On the eve of the World Savings Day, which is traditionally celebrated on the last day of October, students of the Educational and Research Institute of Finance, Economics, Management and Law of the National University "Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic" under the guidance of Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor of the Department of Finance, Banking Business and Taxation Svitlana Yehorycheva held the first meeting of the student scientific club "Virtual Currencies: Essence, Purpose, Risks" in the 2022-2023 academic year, dedicated to the extremely interesting and complex topic of virtual (digital) currencies.
In science and in the expert community, there are various, sometimes radically opposite, approaches to determining their essence, but everyone agrees that cryptocurrencies have become a significant investment object, a source of income for many participants in the process of their extraction and use, therefore they are directly related to finance. The relevance of this issue is determined by the fact that at the beginning of the year Ukraine adopted the law "On Virtual Assets", and the National Bank of Ukraine, taking into account the position of the European Central Bank on the near future of the introducing the digital euro, is considering the possibility of introducing the e-hryvnia in our country.
In her introductory speech, head of the student scientific club, Doctor of Economic Sciences, professor of the Department of Finance, Banking Business and Taxation of the Poltava Polytechnic Svitlana Yehorycheva noted that the first meeting of the club traditionally takes place on the eve of the World Savings Day, which is celebrated on October 31. In this regard, the issue of virtual currencies can be studied both from the point of view of the need to save resources (since the global’s electricity costs for their "mining" are from 8 to 15 GW every hour), and considering them as objects of sufficiently risky investment of saved funds.
The members of the club discussed meaningful reports, thorough scientific research, presented by future financiers. The speakers analyzed in detail the history of the emergence and types of virtual currencies, characterized the up-to-date mechanisms of circulation and use of cryptocurrencies, as well as the evolution of the global banking system in relation to digital currencies.
In particular, a student of the BB-301 group Oleksandr Terpak and a student of the EF-301 group Tetiana Shapoval, in a joint thematic report "The history of emergence, essence and types of virtual currencies" traced the history of the origin and implementation of the idea of creating virtual currencies based on blockchain technology since 1983. In the speech, the authors summarized modern approaches to defining the essence of digital currencies, characterized the main provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On Virtual Assets", talked in detail about some of the 19,000 currently existing crypto currencies – Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Freicoin.
Tetiana Zahorulko, a student of the UFB-501 group, presented a topical report "Modern Mechanism of Circulation and Use of Cryptocurrencies" and provided the necessary explanations regarding the mechanism for conducting transactions with cryptocurrencies based on the blockchain. The speaker described various areas of their use: investment, trading, payments for goods and services. The young scientist paid special attention to determining the risks of owning and using cryptocurrencies.
Oleksandr Koriachko, a student of the UFB-501 group, in his speech "Digital Currencies and Central Banks: From Non-acceptance to Implementation" analyzed the evolution of the attitude of the central banks of the countries of the world towards virtual currencies and spoke about a number of reasons why central banks are now studying the possibilities of introducing their own digital currencies to optimize money circulation.
Valeriia Vlasenko, a student of the EF-401 group, presented to the audience a speech "Problems of countering the legalization of criminal income and financing terrorism through the use of virtual currencies", in which she emphasized that the anonymity inherent in cryptocurrencies makes them an extremely attractive object for use for the purpose of money laundering and financing of terrorism, and in modern languages – to circumvent economic sanctions. That is why all states, including Ukraine, have already recognized service providers related to the circulation of virtual assets as subjects of the system of preventing and countering these threatening phenomena.
Scientific and pedagogical staff of the Department of Finance, Banking Business and Taxation of the National University "Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic" systematically conduct professional and educational activities and involve highly qualified experts of the financial and banking sphere in a constructive dialogue with student youth.
Previously, future financiers learned how to invest savings and increase personal financial literacy, considered current trends in credit unions, and students learned how to effectively plan expenses and save money.
Media Center of
National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”
