How to Start with Cryptocurrency | Episode 10: Cryptocurrency Systems, Environment, and Price Movements [Fudou Shutaro]

A person who calls himself Satoshi Nakamoto is believed to have published papers on the technology of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin around 2008, so the history of virtual currencies spans only about 10 years. However, the environment surrounding virtual currencies and their prices changes extremely rapidly. This time, we hear from Fudou Shutaro about recent developments in the virtual currency system, environment, and price outlook.

※This article is a re-edit of an article from FX攻略.com August 2019 issue. Please note that the market information written in the text differs from the current market.

Fudou Shutaro (Fudō Shūtarō) Profile

Currency instructor and author. Releases seminar DVDs and interview CDs from publishers. In addition to giving talks at financial exchanges, stock exchanges, FX companies, and investment trust companies, he writes for magazines and serves as a school instructor for FX and stocks.

Official site：Fudou Shutaro's "Behind the News Coverage"
twitter：https://twitter.com/syutaro_fudo

Names of Virtual Currencies

In English-speaking regions, virtual currencies are called cryptocurrency, and a direct translation of this term into Japanese is “encrypted (crypted) currency.” Meanwhile, in Japan, after the Mount Gox incident in 2014 was widely reported in newspapers and TV as a theft of virtual currency (Bitcoin), the term virtual currency became well known to most Japanese people.

However, since around 2018, official documents such as those on the Japanese Ministry of Finance website have increasingly used the term “crypto asset” instead of virtual currency. For example, in the Ministry of Finance’s document for the 20-Nation Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Conference (translated), the term crypto asset is repeatedly used. In the future, virtual currencies seem likely to be treated as assets internationally. In documents from Japanese authorities, the notation “virtual currency (crypto asset)” with parentheses has already become common.

Now, even though a country may have a small and unstable economy, many such countries issue their own currencies. In these countries, the domestic currency may suffer inflation, and major currencies like the dollar or euro are often welcomed domestically. However, if several types of currencies are used heavily within one country, it becomes difficult for that nation to manage fiscal policy by adjusting money supply and interest rates as an economic measure.

Japanese financial authorities may be aiming to treat virtual currencies not as currencies but as assets, anticipating that the circulation of virtual currencies like Bitcoin will expand and have a larger impact on the economy in the near future.