This study aims to get an insight into the intellectual structure, current research themes, and future research directions on digital currency, cryptocurrency, and blockchain. Bibliometric analysis coupled with performance analysis and cluster analysis has been conducted on the digital currency articles, published between the years 2011 and 2023, filtered using PRISMA protocol, and extracted from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. Network analysis was carried out in the Biblioshiny package of R software and VOSviewer. The study highlights that the research of digital currency is classified into four broad categories: ‘emerging technology', ‘cryptocurrencies portfolios', ‘cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange and an asset class', and ‘cryptocurrencies and financial risk'. The chapter presents an innovative model focusing on productive avenues for future research by synthesizing the latest research articles extracted from the databases, related to digital currency through bibliometric analysis.
Top1. Introduction
The performance of modern organizations is largely influenced by the effective utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) in the contemporary competitive world (Müller and Antoni, 2020). Applications of ICT and Blockchain Technologies have enhanced financial performance, innovation, supply chain, value creation, competitiveness, decision-making, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, sustainability, and overall management of the organizations (Eze et al., 2019; Inegbedion, 2021). Cryptocurrency is a decentralized digital currency that utilizes blockchain technology. It exists as virtual currency without any physical form, ensuring secure and invisible transactions. Examples of cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero. Satoshi Nakamoto introduced blockchain through Bitcoin. Blockchain is a digital data storage system that uses cryptography to create a linear chain of records. Cryptocurrencies are protected by cryptography and enable decentralized digital ledgers. Bitcoin and Ether, used in the Ethereum blockchain, are currently the most widely adopted cryptocurrencies (Khan and Hakami, 2022).
Digital Currency, Crypto Currency, and Blockchain are significantly evolving research domains in the contemporary techno-economic sphere and have started disrupting traditional financial systems. Digital Currency is an electronic form of currency. These currencies are considered assets that are influenced by various supply and demand factors. To record the transactions of encrypted digital currencies, blockchain technology is being broadly utilized (Ahluwalia et al., 2020). Blockchain technology has potential applications far beyond cryptocurrencies which are witnessed in many sectors primarily at the nascent stage. The core focus of the first-generation blockchain technology has been on the applications in cryptocurrencies (Tönnissen et al., 2020). Blockchain is an underlying technology on which most cryptocurrencies rely. It provides a secure mechanism for fast, economical, and reliable financial transactions (Duan and Guo, 2021). Blockchain technology is prominently used to develop digital currencies and cryptocurrencies in money transfer (Ali et al., 2020) are traded in various crypto exchanges and electronic markets (Alt, 2020). Blockchain-based applications are significantly increasing in the evolving fintech segment (Chang et al., 2020). The crypto marketplaces have a relationship with blockchain technology and shape the functioning of electronic trading (Alt and Wende, 2020).
A large number of research papers have been published in the areas of digital currencies, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain in recent years. The focus of researchers has shifted from Bitcoin to the broader cryptocurrency market (Jalal et al., 2021). Research gaps in the domain of blockchain and cryptocurrency have been highlighted in many research studies. The dearth of research in cryptocurrency adoption with weak research methods in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency (Al-Amri et al., 2019; Sharma et al., 2019)along with the Lack of focused applied research in blockchain, insufficient systematic research in blockchain sustainability, with the scarcity of bibliometric reports on blockchain applications(Drljevic et al., 2020; Esmaeilian, B., Sarkis, J., Lewis, K. and Behdad, 2020; Firdaus et al., 2019) are prominent knowledge gaps recommended as future research directions. Following the future research direction suggested by Firdaus et al., (2019) and Dashkevich et al., (2020) apply the bibliometric analysis to get a better insight into the evolving structure of knowledge and potential research directions linked with blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital currency.