This handbook provides an overview of various criminal activities related to cryptocurrencies, including investment scams, Ponzi schemes, rug pulls, ransomware attacks, money laundering, and darknet markets. We discuss the need for user protection and education, centralized entities and...

Blockchain-based smart contracts can potentially replace certain traditional contracts through decentralized enforcement and reduced transaction costs. However, scalability is a key bottleneck hindering their broader application and adoption, often leading to concentrated or exclusive networks....

The past decade has witnessed a phenomenal rise of digital wallets, and the COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated their adoption globally. Such e-wallets provide not only a conduit to external bank accounts but also internal payment options, including the ever-popular Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL)....

The online appendices provide supplementary results and discussion, the development and regulatory status of cryptocurrency exchanges, a theoretical model of wash trading, and a further explanation of Benford’s law as a forensic tool.Full paper available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3530220

A pandemic or nationalism can dial back global integration as much as advancements in IT and transportation spur it. We study a parsimonious general equilibrium model of occupational choice, risk-taking, and income inequality against backdrop of market (dis)integration and certain services in...

We model a dynamic data economy with fully endogenous growth where agents generate data from consumption and share them with innovation and production firms. Different from other productive factors such as labor or capital, data are nonrival not only among firms but also in their uses across...

We provide an overview of crypto-related scams, including investment scams, Ponzi schemes, and more recently, rug pulls that are commonly seen in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) projects. We then discuss data sources for studying Initial Coin Offering (ICO) scams, before examining the case of...

Oracles are software components that enable data exchange between siloed blockchains and external environments, enhancing smart contract capabilities and platform interoperability. Integration through oracle networks for blockchain and DeFi platforms allows them to be informationally and...

We model the competition between digital forms of fiat money and private digital money (PDM). Countries strategically digitize their fiat money -- upgrading existing or launching new payment systems (including CBDCs) -- to enhance adoption and counter PDM competition. A pecking order emerges:...