EPQ on Crypto currencies - difficulty of finding adequate academic materials/references

[Iamsodone]

Hello all,
Any advice or words of wisdom on the subject of references/materials for a research project on cryptocurrencies, as it's fast moving and relatively new area, finding solid/trustworthy academic references etc is proven a little difficult. thank you

Use grey literature with a clear inclusion / exclusion strategy and assessment of reliability.

But I feel like every man and his dog has been writing about cryptocurrencies over the past few years. Are you looking for research in a specific area or on a specific topic?

Are there any academics whose work you trust? Try searching their Google Scholar profile to see their papers, and who they cite. If there are research groups doing work in this area, look at their web pages for latest publications. Lastly, look for proceedings for conferences run by academic institutions.

That's like saying the project is about elbows or sparrows... what is the specific research question?

If you want anything on the legal side it's worth looking at the Financial Conduct Authority and Advertising Standards Authority websites.

(not academic but authoritative)

You could try and see if your local library offers this 'walk in' service.

www.accesstoresearch.org.uk/

One of my students has just submitted their proposed EPQ title and it is comparing crypto currencies with something else. One point I raised with them is that of research of the appropriate scholarly standard. Their answer was: "don't worry Miss, there's a lot of stuff out there and I'm already ploughing my way through references I've found on JSTOR and Google Scholar." They read The Economist regularly and our school also subscribes to something with lots of datasets so I'm sure they will be fine.

As a supervisor, I need to point out that if it is you that is doing the work, you need to talk to your supervisor. If it is your child, you need to step back as it's their issue to solve.

DD did a veterinary EPQ on some new product or therapy or something that wasn't on the market yet, and she struggled to find much, because it was all so new. I remember she emailed a journalist who had written an article about it. She asked him some questions, and he was really helpful.

Each currency releases a white paper which could be of help plus there is a peer reviewed journal Ledger - definitely quite a few academic papers out there. There's definitely lots to write about. I can recommend Coin Bureau on YouTube as a good source of quality information.

thanks all ! really appreciated. it's about the future of crypto.

That's still incredibly vague. Ethics of crypto? Accessibility? Speculation? Position as a financial instrument? There is a wealth of information, but as someone suggested upthread, start with the basics from the Economist.

Has this title been approved? I steer my students away from anything speculative because they cannot research it adequately.