Professional Perspective

Information and Communication Technology has changed the society, it has become the lifeblood of the society. Today the dependence level on information and communication    has increased with the increase in technology. Today all our daily activities are being influenced by the ICT. The information providers who have undertaken the development and operation have an obligation to ensure the integrity of the information. In this fast spreading information society, it has increased the danger of antisocial activities. These activities such as unauthorised access, data theft, identity theft and various types of marketing and business are spreading through information technology that is not safe for the society. In recent years the spread of crypto currencies are spreading in the world such as Bitcoin. In a recent, article in Forbes on 10^th March 2018 where it is stated that there is a need to shut Bitcoin and all other crypto currencies down (Bloomberg, 2018). An ethical dilemma of illicit cryptomining is rising in a society. It can be more understood by the three ethical perspectives of ICT that is professional, philosophical and Sociological.

It can be said from the professional perspective that in the current information world where cryptocurrencies and the use of Bitcoin has begun. It is necessary to have a professional perspective to solve the ethical dilemma that is rising in a society due to Bitcoin (Medium, 2018). The ethical issue of Bitcoin is that it has a soaring price but there is no intrinsic value. A high demand Bitcoin price has rapidly increased in the market in a year. Nobel Laureate Joseph had stated that it should be outlawed, and the Andrew Bailey of The UK chief financial regulator stated that it is not a currency but it is a commodity (Booth, 2018). The Bitcoin has become the part of the debate all around the world whether it is a digital currency or any commodity. The digital currency is that which is spent against goods or commodity. The Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies have its own value like gold. Gold has the value because it is naturally scarce but Bitcoin are limited in number but it cannot say that they are naturally scarce.

The problem of Bitcoin is that it does not have a block-chain for anyone. It means that any criminal can use Bitcoin for its illicit purpose. The cryptocurrencies can give rise to bigger threats such as terrorism funding, money laundering and tax evasion. Criminal activities such as illicit cryptomining have become the major issue (Booth, 2018). It is an ethical Issue that other infiltrations are becomes common these days. Through malware attacks and all your data can be theft but at least it is detected by corporations. In the case of illicit cryptomining, it cannot be determined as criminals and through they can easily do their illicit work. By this, it will become easy for the criminals to fulfil their ill-gotten gains.

Philosophical Perspective

As per Professional perspective it is required by the corporation all around the world to implement know your customer (KYC) theory so that the corporation can have the details of the person with whom they are doing the business. It also raises the question that who is processing the transaction of cryptocurrencies, is it manufacturer, corporation, miner and any government organisation (Corradi, & Höfner, 2018). If any criminal who is processing the cryptocurrencies that means that the holders of currencies are supporting criminals (Partington, 2018). The corporation should try to stop illicit cryptomining to prevent these types of threats but it is very difficult to implement and it cannot be run in the future. There are two ways either fully legalize the currencies or do what it is now to make cryptocurrencies illegal.

The philosophical perspective is a broader way of determining the truth and by the exact means. The philosophical concept is a bigger concept than the professional concept. Philosophical perspective deals with the exact truth and determines the disciplines to deal with this. There are many philosophical theories from which the Bitcoin and the cryptocurrencies ethical issues can be solved. There are three theories of philosophical are, the study of mind, language and science are included in Metaphysics. Epistemology examines the cognitive contact with the world. Ethics includes Philosophies of law, social and aesthetics. From these theories, one can understand the real consequences of Bitcoin (Neill, 2018).

The corporation who are involved in the transactions of the cryptocurrencies must be guided by the real consequences of this like illicit cryptocurrency. The illicit cryptocurrency can have a big impact on the world. There is a need to have some ethical issues that should be solved from which the real illicit use can be avoided (Karlstrøm, 2014). However, the cryptocurrency should be more dealt with by making awareness about the currency.  The government should take proper ethical steps and aware the societies about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies that how they are misguiding the society (Popper, 2018). The ethical issue is rising due to the misuse of the technology for their personal motive. It is required that the deontologist theory must be applied to stop the society to use cryptocurrency.  The deontologist theory more focusses on the duty and the obligation of the government of different countries towards its citizens. The corporations are required to work in a discipline and they should guide the ethics to their employees.

Sociological Perspective

In this information world where information is transformed at a very high speed. The society it has become more dependence on the information and technology. There is a need to protect the society from the ethical breaches. The society is affected by the increasingly ethical breaches. Corporations and the society have the social responsibility to protect from these illicit acts. In recent times, the use of cryptocurrencies has increased. This caused a major issue that has raised the major issue whether the cryptocurrencies are safe (Stein, 2018). The cryptocurrencies as mentioned in the article are not safe that can be used by the criminals for the illicit purpose. From a sociological perspective, it is not safe for the society as the cryptocurrencies that can be used for the terror funding. The moral issues should be raised that the use of cryptocurrencies can be dangerous and the operation of that currencies can be in the hands of the criminals. From sociological perspective, the use of cryptocurrencies cannot be justified and it is required to totally ban on these types of currencies. These cryptocurrencies can be a big threat for the country (Karlstrøm, 2014). The ICT role has become so important for the society that comes with an ethical obligation to protect the society. There is a need to aware the society from the illicit crypto mining.

Conclusion   

In conclusion, it can say that due to the increase in information and communication technology and with the advancement of it, it has raised many ethical issues that are very dangerous for the society. The use of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is required to shut down. As it can affect the society and cause many ethical issues. From profession, philosophical and sociological perspective it can say that there is a strict requirement to shut and cannot be legal in anyway. This currency does not have a blockchain that anyone can sign up and use the currency for the illicit purpose. It is a big ethical dilemma for the society as the cryptocurrencies can have a threat to the country security. These three theories are become very necessary to deal with this type of dilemma. Various authors and professionals have various views on this type of dilemma but no one has the exact viewpoint on it. Through some malware attacks, your all data can be theft but somewhere it can be detected in the system. In the case of illicit crypto mining, it cannot be determined and the criminals can easily do their illicit work. By this, it will become easy for the criminals to fulfil their ill-gotten gains. Therefore, it is concluded that the Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies does not have any space in the market and it should be shut down to prevent the society.

References

Bloomberg, J. (2018). We need to shut Bitcoin and all the cryptocurrencies down. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2018/03/10/we-need-to-shut-bitcoin-and-all-other-cryptocurrencies-down-heres-why/#343c1101bca8

Booth, P. (2018) The economics and the ethics of Bitcoin.Retrieved from: https://acton.org/publications/transatlantic/2017/12/15/economics-and-ethics-bitcoin

Medium (2018). The philosophy of Bitcoin. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/@BlockchainEng/the-philosophy-of-bitcoin-chapter-1-what-is-bitcoin-what-is-money-3ba2e1ee73db

Neill, E. (2018). The Ethics of Mining Bitcoin. Retrieved from: https://www.icas.com/education-and-qualifications/the-ethics-of-mining-bitcoin-student-blog

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2018) https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-computer/#CybVieHumNat

Karlstrøm, H. (2014). Do libertarians dream of electric coins? The material embeddedness of Bitcoin. Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 15(1), 23-36.

Corradi, F., & Höfner, P. (2018). The disenchantment of Bitcoin: unveiling the myth of a digital currency. International Review of Sociology, 28(1), 193-207.

Partington, R. (2018). Bitcoin soaring value has down to infected buyers. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/10/bitcoin-soaring-value-buyers-infectious-disease-barclays-economists-say

Popper, N.  (2018). Bicoin seems wall street warm to trading virtual currency. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/07/technology/bitcoin-new-york-stock-exchange.html

Stein, L. (2018). Bitcoin: Here’s what would happen if the ‘bubble’ burst. Retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-01/heres-what-would-happen-if-the-bitcoin-bubble-burst/9201942