Abstract

The recent explosive development of new forms of the digital currency creates unprecedented opportunities while posing significant governance challenges. These challenges call into question whether bitcoin should adopt an institutionalized framework. It also raises concerns about whether bitcoin governance following the path of internet governance will be a viable solution to the challenges. This paper investigates the concept of the bitcoin ecosystem, the governance challenges that the ecosystem faces, stakeholder roles in governance, and whether having an institutionalized framework will effectively minimize the challenges that bitcoin network users face.

Keywords: Digital currency, Governance challenges, Bitcoin ecosystem