In 2008, an anonymous developer publishing under the name Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin and the blockchain—not merely a new payment technology, but a direct challenge to the state’s monopoly on monetary infrastructure. Intermediary driven reconciliation was replaced with algorithmic validation, allowing individuals to exchange value instantaneously anywhere in the world. Few could anticipate the transformational shift and the disruptive impact it would have on the financial system.
What began as a fringe experiment in decentralized exchange has become a geopolitical instrument: used by adversary nations to evade sanctions, by ransomware operators to extort critical infrastructure, and simultaneously to expand financial market access to the unbanked, decreasing transaction costs and improving transaction efficiency.
The question facing homeland and national security practitioners is no longer whether cryptographic currency is consequential—it plainly is—but whether the institutions designed to protect economic security are equipped to govern it.
Cryptocurrency examines how decentralized finance reshapes the boundaries of national power, the regulatory frameworks struggling to keep pace, and the hard tradeoffs between financial innovation and security.
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Describe characteristics of different digital assets
- Understand cryptocurrency market and current uses of crypto
- Identify challenges regulating the cryptocurrency market
- Explain disintermediation
- Describe potential powershifts and impact on national security
- Describe how power shift might impact own area of responsibility
- Identify steps to mitigate potential impacts
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