Bitcoin: análise da criptomoeda e seus possíveis impactos aos serviços bancários

Abstract

In recent centuries, more rapidly in recent years, the advance of new technologies has been transforming various products and services, one of these products impacted by technology was money. In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto reinvented the currency in digital form, through computer code known as Blockchain, the result was the Bitcoin. Bitcoin has the best characteristics of money: it is divisible, scarce, portable, being able to transfer it from property with low cost, without intermediary and exist outside the direct control of the central governments. Currently, there are more than 2,000 crypto-coins, the market value totals almost R $ 1 trillion and Bitcoin represents more than 55% of the market. So, the present study aims to analyze the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, its advantages and disadvantages in relation to the products and services offered by financial institutions, analyze the knowledge of the academic community, more specifically students of UFFS - Federal University of Fronteira Sul and analyze the perception and knowledge of people related to the financial sector regarding to Bitcoin and its implication for the banking sector. The study methodology was divided into two phases, both classified as qualitative. Data collection from the first phase of the study was performed through a questionnaire applied through Google Docs, with 211 responses collected. In the second phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five people linked to the financial sector. Regarding the analysis of the results, after the application of the research instruments, the qualitative content analysis technique was used. Conclusively, it was possible to perceive the low level of knowledge of the academic community about crypto-coins, with 11% of the respondents doesn’t know about and 61% with little knowledge. In a range of 1 to 5, it was possible to perceive the level of interest in knowing more about the topic, 86% of respondents marked options 3, 4 and 5, making this research important to spread the topic. Regarding the reasons for being a threat, about 30% of the respondents answered that Bitcoin is not considered a threat to financial institutions because few people know about it and 13% because financial institutions offer complete solutions, theose the two most marked. About 18% of respondents believe that Bitcoin is a threat because it excludes the middleman from the transactions and 15% because it has no taxes. Regarding the interviewees, all of them showed knowledge about the subject and when asked about the possibility of Bitcoin being a threat, 3 did not consider it a threat, at least in the short term, 1 did not know how to respond and 1 mentioned the exclusion of intermediaries in transactions as threat. Therefore, it is extremely important to discuss these issues, considering the relevance of the subject nowadays together with the interest of the research participants.