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1.4.Technologicalfoundationsofthebitcoinandothercryptocurrencies
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ThecryptocurrenciesthatappearedintheInternetandintheglobaleconomyat
theendofthefirstdecadeofthe21stcenturyareavariantofconvertiblevirtual
currencies-intheirvastmajoritydecentralised(ordistributed)ones-andconstitute
adigital(virtual)unitofvalue,wheretheauthenticityverificationisbasedonan
encryptionmechanism(Balaetal.,2016,pp.54,55;FATF
,2014,p.5;Heetal.,
2016,pp.7,8;Michalczyk,2018a,p.42,2018c,p.243).Aspreviouslyindicated,
thisisonlyanarrowmeaningofthisconceptbecausetheseunitsofvalueare
inextricablylinkedtosettlementsystemsthatallowthemtobetransferred.With
suchabroaderapproach,cryptocurrenciesadditionallycompriseanextensiveand
alsousuallydecentralised(distributed)networkofconnectionsbetweenentities.Itis
worthnotingthatsomeofthesenetworksprovidewithinthemthepossibilitytoissue
othervirtualcurrenciesapartfromthebaseone(calledacoin).Thesecurrenciesare
thenreferredtoastokens.
1.4.Technologicalfoundationsofthebitcoin
andothercryptocurrencies
Thecollectionandstorageoftransactiondatawithinmostcryptocurrencies’networks,
includingtheirprecursor,thebitcoin,isbasedonblockchaintechnologyandtheso-
calleddistributedledger(Piech,2017,pp.14-18;Piotrowska,2014,p.276;Przyłuska-
-Schmitt,2016,pp.138-140;Sobiecki,2015,pp.145,146;Szymankiewicz,2014,
p.22;Tu&Meredith,2015,p.281;Xethalis,Moriarty,Claassen,&Levy,2016,
pp.4-7).Thismeansthatblocksofsubsequenttransactionsareattachedtothe
previousonestoformachain,andthetransferrecordismadeinparallelonallthe
computersinthenetwork.Importantly,inexchangefortheparticipationofcomputers
intheprocessofencrypting,validatingandarchivingtransactions(whichinthecase
ofprimarysystems,suchasinthecaseofthebitcoin,isreferredtoas“mining”,and
inlaterones-as“forging”),theirusersreceiveremunerationwhichcancomefrom
twosources:fromtheautomaticcurrency’sissuancebythesystemandfromthe
voluntaryfeesofpersonsorderingtransfers.Ontheotherhand,thebiggerthefee
incurredbythetransactionpayer,thehighertheprioritythetransactionusuallyhas
andtheshorterthetimeofwaitingforconfirmation.
Thebasicideathatgavebirthtothebitcoinandlatertootherdecentralisedsettlement
systems,wasthepursuittocreateanetworkthatwouldallowthetransmissionofvalue,
i.e.actualtransfersorpayments,withouttheparticipationoftheso-calledtrustedthird
party.Thisparty,conventionallybeingafinancialinstitution,intraditionalclearance
systemsplaystheroleofanintermediarywhoguaranteesthesettlement,confirmsits
authenticityandpreventsthedoublespendingofresourcessincetheyaredeposited
inanelectronicform;thisproblemisrealandhighlysignificant.Removingthethird
partyfromthetransactionrequiredsolvingthischallenge-andthiswasdoneinthe