Bitcoin has become the darling of academia, with more than 13,700 related papers in 2019

On January 3, 2020, the Bitcoin network officially ushered in its 11th birthday, and this technology changed the lives of many people. Since the advent of blockchain, scholars and economists have conducted in-depth research on this topic and have written thousands of academic papers. In 2019, the Bitcoin protocol was mentioned in more than 13,700 academic papers and articles by Google Scholars.

Academia loves Bitcoin

During Halloween 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published a Bitcoin white paper online. He may not know how big his invention will be. After publishing the paper on the cryptography mailing list, he launched the network two months later. The technology is slowly starting to get noticed, and people will see related discussions on forums and social media.

In 2009, shortly after the Bitcoin network went live, analysts, teachers, students, and economists noticed this interesting protocol called Bitcoin. Therefore, scholars began to study this topic and regularly wrote systematic research work and papers to increase their understanding of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency solutions. Bitcoin was mentioned in about 83 Google Scholar articles in 2009, and in 2010, that number jumped to 136.

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Research on the subject of cryptocurrencies continues to create a great deal of knowledge. Published digital currency papers help establish standards and confirm facts, while reaffirming the results of network tests. In addition, diligent researchers write dissertations to solve the problems of distributed ledger technology. Cryptocurrency papers and academic journals are also discussing and supporting theorems and some assumptions.

Between 2011 and 2013, many Google scholars' papers claimed that blockchain technology is a waste of resources and believed that Bitcoin will not survive. At the same time, some other studies published earlier detail how blockchain and cryptocurrency solutions can revolutionize the financial world.

In 2011, there were 218 academic papers mentioning Bitcoin on the Google Scholar platform, and the number doubled in the second year. In 2013, about 868 academic papers mentioned Bitcoin, which doubled again. Since 2014, 2070 related academic articles have been found online, the number of which has increased by 561%. Today, more than 13,700 Google academic articles online mention Bitcoin.

Who loves writing bitcoin academic papers?

These academic papers come from well-known universities such as Duke University, Princeton University, Cornell University, Cambridge University, MIT, Harvard University, Stanford University, and Oxford University. Not only well-known universities and Ivy League schools, but also governments, financial institutions, central banks, and economists who have participated in blockchain research have written academic articles.

Major universities around the world now have specialized research centers, cryptocurrency-related courses, and specialized colleges to study the technology. In 2019, a report released by Coinbase stated that 56% of the top 50 universities in the world offered at least one course involving crypto or blockchain. Compared to 2018, twice as many students said they took blockchain-related courses.

(As of December 25, there were more than 13,700 Google Scholar papers published in 2019, and more than 22,000 research results in 2009-2019.)

There are 13,700 Google academic papers on bitcoin on the Internet, and the specific forms vary, such as introducing the basics of cryptocurrencies, remittance solutions, smart contracts, and distributed ledger technology. Other academic articles go deeper, discussing topics involving complex computer networks, but also law, mathematics, economics, and sociology. Some papers consider different types of attacks and vulnerabilities, while others focus on improving Bitcoin's infrastructure and third-party applications.

Since the birth of the Internet, academic publishing has transitioned to a huge online environment, and transformative technologies like Bitcoin have been well reflected in articles published online by Google Scholars.

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