The Cryptocurrency Bubble, Blockchain and Beyond

Öz

This paper intends to shed light into the nature of blockchain technology and investigates to what extent the product of this technology, the cryptocurrencies, should be seen as a financial bubble. A presentation of the historical context within which this technology emerged after the 2008 great meltdown in the world economy is elaborated. The historical, sociological and financial characteristics of the so-called blockchain revolution are presented and after a brief discussion of the bubbles in world history, the paper intends to show the similarities and differences of the cryptocurrency euphoria of the recent times with that of the historical bubbles, especially with respect to the Ponzi scheme.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• blockchain
• bitcoin
• finance

Kaynakça

1. Bloomberg HT (2018). “HSBC Blockchain Teknolojisi ile İlk Ticari İşlemi Gerçekleştirdi,” Bloomberg HT, 14 May. http://www.bloomberght.com/kripto/haber/2120379-hsbc-blockchain-teknolojisi-ile-ilk-ticari-islemi-gerceklestirdi (Accessed 1 February 2023).
2. Chiapello, Eve (2007). “Accounting And the Birth of the Notion of Capitalism,” Critical Perspectives on Accounting 18 (3): 263-296.
3. Iansiti, Marco and Karim R. Lakhani (2017). “The Truth About Blockchain,” Harvard Business Review, January-February: 3-11.
4. Johnson, Steve (2018). “Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble,” The New York Times, 16 January 16. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/magazine/beyond-the-bitcoin-bubble.html (Accessed 5 June, 2018).
5. Lashinsky, Adam (2022). “Why the Crypto Bubble Has Finally Imploded,” Washington Post, November 11. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/11/crypto-bubble-implode-ftx-bitcoin-ethereum/ (Accessed 8 March 2023).
6. Harrison, Edward (2022). “The Easy Money Era is Over and the Crypto Bubble with It,” Bloomberg, November 15. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-11-15/the-easy-money-era-is-over-and-the-crypto-bubble-with-it (Accessed 8 March 2023).
7. Kindleberger, Charles P. and Robert Z. Aliber (2005). Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises. New York: Palgrave.
8. Monaghan, Angela (2018). “Bitcoin Biggest Bubble in History, Says Economist Who Predicted 2008 Crash”, The Guardian, 2 February. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/02/bitcoin-biggest-bubble-in-history-says-economist-who-predicted-2008-crash (Accessed 8 March, 2023).

9. Siegele, Ludwig (2018). “The Ins and Outs: How to Fix What Has Gone Wrong With the Internet,” The Economist, 427 (9098): 3.
10. Szabo, Nick (2008). His blog at http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2008/ (Accessed 8 March 2023).
11. The Economist (2022). “Is This The End of Crypto?” The Economist, 17 November. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/11/17/is-this-the-end-of-crypto (Accessed March 8, 2023).
12. The Economist (2018a). “Pulp Friction,” The Economist, 426 (9084): p.77.
13. The Economist (2018b). “Not to the Swift,” The Economist, 427 (9090): pp.7-8.
14. The Economist (2013). “The Bitcoin bubble; Digital money,” The Economist 409 (8864), 30 November. https://0-search-proquest-com.seyhan.library.boun.edu.tr/docview/1462837436/F790DF94BCD04DDDPQ/1?accountid=9645
15. Yli-Huumo, Jesse, Ko, Deokyoon, Choi, Sujin, Park, Sooyong, Smolander, Kari (2016). “Where Is Current Research on Blockchain Technology?—A Systematic Review.” PLoS One, 11 (10). https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0163477 (Accessed 8 March 2023).