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A Rising New Standard for Currency: Economic Implications of Adopting Bitcoin in Developing Nations
- 1 Saint Mark’s School
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Abstract
Amidst uncertainties of the global economy and new ideals up in the air, new forms of currencies have emerged as a result of globalization. While fiat currency still prevails on the international stage, cryptocurrency has taken advantage to become a vital part of economies. The fact that each of these currencies has its own characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, and is not proportional to economic development has led to a wider debate on the relative benefits of each currency for developing countries. In particular, whether cryptocurrencies can help improve the economic situation in developing countries with their unique advantages. Even though there are limited case studies since cryptocurrency requires some barrier for adoption, theoretical arguments make it sound appealing. Through case studies of El Salvador, Central African Republics, and India with regard to tangible changes brought by cryptocurrency and policy changes, this paper explores how well the theoretical benefits have been implemented in practice. While many intricate factors are reacting to each other with such changes, making the results harder to evaluate with linear measurements, inherent shortcomings in implementations seem to be hindering the benefits of cryptocurrency. Therefore, the results show that the use of cryptocurrency as a legal tender may not lead to an improvement in the economic system and conditions in developing countries due to its high barrier to entry. In order to maximize the benefits of cryptocurrencies, there is a need to improve infrastructure to make cryptocurrencies more accessible.
Keywords
Cryptocurrency, Developing Country, Currency, Economy
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Cite this article
Zhang,X.C. (2025). A Rising New Standard for Currency: Economic Implications of Adopting Bitcoin in Developing Nations. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences,158,43-49.
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