Bitcoins. Financial technologies as problem for financial regulators

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2015 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 73.00, National University of Ireland, Galway, course: Bachelors of Corporate Law, language: English, abstract: Through this essay I wish to show how the conflicting legal status of cryptocurrency in the worlds major financial hubs serves to negate its global application. I will then focus primarily on the United States in establishing its applicability to the existing financial safeguards in place. Cryptocurrency is a financial panacea for individualists, a mechanism to evade control and bureaucracy, promoting autonomy and self-governance. These themes seemingly detach from the established policies of our current financial regulation. Conversely, I argue that the principles underpinning cryptocurrency allow it to be encapsulated within existing regulatory frameworks. That virtual currency intermediarys act as a nexus between its global application and regulatory control, allowing current financial legislation to be imposed upon it, with minor alterations.