Questão de Língua Inglesa

Instrução: The questions from 11 to 20 are related to the text below. 01. Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, ended 02. 2015 as the year’s best-performing currency. Achieving 03. this recognition has not always been plain sailing, 04. however. Its association with crime – namely money 05. laundering and narcotics the online black market 06. Silk Road – as well as an alarming amount of price volatility 07. has left regulators and financial-market participants 08. wary of its potential implications, and reluctant 09. to embrace it wholesale thus far. Recent attention, 10. moreover, has been focused more towards bitcoin’s 11. underlying payment system than on the value of the 12. currency itself. The technology underpinning bitcoin 13. operates using a decentralized payment system, which 14. means that a payment between two parties is direct 15. and relies reliable copies of the ledger being 16. distributed to a vast network of bitcoin users 17. around the world, who can verify any changes which 18. makes the ledger considerably more secure – and 19. subject to nefarious manipulation, which relies on the 20. trust of one central entity. As digital currencies 21. emerge, therefore, the preference for decentralised 22. payment systems would ostensibly render the banking 23. intermediary redundant, which raises pertinent 24. questions regarding the role – or lack thereof – of central 25. banks. It should be stressed that the overall value of 26. bitcoins is negligible in comparison to the value of notes 27. and coins, and therefore is unlikely to make noticeable 28. dents in any financial system. However, the potential 29. impact of the digital currency is not being taken lightly. 30. It could disrupt the ability of central banks to exert 31. control over the economy, as well as to issue 32. money, although such concern was explicitly based 33. on the assumption that “widespread adoption” 34. would reduce the functions of a central body. At 35. this stage, most central banks are closely noting 36. developments in the growth of bitcoin and proposing 37. the issuance of a digital version of their fiat currencies has 38. been the way some of them have already responded. From: The Impact of Bitcoin on Ce nt ra l B an ks a ce sso e m 27/12/2107 https://internationalbanker.com/banking/impact-bitcoin-central-banks/ April 11, 2016emily.frost@internationalbanker.com Pág. 5