POLITICAL IMPACT ON BLOCKCHAIN ECONOMY.

ABSTRACT.

The blockchain technology has been welcomed thus far with more skepticism than curiosity.

However, major influencers in the world today such as: Elon Musk, consider the blockchain

technology a groundbreaking innovation because of its numerous applications such as:

cryptocurrency, data security, privacy protection and so on. The impenetrability of blockchains

should not be mistaken for isolation, its economy has been known to be susceptible to both the

negative and positive influence of its environment, and vice versa. A wealth of information has

been dedicated to the ‘deleterious’ and ‘transformative’ influence of the blockchain technology

on different industries, but limited attention is given to the influence of major events such as the

COVID-19 pandemic, minor events such as: change of power and the various political events

that are taking place in the word right now. This study provides a detailed literature review of the

impact of political events on the blockchain economy, by showing the current influence of

politics, socio-economic problems, and health crisis on the blockchain economy, and see how the

future of the blockchain economy can be prefigured by the information gathered.

SECTION I.

INTRODUCTION.

A decade ago, Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous person/group behind Bitcoin, described how

the blockchain technology, a distributed peer-to-peer linked-structure, could be used to solve the

problem of maintaining the order of transactions and to avoid the double-spending problem [1].

Originally designed for cryptocurrency, the tech community has now found other potential uses

for the technology. Blockchains have increased the entropy of the traditional business processes

since the applications and transactions, which needed centralized architectures or trusted third

parties to verify them, can now operate in a decentralized way with the same level of certainty.

The inherent characteristics of blockchain architecture and design provide properties like

transparency, robustness, auditability, and security [2]. By allowing digital information to be

distributed and not copied, blockchain technology created the backbone of a new type of internet.

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Leveraging a blockchain, applications that could previously run only through a trusted

intermediary, can now operate in a decentralized fashion, without the need for a central

authority, and achieve the same functionality with the same amount of certainty. This was simply

impossible before. The blockchain technology enables trustless networks, because the parties can

transact even though they do not trust each other. The absence of a trusted intermediary means

faster reconciliation between transacting parties. The heavy use of cryptography, a key

characteristic of blockchain networks, brings authoritativeness behind all the interactions in the

network. Smart contracts –self-executing scripts that reside on the blockchain– integrate these

concepts and allow for proper, distributed, heavily automated workflows. This should make

blockchains enticing to researchers and developers working on the Internet of Things (IoT)

domain [3].

The goal of this work is to provide a detailed description of how politics, socio-economic

problems, and health crisis influence the blockchain economy, and how this data can be used to

prefigure the future of the blockchain technology under the considered circumstances. This will

allow readers make informed decisions concerning the integration of a blockchain in their

projects, based on the factors under which the blockchain technology operates.

The paper is structured as follows, in section II we examine what a blockchain is, how a

blockchain network operates, how interactions between transacting parties on a network can be

set up and automated. The concluding part of this section will be the classification of the

blockchains and the evaluation of different sources. In section III, we investigate a range of

factors that impact the blockchain economy. The impact of politics, socio-economic problems,

and the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, how the blockchain economy can also help solve these

problems will be mentioned. Solutions to the negative political impacts will be suggested in

section IV, and the conclusion will be presented in section V.

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SECTION II.

BLOCKCHAIN OVERVIEW.

A blockchain is, in the simplest of terms, a time-stamped series of immutable records of data that

is managed by a cluster of computers not owned by any single entity. Each of these blocks of

data (i.e., block) is secured and bound to each other using cryptographic principles (i.e., chain)

[4].

Each block in the chain carries a list of transactions and a hash to the previous block. The

exception to this is the first block of the chain (not pictured), called genesis, which is

common to all clients in a blockchain network and has no parent.

Source: Konstantinos Christidis and Michael Devetsikiotis, May 10, 2016.

Data is added over time in structures called blocks. Each block is built on top of the last and

includes a piece of information that links back to the previous one. By looking at the most up-to-

date block, we can check that it has been created after the last. So, if we continue all the way

down the "chain," we will reach our very first block – known as the genesis block. A blockchain

has certain unique properties. There are rules about how data can be added, and once the data has

been stored, it is impossible to modify or delete it [5].

Blockchain technology has facilitated the development of many cryptocurrency systems such as

Bitcoin and Ethereum [6]. Consequently, it is often viewed as bound to Bitcoin or

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cryptocurrency solutions in general. However, the technology is available for a broader variety

of applications and is being investigated for a variety of sectors [7]. Blockchain technology is

finding applications in wide range of areas; both financial and non-financial.

Financial institutions are starting to embrace the idea of the blockchain technology, and no

longer see it as a threat to traditional business model. The world’s prominent banks are in fact

looking for opportunities in this area by doing research on innovative blockchain applications. In

an interview, Rain Lohmus of Estonia’s LHV bank remarked that they found Blockchain to be

the most tested and secure technology for some banking and finance related applications. Non-

Financial applications opportunities are also endless. We can envision putting proof of existence

of all legal documents, health records, and loyalty payments in the music industry, notary,

private securities, and marriage licenses in the blockchain. By storing the fingerprint of the

digital asset instead of storing the digital asset itself, the anonymity or privacy objective can be

achieved [8].

BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY PRINCIPLES.

The reasons why the blockchain technology is so admired are:

It is not owned by a single entity.

It is immutable, so the data in the blockchain is secure.

The data is cryptographically stored.

The data can be tracked, due to the blockchain transparency.

Decentralization

The nature of the blockchain network requires untrusted participants to reach a consensus. In

blockchain, consensus can be on “rules” (that determine e.g., which transactions are allowed, and

which are not, the number of bitcoins included in the block reward, the mining difficulty, etc.) or

on the history of “transactions” (that allows to determine who owns what). The decentralized

consensus on transactions governs the update of the ledger by transferring the responsibilities to

local nodes which independently verify the transactions and add them to the most cumulative

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computation throughput (longest chain rule). There is no integration point or central authority

required to approve transactions and set rules [9].

Transparency.

Blockchain technology facilitates processing, exchange, and storage of information with utmost

transparency. Every user participating in the network has a unique key, and on discretion, a user

can choose to remain anonymous or to reveal its identity [10]. Though the real identity of

individuals is secure, you will still see all the transactions that were done by their public address.

This level of transparency is novel within a financial system.

Immutability.

This simply means that once something enters the blockchain, it cannot be tampered with.

Immutability is relative and relates to how hard the history of transactions change. The

blockchain is only valid and accepted if the blocks are signed by a defined set of participants.

This means that, to recreate the chain, one would need to know private keys from the other

block-adders [11].

HOW THE BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY WORKS.

A suitable analogy for the blockchain technology is a spreadsheet that is duplicated thousands of

times across a network of computers. Then imagine that this network is designed to regularly

update this spreadsheet and you have a basic understanding of the blockchain.

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Information held on a blockchain exists as a shared and continually reconciled database. This is a

way of using the network that has obvious benefits. The blockchain database is not stored in any

particular location, meaning the records it keeps are truly public and easily verifiable. No

centralized version of this information exists for a hacker to corrupt. Hosted by millions of

computers simultaneously, its data is accessible to anyone on the internet [12].

Because the network is permissionless, block creation needs to be accessible to anyone.

Protocols often ensure this by requiring the user to put some “skin in the game” – they must put

their own money at risk. Doing so will allow them to participate in block creation, and if they

generate a valid one, they will be paid out a reward. Only transactions that have been included in

the blockchain are considered as valid and final.

However, if they attempt to cheat, the rest of the network will know. Whatever stake they have

put forward will be lost. We call these mechanisms consensus algorithms because they allow

network participants to reach consensus on what block should be added next [13].

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Source: https://steemit.com/blockchain/@nbadolsm/what-is-the-blockchain-technology--and-

how-does-it-work (Google.com)

PEER TO PEER NETWORK IN BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY.

A peer-to-peer (P2P) network consists of a group of devices that collectively store and share

files. Each participant (node) acts as an individual peer. Typically, all nodes have equal power

and perform the same tasks [14].

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Blockchain is a shared, trusted, public ledger of transactions, that everyone can inspect but which

no single user controls. This ledger runs on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network of computers.

Distributed consensus-based on economic incentive mechanisms combined with cryptography

allows for secure P2P validation of transactions, thus bypassing the need for traditional trusted

third parties. It first came to fame in October 2008 as part of a proposal for Bitcoin, with the aim

to create P2P money without banks. All network transactions get stored in the blockchain. For

example, Google Docs: Each person has the latest version of the document, and everybody can

inspect it. In order to change the contents of the doc, users need to reach a mutual agreement

(consensus). As opposed to Google Docs the file is not centrally stored, but each node of the

network keeps a copy of the blockchain – the distributed ledger recording all transaction history

[15].

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In summary, the peer-to-peer network permits sellers and buyers to buy or sell without the need

to go through any intermediaries. There are other use-cases of peer to peer including peer to peer

loans, peer to peer car rental, peer to peer payments, and so on. Another useful use case is peer-

to-peer insurance. The peer-to-peer networks are everywhere as we now have more than 2000+

cryptocurrencies that take advantage of these networks. The P2P networks are also used in

distributed computing applications such as: streaming platforms, web search engines, online

marketplaces, and so on. It is also part of the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) web protocol

[16].

CLASSIFICATION OF BLOCKCHAINS.

The diversity of blockchain research and development provides an opportunity for the

amalgamation of ideas and creativity. Most people classify blockchain applications into financial

and non-financial ones, since cryptocurrencies make up a considerable percentage of the existing

blockchain networks. Others classify them according to blockchain versions (i.e., 1.0, 2.0 and

3.0) [17, 18].

However, taking into consideration the heterogeneity of the blockchain technology, the

classification graphically represented in the figure below is more suitable [19].

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Different types of blockchain applications

Source: (sciencedirect.com: https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0736585318306324-gr5.jpg)

LITERATURE REVIEW.

Fran Casino, Thomas K. Dasaklis, Constantinos Patsakis (2019) worked on a literature review of

blockchain based application across multiple domains. They investigated the current state of the

blockchain technology and emphasized how specific characteristics can transform and augment

mediocre practices. They concluded that while blockchain applications are being widely utilized,

many issues have yet to be addressed. By doing so, blockchains will become not only more

adaptable and efficient but more durable as well. The features they offer are not distinctive if

judged individually, and the bulk of the mechanisms they are based on are well-known for years.

However, the combination of all these features makes them suitable for many applications

justifying the intense interest by several industries. As blockchains become more mature, their

applications are expected to penetrate more industries/domains than the ones covered in our

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survey. However, while many try to propose blockchains as a panacea and an alternative to

databases, this is far from true. As already discussed, there are many scenarios where traditional

databases should be used instead. Also, they identified the individual characteristics that are

mostly required per each application domain.

M. Crosby, P. Pattanayak, S. Verma, V. Kalyanaraman (2016) presented a paper describing the

blockchain technology and some compelling specific applications in both financial and non-

financial sector. The main hypothesis is that the blockchain establishes a system of creating a

distributed consensus in the digital online world. Challenges affecting the blockchain technology

were also included in the paper, and business opportunities that the technology can afford the

digital world. They described blockchain has Bitcoin’s backbone technology. The distributed

ledger functionality coupled with the security of Blockchain makes it a very attractive

technology to solve the current financial as well as non-financial industry problems. They

envisioned that the Blockchain technology is going through slow adoption due to the risks

associated and predicted that most of the startups will fail with few winners. And significant

adoption should be expected in a decade or two.

Jonathan Chiu and Thorsten V. Koeppl (2018) presented a study based on the economics of

cryptocurrencies. They studied the optimal design of cryptocurrencies and assess arithmetically

how well such currencies can support the exchange of goods between two nations. The

conclusion of this study was that, as the scale of a cryptocurrency increases, it becomes more

efficient. This sheds light on the reason why a double spending proof equilibrium exist only

when the user pool is sufficiently large, and why a cryptocurrency work best when the volume of

transaction is relatively large. For Bitcoin we found that it is not only extremely expensive in

terms of its mining costs, but also inefficient in its long-run design. However, the efficiency of

the Bitcoin system can be significantly improved by optimizing the rate of coin creation and

minimizing transaction fees.

Abhishek Sharma et al., (2020) analyzed the blockchain technology and its application to combat

COVID-19 pandemic. In the paper, they propose a blockchain-based platform to combat the

pandemic. Furthermore, they identified and discussed nine significant applications of blockchain

in solving the problem arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. It was inferred that the greatest

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challenge most governments are suffering from is the lack of a precise mechanism to detect the

newly infected cases and predict coronavirus infection risk. So, a technology empowered

solution is needed to fight the COVID-19 crisis. The various features of blockchain technology,

such as decentralization, transparency, and immutability, can help control this pandemic by early

detection of outbreaks, fast-tracking drug delivery, and protecting user privacy during treatment.

Lim Hong Hin (2019) analysis report of blockchain technology and its significant usage in new

era of digital economy. The researcher focused on some of the significant research issues and

new dimension of centralized data centers, distributed ledger technology, specific times tamped

with a unique cryptographic signature, tamper-proof auditable history of all transactions, some of

the significant research issues and challenges, statistical report of current blockchain technology

usage and future direction for highly secure technology of new era of digital economy.

Finally, the researcher concluded that blockchain technology are shared and write business

transactions to an unbreakable chain that is a permanent record, viewable by the parties in a

transaction. Blockchains shift the lens from information held by an individual owner to the cross-

entity history of an asset or transaction. The researcher shown that significant usage of

blockchain technology in digital economy with data encryption and higher level of security

parameters that happens, the attributes fundamental to blockchains have the potential to vaporize

the frictions that hold us back today. In this paper the researcher explored those attributes and

how blockchain can facilitate a new economic equation for organizations, trust, and value

exchange in new era of digital economy.

Paolo Tasca and Claudio J. Tessone (2019) carried out a comparative study on most widely

known technologies with a bottom-up approach. A taxonomy trees is used to diagrammatically

summarize the study and provide a navigation tool across different blockchain structural

configurations. It is hoped that this blockchain taxonomy will assist in the exploration of design

domains, in the implementation, deployment, and measurement of the performance of different

blockchain structure. They believe their taxonomy represents a timely, honest intellectual

exercise to be used as preliminary supporting material for all those interested in reducing

blockchain complexity. Even though it is very useful, they are aware of how prefatory their

taxonomy tree is, and it is likely the first version of subsequent more complex evolutions.

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Thomas Conlon et al., (2020) tested the widely mooted safe haven properties of Bitcoin,

Ethereum and Tether from the perspective of international equity index investors. This paper

considers the downside risk reduction properties of three cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ether and

Tether, during the initial bear market period associated with the COVID-19 crisis. They

examined the downside risk reduction for six international equity markets, shedding new light on

the safe haven properties of cryptocurrencies for international investors.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are not, in general, found to act as a safe haven for international equity

markets. They provided evidence of increased downside risk for portfolios consisting of any

allocation to these two assets relative to holding the underlying equity index in isolation. An

exception is for the CSI 300 index, where allocations of up to 16% to Bitcoin and 14% to

Ethereum may reduce downside risk. Above these thresholds, however, they observed a marked

relative increase in downside risk. Tether is found to act as a safe haven over the most recent

period including the COVID-19 crisis. Such downside risk hedging properties are not, however,

found to be consistent over time, due to large short-term historical losses in Tether, a

consequence of an unstable peg with the US dollar. It is unclear, from an asset management

perspective, as to why an investor would favor investment in Tether over cash holdings in US

dollars. Tether is exposed to added counterparty; technological; security and liquidity risk, in

addition to further issues around the stability of maintaining the USD peg during periods of

exceptional financial crisis.

SECTION III.

THE BLOCKCHAIN ECONOMY.

The blockchain economy is a scenario and potential future environment in which cryptocurrency

replaces current monetary systems, potentially on a global basis. For this study, the focus will be

on the economy of cryptocurrencies such as the Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency is a digital legal tender, designed as a means of exchange wherein ownership of

every individual coin is stored in a ledger (blockchain technology) existing as a form of

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computerized database using strong cryptography to protect transaction records, to control the

creation of new coins, and verify the transfer of coin ownership [20].

In 2017, the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed from $900 in January to about $20,000 by the year-end.

Digital currencies have proven to be highly volatile and risky, forcing several regulatory bodies,

including the Central Bank of Nigeria, to warn against huge investments in the crypto market,

especially after the crash of Bitcoin in 2018.

Fast forward to 2021, the global economy is now embracing the digital currency not only as a

medium of exchange but also as a source of risk and store of value. Elon Musk recently

purchased $1.5bn worth of Bitcoin, and MasterCard will begin to facilitate cryptocurrency

transactions in 2021 [21].

The emergence of cryptocurrency was met with a lot of skepticism. Some compared

cryptocurrency to Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, and economic bubbles [22]. Howard Marks

of Oaktree Capital Management stated in 2017 that digital currencies were "nothing but an

unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme), based on a willingness to ascribe value to

something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it", and compared them to the

tulip mania (1637), South Sea Bubble (1720), and dot-com bubble (1999) [23].

Political Influence on the Blockchain Economy.

Many governments have taken a cautious approach towards cryptocurrency, for fear of lack of

central control, and the impact it will have on financial security, and the financial markets.

Examples of countries that have created policies to proscribe the adoption of cryptocurrencies

include Nigeria, Bolivia, Turkey, China, Egypt, Nepal, South Korea, Qatar etc. Nigeria, the

largest cryptocurrency market in Africa, threatened to close bank accounts found using

cryptocurrency exchanges, Qatar prohibits banks from dealing with cryptocurrency, Egypt

considers cryptocurrency as Haram, people get arrested in Nepal for running cryptocurrency

exchange, while some countries place an outright ban on transactions involving cryptocurrency,

other countries such as South Korea placed a ban on certain privacy coins [24].

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Although cryptocurrency trade has been banned in China since 2019, fresh curbs were placed on

cryptocurrencies in 2021. This led to the price of Bitcoin falling below $34,000 (£24,030) for the

first time in three months as of the 19th of May 2021. Other digital currencies such as Ether,

which acts as the fuel for the Ethereum blockchain network, and Dogecoin lost as much as 22%

and 24% respectively [25].

The ban on cryptocurrency by CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) does not illegalize buying of BTC

and other digital assets, however, prohibits Nigerians from utilizing their debit cards to directly

purchase BTC and other digital assets. This makes it more difficult for Nigerians to buy Bitcoin

and sell.

The indigenous cryptocurrency sector, which happens to be one of the largest in the African

continent, will also be affected and will be seriously scrutinized following the ban. After

recording huge successes last year, the indigenous digital asset start-ups were predicted to record

much greater success. Investments and acquisitions were forecasted earlier this year. However,

with the current restriction placed by the CBN, such plans and predictions will be paused

presently as the cryptocurrency startups fight the skepticism of the latest regulation [26].

Bitcoin price decline after crackdown on cryptocurrency.

Source: coindesk.com

The ban of cryptocurrency in Nigeria have been known to engender the following economic

implications.

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Investment.

The ban on cryptocurrency could reduce the flow of investment into the country, as global

investors are beginning to show interest in cryptocurrency. Recently, Jay Z and Jack Dorsey

announced $23.6mil investment to fund Bitcoin development in Africa. Also, influencers in the

finance industry, such as JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have developed a fast-growing interest

in the crypto world. This is good news, but this could limit potential investment in-flows that

would boost economic growth in countries with cryptocurrency bans.

Shadow Economy.

Bitcoin was created solely to eliminate the middleman in financial transactions particularly

across borders. The ban is unlikely to completely stop all transactions. What is more likely is the

rise of a crypto shadow economy, which could now increase the chances of money laundering

and illicit financial flows. There would be no more advertisements by popular exchanges on

social media platforms and no transactions using financial institutions.

Capital Flight.

The decision to ban cryptocurrency by the Central Bank of Nigeria might elicit pessimism in the

minds of potential investors who were already skeptical about the unstable policy environment.

The effect of this will be capital outflow, and this can negatively impact the currency and

infrastructural development.

Poverty and Unemployment.

The fast growth of the crypto market has created numerous job opportunities for youths in

Nigeria. The ban of cryptocurrency will affect traders, and their employees. Stopping the

operations of the emerging crypto market means less jobs, and this could trigger a faster increase

in the rate of unemployment which is already at 27.1% [27].

Impact of Socio-Economic Problems on Cryptocurrency.

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Taking Nigeria has a case study, being the largest cryptocurrency market in Africa. It is common

knowledge that Nigeria has been battling economic problems for quite some time now.

Economic problems such as corruption, insecurity, bad governance, unemployment, crime and

terrorism, and so on. Due to the strict foreign exchange laws which have led to the scarcity of

dollars, the decreasing confidence in the nation’s fiat currency, and inflation, Nigerians have

turned to alternative currencies, which have led to the astronomical growth of bitcoin in Nigeria.

Bitcoin Growth in Nigeria.

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1196092/bitcoin-market-size-nigeria/

Nigeria has traded 60,215 bitcoins in the past five years, valued at over $566 million. Bitcoin

trade in Nigeria have increased yearly at least 19% in volume since 2017, and the highest volume

(20,504.50) was traded in 2020.

During the police brutality protests in Nigeria in October 2020, bitcoin saved the day when the

government shut out protesters from using local payment platforms for collecting donations to

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support it. In about a week bitcoin accounted for around 40% of the nearly $400,000 raised. This

is a perfect example of how young Nigerians increasingly use bitcoin to navigate a complicated

and restrictive banking and monetary system [28].

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Blockchain Economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic caught humanity unprepared. Even as science and technology have

developed beyond anyone’s imagination, the pandemic not only unexpectedly affected the social

and economic lives of societies but also disrupted individuals’ mental health and well-being.

Billions around the world suddenly were confined in their own homes, and nearly all economic

activities in many countries came to an abrupt stop [29].

Based on the study carried out during the pandemic, the cryptocurrency market seemed to have

boomed. When the pandemic erupted, Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency, could be

purchased for about $7,300. Today, the very same token costs more than $46,800, a staggering

640 percent rise. Other leading cryptocurrencies (e.g., Ether), showed similar (or even greater)

increases [30].

During the pandemic, international equity index investors inferred that cryptocurrency had safe

haven benefits that will greatly favor the equity market. The concept of an investment safe haven

is motivated by investor loss aversion [31], where investors are more concerned with avoiding

losses than any associated prospective gains [32]. This loss aversion motivates investors to seek

out safe haven assets, i.e., assets that are uncorrelated or negatively correlated with traditional

assets during periods of market unrest [33]. Various safe haven assets have been established at

short to medium horizons, including gold, currencies, long dated treasury bonds and, most

recently, cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin and Ethereum were observed to be suitable as short-term safe havens during the extreme

stock market plunges. Ethereum is plausibly a better haven than Bitcoin during the pandemic.

However, it was uncovered that before and during the pandemic, Ethereum exhibits the highest

daily return volatility, followed by Bitcoin, S&P500, and gold [34].

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Aside from cryptocurrency, there were other applications of the blockchain technology that were

utilized during the pandemic. A major problem during the pandemic time was the need for

reliable and up-to-date data concerning the outbreak and spread of novel coronavirus.

Blockchain technology helped resolve this problem very effectively. One of the essential

advantages of this technology is providing verifiable and secure data by using its distributed

ledger technology and peer-to-peer networking features [35, 36, 37]. During the pandemic, the

blockchain technology was leveraged in recording patient information with COVID-19

symptoms, locations, and history of health conditions with high privacy. Many platforms have

recently been launched which use this technology to facilitate sharing the information and

valuable data related to COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a platform

in March 2020. It is a blockchain technology-based platform which facilitates private

information sharing between individuals, state authorities, and health institutions. This platform

also allows privacy-enabled self-reporting by allowing public health officials and individuals to

upload data about different infection times and exact location [38, 39].

The contribution of the blockchain technology during the pandemic include; Disease control

(accurate disease surveillance), tracking of infected patients, bolstering supply chain of medical

parts during this crisis, improving transparency during the treatment of infected patients, tracking

of healthcare instruments, blockchain technology helps to monitor the quarantine cases

effectively at home and the hospitals, storage and transfer of treatment-related information,

effective healthcare management during the crisis and so on [40].

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Contributions of Blockchain Technology During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Source: Abhishek et al, (2020).

The blockchain technology was also utilized for privacy protection and data security for remote

learning and remote working during the pandemic.

CONCLUSION.

In this study, we have presented the effects of political events, socio-economic problems and the

COVID-19 pandemic on the blockchain economy. The fact that the slow adoption of the

blockchain economy is due to the risk involved is not true in all cases. Cryptocurrency in some

of the countries where it is shunned, has done more for the citizens than the government has done

in years. Nigeria for example, cryptocurrency affords Nigerians the opportunity to broaden their

horizons in term of investments, creates job opportunities, and attract and foster bilateral trade.

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Focus should be shifted to leveraging the blockchain technology and the huge interest in

blockchain-based businesses for infrastructural development, revolutionizing the economy,

engendering bilateral trade, augmenting the voting system, and curtailing corruption.

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