Foundation of the Digital Global Economy

A medium to facilitate the exchange of value has been the sole necessity for the mere existence of currency. As the civilization moved from using metals, paper, and plastic to facilitate exchange, our requirements from a currency became refined. Some of those requirements were the prevention of counterfeiting and accountability. As the human civilization moves forward, the solution to some of the problems faced by us are discovered by humans. Cryptocurrency is a decentralized form of currency mined by computers by solving complex equations in exchange for a reward of the very same commodity. This article aims to study the major cryptocurrencies and the concept of blockchain, how they operate, how it will be affecting India, and what are the consequences of banning this form of currency. This research is carried out by evaluating white papers of Bitcoin and Ethereum (the two main cryptocurrencies of present time) along with research papers and news articles found with the help of search engines and online discussion threads.