Economics of the internet age: ascent of cryptocurrencies

In the last years the world of Economics and Finance has been shaken from a new phenomenon coming from the Information Technology field: cryptocurrencies. Relying upon an extraordinary technology such as the blockchain, cryptocurrencies are usually known to the public as digital money. They gained their momentum throughout 2017, with skyrocketing exchange rates around the end of the year. But they have been existing since 2009, when Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, was officially launched. Since then, the attention of economists, finance professionals and media has been rising day by day. The presence of instruments, which served as alternative currencies and potentially offered profits to investors taking long positions, could not be hidden to regulators for a long time. They have been necessarily put inside the current legislative framework in order to regulate the functioning of the market, however not every agency or government had the same opinion about cryptocurrencies and took the same decisions. The future of cryptocurrencies and of the regulatory issues is still a blank page. This thesis aims at contributing to the understanding of cryptocurrencies, in order to recognize their potential, to avoid the related risks and to give a direction which regulators can proceed toward. We observe cryptocurrencies from an academic point of view and analyse all the shades related to their monetary and financial nature. We are doing so with an eye on the propositions that the crypto community brings and an eye on facts, numbers and statistics.