A Literature Review on Bitcoin: Transformation of Crypto Currency Into a Global Phenomenon

Bitcoin is a crypto-currency-based open-source technology that operates in the peer-to-peer grid as a private payment mechanism. Bitcoin works on sophisticated cryptography supported by a local community in a peer-to-peer network. This study reviews scholarly articles to understand how bitcoin is addressed in the literature. The study reports on the attributes of bitcoin through a systematic literature review. The paper is based on primary data from existing literature and secondary data from relevant case studies in the public domain. Unlike other currencies, Bitcoin seems to have faced many hurdles and with many applications in day-to-day life, created unique challenges for the end user community. When Bitcoin came into existence, it seemed to signal hope for a better future, but the growth of bitcoin is hard to predict. Bitcoin opens up an entirely new world for both practitioners and academicians. Further, this study presents an idea about the “potential” of bitcoin, highlights the prerequisites, needs, implications, and challenges faced by bitcoin in processing business transactions.