History, Mining, Future Tendencies, Trading, Other currencies, Pay2Win currencies in games,...)

Have you read any interesting books or similar worth to take a good look at?

I'm very thankful for each response, since additionally asking some experts can't be wrong.

[franky1]

lesson one.

the term to describe the technology group of bitcoin, litecoin etc.. is not virtual currency.. its 'blockchain'
using terms like virtual currency, cryptocurrency, digital currency does not differentiate or explain bitcoins grouping at all vs regular electronic fiat.
so try to use the term blockchain instead of virtual, crypto, digital, when trying to be specific to bitcoin and altcoins as a currency

secondly.. what speciality is your qualification based on.
EG is it business degree, information science, economics, politics, social studies.. as i think it would be best to keep it on topic of what you are specialising in

[LiteCoinGuy]

Hello guys,

as a student I have to write my bachelor thesis now and I chose to write about virtual currencies, mainly Bitcoin!

Now as I'm fairly new to the topic and probably only scratched on the surface of the whole system so far I'd like to ask you for opinions, advice, impulses, etc. since many of you already have a lot of experience.

What topics would you think are interesting or crucial to write about? (Safety/Risks, History, Mining, Future Tendencies, Trading, Other currencies, Pay2Win currencies in games,...)

Have you read any interesting books or similar worth to take a good look at?

I'm very thankful for each response, since additionally asking some experts can't be wrong.

that should help:

https://forum.bitcoin.com/beginners-help/epic-bitcoin-academic-research-list-t253.html

[mt111051]

secondly.. what speciality is your qualification based on.
EG is it business degree, information science, economics, politics, social studies.. as i think it would be best to keep it on topic of what you are specialising in

Media technology, so it's Science Engineering

[franky1]

secondly.. what speciality is your qualification based on.
EG is it business degree, information science, economics, politics, social studies.. as i think it would be best to keep it on topic of what you are specialising in

Media technology, so it's Science Engineering

then id stay away from the politics(government regulation) or economics(price speculation: rise and falls) and stick to the blockchain technology and the usefulness in real life.

andreas antanopolous loves talking about bitcoin as a technology and hardly ever enters the price swing conversation. he has some great thoughts to help you

[Mickeyb]

secondly.. what speciality is your qualification based on.
EG is it business degree, information science, economics, politics, social studies.. as i think it would be best to keep it on topic of what you are specialising in

Media technology, so it's Science Engineering

then id stay away from the politics(government regulation) or economics(price speculation: rise and falls) and stick to the blockchain technology and the usefulness in real life.

andreas antanopolous loves talking about bitcoin as a technology and hardly ever enters the price swing conversation. he has some great thoughts to help you

Yes, I second that. OP go to YouTube and watch Andreas Antonopoulos, everything that you can find from this guy. You will be much wiser, you will learn a lot about Bitcoin and you will get an insight about what you will write in your thesis.

[Hazir]

So you are writing about Bitcoin exclusively and only making notes about altcoins or you plan to cover everything related to cryptocurrencies?
And I don't see similarities with Bitcoin and 'virtual' currency of random online games this is not connected to bitcoin.

[mt111051]

So you are writing about Bitcoin exclusively and only making notes about altcoins or you plan to cover everything related to cryptocurrencies?
And I don't see similarities with Bitcoin and 'virtual' currency of random online games this is not connected to bitcoin.

I thought Bitcoin is the prime example for making the whole thing big and probably the main aspect to write about, like the GoPro of action cameras. But if I should write about Bitcoin exclusively I'm not sure if I'd run out of material more quickly, so I'll maybe need some more aspects/ideas to write about?

Well I figured both are digital/virtual currencies, money you can't touch, but which can also be earned, traded and it's value can vary over time. So it seemed kind of related and at least worth mentioning as a sub-item, since the target audience instead mostly consists of younger people, getting introduced to "authentic" digital money.

[franky1]

because people still want to refer bitcoin as THE digital currency. its best to realise what 'digital' covers,that way you avoid confusion when concentrating on describing bitcoin, and so i done this to help with the terminology to separate bitcoin from lets say paypal, visa, stocks, shares, gold contracts etc.

bitcoin
reality: digital
technology: blockchain
ownership: asset
control: decentralised

bank notes
reality: physical
technology: paper
ownership: credit
control: decentralised

visa/paypal/applepay/bank account
reality: digital
technology: SQL database
ownership: credit
control: centralised

gold/antiques
reality: physical
technology: mineral/material
ownership: asset
control: decentralised

gold certificates
reality: digital
technology: SQL database
ownership: commodity
control: centralised

stocks/shares
reality: digital
technology: SQL database
ownership: asset
control: centralised

[AncilVTwo]

It's great to see someone writing a thesis about Bitcoin, I suggest writing about either the history or the safety/risks associated with bitcoin

[cjmoles]

First off....this is a huge topic...what is your major?  That would surely need to be considered before sending you in a direction of research.  Personally, I find the implications of micro-payments and third world access to the money markets most fascinating.  Bitcoin has the potential to change the lives of billions of people of whom do not have fair access to banking...BILLIONS!

[tarsua]

Hello guys,

as a student I have to write my bachelor thesis now and I chose to write about virtual currencies, mainly Bitcoin!

Now as I'm fairly new to the topic and probably only scratched on the surface of the whole system so far I'd like to ask you for opinions, advice, impulses, etc. since many of you already have a lot of experience.

What topics would you think are interesting or crucial to write about? (Safety/Risks, History, Mining, Future Tendencies, Trading, Other currencies, Pay2Win currencies in games,...)

Have you read any interesting books or similar worth to take a good look at?

I'm very thankful for each response, since additionally asking some experts can't be wrong.

I think you should focus on safety/risks, mining and how it compare to other currencies, both fiat and virtual

[mt111051]

The separation and comparison sound like a good idea! Seems fitting to combine with safety and risks.

In terms of history I thought about beginning from the start, continuing with the mining+inflation and therefore the birth of new, more stable currencies. (don't know if I should include this for fun as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oatx83Gy8kE  note it's for a good cause as well hehe (1min22sec))

Then following with micropayments and future tendencies/potentials. So the past, the present and the future are covered.

[franky1]

as for the history.. there are many misconceptions.. about satoshi.. some say he was a group,.. which is not true

that said, blockchain technology would not be possible if it was not for a group of people helping out with their little parts on the cypherpunk forum.. hal finney, Wei Dai proposed and Nick Szabo, and a few others all posted all their idea's

but it was one individual who pieced it to together into one elegant system, inspired by the other peoples idea. but at that time they were not deemed as collaborating as a team.. and thus 'satoshi' was neither a group nor the names mentioned previously. he was simply known as satoshi nakamoto and most definetly a single entity

out of the 10 variations of history. i think this is the closest to an accurate timeline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Bitcoin

[Blue_Tiger73]

Safety and risks is quite an interesting topic. The ways to store your Bitcoin is crucial for it to survive. Another good topic is Bitcoin mining. We need to mine so that transactions can be processed, without mining, Bitcoin would never work.