A Bit for your Coin
As the
human race has advanced into the modern era all corners of life has changed
socially, politically, and economically.
This change is electric in the spirit of innovation and being quite literally
electric, as we have seen in changes of social media, areas of defense, and
currency. Currency being what I wanted
to focus on, since its introduction to the public in January 9th of
2009 Bitcoin has made a name for itself worldwide. Tagging itself as being secure and appealing
to the growing craze of the digital age, Bitcoin has done well from its simple
roots. However this digital currency
poses more problems than solutions in the interweaving world of financial institutions. Problems with Bitcoin range from questions about
its own validity to the very security system which keeps it an enigma when
under the spy glass. These problems are
nothing to scoff at even though if compared to world currencies Bitcoin would
barely represent one-one thousandth of total money spent, it is not quantity that
makes it of interest to US foreign policy.
At its
core Bitcoin is a pseudo currency that acts almost as a mediator in-between
other currencies for the internet in which you purchase Bitcoins in exchange
for existing currency. These transaction
and transactions between users are sent through a system called block-chain, in
this system an army of computers process roughly 450 thousand trillion
solutions per second. The system then at
a moment of time will group transactions together into a block, that block is
then given a hash value which is unique to each block. Each block is then encrypted as well with a
time stamp and then is combined with existing blocks to form a more comprehensive
puzzle. However this generating puzzle
poses a problem for transparency, it begs the uncertain questions such as where
are funds being sent from and to whom.
And, although transactions are recorded it makes tracking financial leads
much hard when they can be done electronically and must be decoded. In this field of ambiguity Bitcoin poses as a
point of interest in US foreign policy, not so much as an economic threat as
much as representing a new dimension outside the existing realm of US cyber
control. For this reason it is advisable
that currencies be held to a level of international accountability, be them
paper or digital. To allow any opaque financial
system no matter its size to continue would be a grievous error on a macro
level.
Going
forward it is unlikely that Bitcoin is going to disappear anytime soon, even
with its drop in value in the recent years the complete eradication of such a
currency is none the less impossible.
Although that hasn’t stopped countries like China from banning its use
in purchases, Bitcoin is bound to live on.
With the desirable pull of a paper free currency system and a growing
sentiment among the younger generations who spend more and more of their time
online increases the percentage of success.
However with the same token of success the political impact of digital
currencies on US foreign Policies are also bond to grow. As Bitcoin and similar currencies grow in
international users, their realm influence will also grow in scale and
complexity. And, it is this precise threat
that unless held accountable could prove as a window for such acts of money
laundering, financing terrorist activities, or avoidance of international financial
institutions. All be it extreme it is
prudent that when faced with the possibility of a rouge economic institution in
a new frontier, that the existing preeminent governing body take steps to mitigate
possible international damage.
---Nathaniel Dust---
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