“PAPER MONEY IS GOING AWAY”

~ ELON MUSK

INTRODUCTION

Money has evolved in a mysterious way, from trading cattle to the everyday global trade of billions of cybernetic algorithms that reflect monetary worth on a stock exchange. Technological advancement can be seen as one of our society’s constants. In this fast-paced culture, new innovations are created to meet the expanding demands of humanity; one such development is cryptocurrencies. A person going by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper in 2008 in which he first proposed the concept of cryptocurrency[1]. To be specific, it is a digital money system that is mostly peer-to-peer and without a central authority. The year 2017 was a turning point for this technology as its demand soared and it became a global phenomenon.[2]

Money has evolved in a mysterious way, from trading cattle to the everyday global trade of billions of cybernetic algorithms that reflect monetary worth on a stock exchange. Technological advancement can be seen as one of our society’s constants. In this fast-paced culture, new innovations are created to meet the expanding demands of humanity; one such development is cryptocurrencies. A person going by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper in 2008 in which he first proposed the concept of cryptocurrency[1]. To be specific, it is a digital money system that is mostly peer-to-peer and without a central authority. The year 2017 was a turning point for this technology as its demand soared and it became a global phenomenon.[2]

 

WHAT IS CRYPTOCURRENCY?

Cryptocurrency is a subset of digital currency and it works like any Fiat Currency [3] and gets its value from use, the more popular it becomes, the more valuable it will become. It is protected by multiple levels of encryption (cryptography), which is completed via a process known as mining, hence the name “cryptocurrency.” In this process, Miners decipher intricate scientific calculations using advanced programming to verify exchanges. In actuality, the machine makes use of its processor to complete the challenging computation and ultimately receives such cash as payment for its assistance. The calculation and process are not under anyone’s control, making the framework self-supporting.

 

A system of Blockchain, which is an autonomous public ledger, provides support for the record of transactions, which is a crucial component of the process. The goal was to eliminate all transaction costs. There are a number of difficulties with this currency’s legitimacy. Classification is the most fundamental, followed by authority, jurisdiction, and regulation. Bitcoin is fully outlawed in places like Ecuador, Russia, and Bangladesh. In China, however, it is lawful for private individuals to store, trade, mine, buy, and sell Bitcoin even though it is illegal for business purposes. [4]

 

A system of Blockchain, which is an autonomous public ledger, provides support for the record of transactions, which is a crucial component of the process. The goal was to eliminate all transaction costs. There are a number of difficulties with this currency’s legitimacy. Classification is the most fundamental, followed by authority, jurisdiction, and regulation. Bitcoin is fully outlawed in places like Ecuador, Russia, and Bangladesh. In China, however, it is lawful for private individuals to store, trade, mine, buy, and sell Bitcoin even though it is illegal for business purposes. [4]
Due to pre-existing legislation, it is prohibited in some nations, such as Iceland [5], while Japan went the other way and authorized digital currencies. Exchanges that deal in virtual money like Bitcoin are recognized by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA). [6]

 

CRYPTOCURRENY AND IPR

With the development in cryptocurrency use, experts wonder if the technology’s explosive expansion would be hampered by IP protection such as copyright, patent, or trademark; specifically, cryptocurrencies related with them. There has always been a great deal of friction between the role of legal protection afforded by IP law and the role of innovation. While both opponents and supporters of intellectual property law may see how intellectual property law can either foster or inhibit innovation, depending on the situation, it is crucial to note that modern IP law has yet to be applied to blockchain technology. Cryptocurrency and intellectual property rights (IPR) are intricately connected. With the world ready to use blockchain to unlock hitherto untapped potentials in a range of sectors, intellectual property (IP) will play an essential role in the future. The dependability and security of blockchain technology could be used to strengthen every stage of the IP rights life cycle, such as resolving ownership disputes, creating licensing agreements through blockchain contracts, detecting counterfeit products, or simply creating an IP record for registering and tracking all types of IP rights. It is challenging to provide IP protection for cryptocurrencies since determining ownership of cryptocurrency is imprecise. For example, the purpose of trademark law is to allow the trademark owner to use the mark only for its products and to prevent trademark infringement. Because the blockchain’s origins are unknown, and the technology is founded on entirely anonymous and interference-free transactions, this concept can be difficult to apply to cryptocurrencies. If a cryptocurrency’s sole job is to serve as a medium of exchange, such as a traditional currency, it may not qualify as a product or service. An item or service related with a function, on the other hand, may allow the cryptocurrency’s name to be trademarked.

CONCLUSION:

Cryptocurrencies provide a new, effective, and appealing payment method model for businesses to market and create income. It also offers an alternate payment method to traditional money, allowing users to effortlessly complete financial transactions such as buying, selling, transferring, and exchanging. Due to the massive amount of bitcoin circulating through multiple systems and the vast extension and growth of options that the cryptocurrency system offers, cryptocurrency has great potential to be the future currency platform. Users must take extra precautions when using virtual money unless cryptocurrencies is tightly regulated. In today’s worldwide culture, where the internet connects the world, the need to adequately enforce intellectual property rules develops. As a result, if a balance is maintained in the use of blockchain technology for intellectual property protection, this will lead to a better world with less intellectual property rights infringement and threats to intellectual property, as well as a safe environment for creators, artists, organizations, and individuals.