Institutional analysis of cryptocurrencies and their monetary potential in the Brazilian context

• Grant number: 17/10098-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: February 01, 2018
• End date: September 14, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law
• Principal Investigator: Jose Eduardo Campos de Oliveira Faria
• Grantee: Marcelo de Castro Cunha Filho
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Direito (FD). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 18/12340-4 - Cryptocurrencies: a new system of trust, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Knowing that one of the possible uses of cryptocurrencies is to serve as a monetary instrument, the present research aims to analyze and evaluate the main factors, which contribute to the consolidation or not of this phenomenon in the juridical-social sphere. Departing from the institutionalist approach, whose central focus is the analysis of the determinants, which trigger the processes of social and legal restructuring of institutions in general, it aims to identify and map all these factors, called by Karlstrom materialities, in the specific case of cryptocurrencies. By identifying and evaluating all materialities, divided according to the author between technical, market and social, it will be possible to know how trust is built around cryptocurrencies and whether this process suggests, for this reason, the birth of a new monetary institution still not recognized by national law. It is believed, hypothetically, that the technical materialities common to cryptocurrencies compete for recognition as currency. However, market and social materialities may represent an obstacle on this way. In order to prove or refute these hypotheses, it is proposed that the investigation be based, firstly, on a theoretical phase, constituted by bibliographical revision. And later, in an empirical phase, through a focus group, whose objective is to measure and evaluate the user's trust in cryptocurrencies as a monetary object, an essential factor for their legal characterization. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

CUNHA FILHO, Marcelo de Castro. Trust in Bitcoin: how institutions matter. 2020. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Direito (FD/SBD) São Paulo.