Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies and The Money in the New Era - 3 -

 4. Trust, Belief and Regulation

As almost for all commodities or financial instruments, trust, belief and legal regulation have a very important effect in also the currency. If a currency has not legal infrastructure, public trust and belief, probably it will not live and be acceptable in the long term.

The reason why most of the people trust and believe the fiat money system is clear. We know that fiat monies are issued by the central banks and mostly they are backed by the states. Actually, issuing by a central bank and backed by a state make fiat monies “the real currency” for the humankind. Unfortunately, it is clear that cryptocurrencies don't have the public trust and belief enough yet. Due to fact that they are not backed by a state and not issued by a central bank people generally consider cryptocurrencies as an unreliable, even a speculative investment tool.

On the other hand, Bitcoin is very young now but it has possibility to become very popular sooner, then it will be able to be a rival for traditional fiat money system or other currencies which means that it could be better to create necessary legislation for cryptocurrencies now. Because later could be too late for this action to take. Even though Bitcoin is not yet widespread and isn’t as wide as other international currencies, taking consideration Bitcoin continues to increase its popularity, regulatory measures will be needed.

There are countries in the European Union that haven’t taken an official stance towards Bitcoins and other virtual currencies, but as Bitcoins continue to be more popular, it is very clear that we are going to see more countries begin to create their own policies in order to regulate virtual currencies. “Further action from other authorities can reasonably be expected in the near future” (European Central Bank, 2012).

 

5.Conclusion

As we have discussed before, it is well-known that Cryptocurrencies have a lot of disadvantages about being widely accepted for now at least. Generally, in financial subjects, making people trust you could take a long time. Due to fact that Cryptocurrencies-Bitcoin have high volatility of value, there is no state or bank guarantee in the back of it and it has not been widely accepted by the community yet, we could say easily that cryptocurrency cannot acquire the role of money for now.

On the other hand, it is an undeniable reality that cryptocurrencies have been attracting a lot of public attention in recent years. Especially western governments, universities and Non-governmental Organizations have been making researches about cryptocurrencies increasing day by day. Moreover, the number of people who invest on Bitcoin are mounting and everyone asks for information about Cryptocurrencies in almost every day to financial consulting firms or the banks. Bitcoins could be regarded as a bad alternative to traditional money with the scope of criminal activities, because virtual currencies would make easier to conduct criminal activity such as: money laundering, drugs trafficking, computer hacking and terrorism.

It is clear that, none of these activities is widespread or extensive to the use of Bitcoins. There are other bad or negative sides to using a virtual currency that do not have to do with criminality such as speculation, risky investment and issue of unpredictability. It is obvious that without necessary legal regulation and central bank or government guarantee, Bitcoin or all other Cryptocurrency users bear all the risks.

It should be accepted that keeping Bitcoins in a digital Bitcoin wallet will leave your virtual currency vulnerable. If we consider the issue in the scope of computer hacking for example. We would say that a digital wallet is weak to computer hackers. In order to attract people attention to this issue, The European Banking Authority has issued this warning to its citizens, “Exercise the same caution with your digital wallet as you would do with your conventional wallet” further urging users of Bitcoins, “not to store large amounts of Bitcoins in their digital wallets for an extended period of time” 

In conclusion, we could say that if cryptocurrency will gain the role of money one day in the future, it must serve also as functions of money also. Even it has some of functions of money like being a store of value, a unit of account and a medium of exchange, Cryptocurrencies cannot execute all these functions properly yet.

Despite the fact that the most known cryptocurrency-Bitcoin has a lot of popularity and a good number of investors, it is clearly known that it is not highly accepted yet all around the world.

After considering all these facts, especially in the short term, it seems that cryptocurrency could be an investment instrument for the investors who like taking risk instead of acquiring the role of money.

How to improve Your English Reading Skill/Ability easily - 2 -

If you did not read the first part of this essay, please first of all go and read it  from here and after that start to read this second part of how to improve English Reading Skill/Ability series.


Read what you "like", not what you are told !

Most of the time students generally go to English courses and then teachers give them homework or books which they are not very interested in. (generally) 

 But it shouldn't be forgotten that every person has different interests and point of views. So that English teachers shouldn't behave and approach with same way of teaching method towards every students.

If you are reading a book or homework passage which your teacher give you and you don't like it, after a while you will start to feel bored and distracted. And probably you will throw it away and start to hate studying English!!

Hey don't be nervous about these kind of studying English! It should not be a torture! It must be fun ;) to realize it you must read what you like and love! not what you are told or given. Please do not forget that according to researchs English students who read sources which they are interested in improve their English faster than the others.


My Experience About Reading

For about 10 years ago and while i was starting to learn English as a new learning English student, i realized that i liked and loved reading about levelled penguin books. Of course i was reading books whcih are level 1 and 2, starter and pre-intermediate levels. As i read the books i realized that when i read a book which i was not interested in, i was getting bored so quickly. It was hurting my English studies.


On the other hand while i was reading things which i was really interested in for example historical events or dedective books(like Sherlock Holmes stories), i was very excited and felt like i started to love this language. Also i was learning new words, English grammar and English language structures even though i didn't realize it.



Yes i explored that the magic in learning English is to like and enjoy with language not just study it ! Don't forget if you like, love and enjoy it, you will learn more quickly and improve faster your English. Trust me !

Please share your English reading tips or stories with us in comments and of course with your questions.

Listen to our how to improve your English podcast of course :)

Good luck with your long and enjoyable English learning journey.

How to improve Your English Reading Skill and Ability Easily? - 1 -

According to most students, reading is one the most difficult (with grammar of course!) parts of learning English process due to fact that most of the students find it boring and difficult. First of all we must know that if we want to improve our English towards advanced level, we have to "like" reading. Because without reading we can not be master:) of English language(or any language).

Secondly if we aim to get a good enough score from English Proficiency exams like TOEFL or IELTS, we should improve our English reading skill. Because these kind of exams  ask for a good level of reading capability. In this sense good reading ability means getting a good score or getting a good job of course :)

Have you ever thought that why most of the English learning students don't like reading section of these easy language? The answer is not short but we can understand it if we cut this problem into small pieces.

Vocabulary Problem ?

If you focus on just memorazing words, after a while it is going to be very boring and dull to you. On the other hand if you try to understand and feel the meaning of new words, you will start to like learning new words even you don't realize as the time go on. So in this content our magic word is "understand" not memorize!

Use it or lose it !

It is very important to use the words which you have learnt new in your daily life if you want to improve your English reading skill. Because according to researches unused words are more likely to be forgotten. As you use new words, they will go to deep of your brain and learning center of it. Don't forget that the muscles which you don't practise will be less powerful as time go on. So use new words in  your daily life and make your English learning muscle be powerful.

Accurate Resource Problem and Is it suitable for your level?

As a person who has been learning English approximitly 10 years, first of all i would like to talk
about accurate source problem at English reading. As you already know that there are loads of mixed, complicated and sophisticated English reading sources on the internet. This is both good and bad at the same time for English learners. Because if you read an essay which is very difficult for your English level, after a while you will start to feel that you don't like English language. This is insane! Because the thing you don't like is "difficult and complicated" English essay or book(resource) not English language itself.

Please click to read second part of this series.