| Abstract [eng] |
Rapid globalization and technological development have led to some of the most significant changes in the area of financial technologies. The development of advanced digital technologies has enabled the creation of one of the most relevant phenomena in modern economy – cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies can be described as a form of virtual currency that operates on distributed ledger technology and uses cryptographic principles to validate transactions. Cryptocurrencies are analyzed rather broadly in the scientific literature. Main areas of cryptocurrency research include analysis of technical characteristics, legal / regulatory aspects, social aspects and economic, financial issues. One of the most recent and relevant areas in scientific research is analysis of economic aspects of cryptocurrencies. It seeks to evaluate the possibilities of a cryptocurrency to replace traditional currencies and assess its compliance with traditional currencies and traditional definition of money. Considering the relevance of latter area of research, theoretical and practical research of compliance between cryptocurrency and traditional currencies is performed in the master's thesis. The subject of the master thesis is bitcoin. The aim of the master thesis is to carry out a research of the compliance between bitcoin and traditional currencies. The goals of the master thesis are: 1) to conduct a research of scientific literature on cryptocurrencies and to justify the need of theoretical and empirical research; 2) to analyze recognition criteria of traditional currencies, its evaluation methods and prepare theoretical framework for research of compliance between cryptocurrencies and traditional currencies; 3) to form a methodology for the research of the compliance between bitcoin and traditional currencies; 4) to empirically investigate the compliance between bitcoin and traditional currencies. Results of scientific literature research show that main criteria of recognition of money are medium of exchange, store of value and unit of account. Taking into consideration availability of statistical data, a decision to evaluate „general acceptance“ characteristic of medium of exchange criteria and „stability of value“ characteristic of store of value and unit of account criteria was made. Evaluation of the „general acceptance“ characteristics of bitcoin is based on the analysis of statistical information on bitcoin transactions and users. Results of the analysis showed that bitcoin only partially satisfies characteristic of „general acceptance“. The results of the research show that the number of active users remains very volatile and may depend on fluctuations in the price of bitcoin, while the number and volume of transactions are associated with speculative investor activity. The assessment of characteristic of „stability of value“ is based on the correlation and causality analysis of bitcoin price and its determinants. Results of the research show that bitcoin does not fulfill characteristic of „stability of value“. The results of the research showed the strongest and statistically significant relationship between the bitcoin price and volume of bitcoin transactions and the stock market index of S&P 500, which leads to the conclusion that the volatility of bitcoin price is induced by investors, speculators. The results of the research suggest that bitcoin price is very closely linked to bitcoin supply and demand factors, what indicates the possibility of bivariate correlation and causality links. |
