The Bitcoin Challenge: Building the Evidence Base to Support Credible Environmental, Economic and Social Decision Making
A special issue of Challenges (ISSN 2078-1547).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2024) | Viewed by 35116
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
While Bitcoin has often been criticized in the past, it is a technological/financial innovation that has the potential to spur transformative environmental, economic, and social change. Potentially important factors include, but are not limited to, Bitcoin’s capacity to: mitigate methane emissions at the source; catalyze investments in renewable energy and electrification infrastructure; reduce transaction costs of financial transactions across scales, right down to local micropayments; and empower households and organizations facing financial and political repression under authoritarian regimes. A recent Challenges article (https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/14/1/1) outlined a diverse range of potential Bitcoin research needed to support private and public investment decisions and policy-making.
In this Special Issue, we welcome contributions from researchers on both sides of the Bitcoin debate, from researchers of diverse disciplines, and from non-academic professionals. The focus of submissions should be on the creation, articulation, and/or communication of credible evidence about Bitcoin’s technical, economic, social, governance, and environmental impacts and implications. Contributions may include scientific research and reviews, opinions on regional context-specific research needs, and practical contributions such as Bitcoin-focused case studies or policy analyses (see https://www.mdpi.com/about/article_types for acceptable submission categories). We hope that this Special Issue will help refine the emerging Bitcoin research agenda, identify ways to best support informed decision making, and catalyze enduring improvements in human well-being.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Bitcoin design and technical capabilities (e.g., scaling solutions, multi-sig applications);
- Philosophical, political, economic, and legal theory of Bitcoin;
- Bitcoin energy use;
- Bitcoin’s impact on renewable energy production and electricity transmission infrastructure;
- Methane mitigation potential for Bitcoin mining;
- Assessing the performance of Bitcoin investment ESG initiatives;
- Implications of national-level Bitcoin adoption as legal tender and/or as a reserve asset;
- Bitcoin’s impact on fiscal and monetary policy;
- Analysis of regulatory and non-regulatory Bitcoin policy options;
- Bitcoin’s impact on household consumption and savings patterns;
- The role that Bitcoin plays in political and environmental narratives;
- How Bitcoin affects household and organizational adaptive capacity to cope with shocks;
- Methods for bridging the Bitcoin science-policy interface;
- Bitcoin’s potential contributions to poverty alleviation;
- Household, organizational, and governance risks arising from Bitcoin adoption experiments.
Dr. Murray A. Rudd
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Challenges is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- adaptive capacity
- advocacy coalitions
- Bitcoin
- carbon emissions
- central banks
- climate change
- cryptocurrency
- data processing
- debasement
- discount rate
- electricity grid
- electrification
- energy intensity
- energy transition
- ESG
- fiscal policy
- freedom
- global warming
- grid management
- inflation
- international remittance
- Lightning Network
- methane mitigation
- mitigation
- monetary policy
- money
- narratives
- policy analysis
- political narratives
- poverty alleviation
- remittances
- renewable energy
- rural development
- rural electrification
- securities law
- stranded energy
- time preferences
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.
