Summary: This paper was a summarization of Bitcoin back in 2014 when the platform was starting to gain a lot of attention because of its spike in value. I think that overall the paper focuses too much on the technical aspect of why bitcoin gained traction instead I would have preferred a historical approach of what attitudes led to the creation of the currency. The first bitcoin transaction was signed with a complaint against the global banking order (or something like that) and the early adopters of the currency were people who didn't really have a lot of trust in a government that could print endless amounts of cash. The paper doesn't focus much on this, and as a result skips over a lot of the reasons bitcoin in my opinion became popular.
What I liked:
The paper acknowledged the evolving nature of the bitcoin system
The study was first in its field when it came out around 2014
The paper gives a good technical history of the technology that preceded Blockchains
Paper is a very broad survey of a lot of different topics in bitcoin - very good briefer
Easy to understand for a person who didn't really know much about the technology
What I didn't like:
The paper is a little bit outdated given its been a couple years
The paper doesn't really acknowledge times when miners have worked together in order to preserve the system
The paper doesn't really go into details about major problems the blockchain has faced ie one time there were two chains in the world that created a major problem
The paper doesn't seem to understand that it doesn't make sense for a person to control the network - because first its expensive to do, second if they do control the network the network becomes worthless
The paper doesn't go into much depth about a lot of the future about where the tech is going in enough depth
Points for discussion:
How open is Bitcoin to price manipulation
What role does/should ethics play for miners processing transactions on the network
Why have researchers stayed away to the field prior to this paper?
Despite no security studies how has the system remained secure
How can this forking system be replicated in order systems?
New Ideas:
Some type of 3rd party that can rate how illegal a transaction might be so it isn't transacted on the network
New ways to prevent criminals from using the network to launder money
How can bitcoin be used as a free speech platform given its immutability
Bitcoin arbitrage across different markets because of price discrepancies
Optimal time to move money, when transaction count is low