Ethical Issues

Hacking. Hacking not including hackathons and other education related events, is a very unethical method to retrieve information or gain monetary value. Crypto-currencies, themselves are not tools to help hackers; they are created for the purpose to pay online without the use of banks to monitor transactions, they are the subject of hacks. There have already been some big hacks. Two hacks of just bitcoin alone have left users out of 135 million dollars and thousands of bitcoins. Numerous hacks of other crypto currencies have happened over the last 5 years as well so is it a viable replacement for physical currency? As of right now no. All forms of currency are either stolen or counterfeit at some point in their existence. The crypto-currency issue is that anyone on the planet who has a computer, internet connection, and hacking skills could hypothetically gain access to money not belonging to them. It's a matter of a security issues and until the block chains and the bitcoin exchange companies can tighten their hold on the bitcoins in their possession there will continue to be issues.

Currency of the underground. In other words, it's the currency of the black market. How is this possible? Well since the transactions are direct from customer to product owner there is no middle man or banks to confirm the transactions are legitimate. Transactions with the currency could involve many things including: undocumented weapon distribution, money laundering, illegal substance trafficking, hiring a hit man, or prostitution. For example, the online website Silk Road was the first dark-net marketplace and all of its transactions operated through the use of bitcoins since transactions were direct. These uses of the bitcoin are very unethical.. but does that make the currency unethical?

The answer is no. Those illegal actions have always been happening using regular currencies. The bitcoin has just been widely adopted by the dark-net due to its direct transaction process; and having no middle man to certify transactions make illegal activities very easy.

Volatility. Volatility is not necessarily an ethical issues but it is a big issues with currencies like bitcoin non-the-less. The image below shows just how much the value of bitcoin fluctuates. In its lifetime it has ranged from worthless to above $1000 USD with the average around $400 USD. If the crypto-currency could maintain a level of worth that is stable it could attract more users. If it could stabilize at a higher level of worth that attraction would easily be more.