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The Ethics of Payments: Paper, Plastic, or Bitcoin?

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  • James Angel
  • Douglas McCabe

Abstract

Individuals and businesses make numerous payments every day. They sometimes have choices about what forms of payment to make or accept, and at other times are effectively forced to use a particular form. Often there is an asymmetric power relationship between payer and payee that raises the issue of whether one side unfairly exploits the other. Is it unethical exploitation for an employer to pay employees with a fee-laden payroll card over other more convenient forms of payment? Does the fee structure of payment networks such as Visa and MasterCard unfairly exploit merchants? The bitcoin payment system is an ethical as well as technological evolution as it was designed to be an electronic payment system that does not rely upon trust. Can an entire payment system like bitcoin be “evil,” as charged by Krugman ( 2013 )? Payment tools as such are ethically neutral, but can be used in an ethical or unethical manner. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • James Angel & Douglas McCabe, 2015. "The Ethics of Payments: Paper, Plastic, or Bitcoin?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 603-611, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:132:y:2015:i:3:p:603-611
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2354-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Stefano Martinazzi & Daniele Regoli & Andrea Flori, 2020. "A Tale of Two Layers: The Mutual Relationship between Bitcoin and Lightning Network," Risks, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-18, December.
    3. Ante, L. & Steinmetz, F. & Fiedler, I., 2021. "Blockchain and energy: A bibliometric analysis and review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    4. Lambrecht, Maxime & Larue, Louis, 2018. "After the (virtual) gold rush: is Bitcoin more than a speculative bubble?," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 7(4), pages 1-22.
    5. Teck Ming Tan & Jari Salo, 2023. "Ethical Marketing in the Blockchain-Based Sharing Economy: Theoretical Integration and Guiding Insights," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(4), pages 1113-1140, April.
    6. Monica M. Sharif & Farshad Ghodoosi, 2022. "The Ethics of Blockchain in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(4), pages 1009-1025, July.
    7. Jalan, Akanksha & Matkovskyy, Roman & Urquhart, Andrew & Yarovaya, Larisa, 2023. "The role of interpersonal trust in cryptocurrency adoption," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. Sondes Mbarek & Donia Trabelsi & Michel Berne, 2020. "Are virtual currencies virtuous? Ethical and environmental issues," Post-Print hal-02434877, HAL.
    9. Klarin, Anton, 2020. "The decade-long cryptocurrencies and the blockchain rollercoaster: Mapping the intellectual structure and charting future directions," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    10. de la Horra, Luis P. & de la Fuente, Gabriel & Perote, Javier, 2019. "The drivers of Bitcoin demand: A short and long-run analysis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 21-34.
    11. Rakesh Shrivastava, 2021. "Free Services On The Net: Move From Barter To Money," Working papers 2021-38-08, Voice of Research.
    12. Fry, John & Cheah, Eng-Tuck, 2016. "Negative bubbles and shocks in cryptocurrency markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 343-352.
    13. Flori, Andrea, 2019. "News and subjective beliefs: A Bayesian approach to Bitcoin investments," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 336-356.
    14. James R. Barth & Hemantha S. B. Herath & Tejaswini C. Herath & Pei Xu, 2020. "Cryptocurrency valuation and ethics: a text analytic approach," Journal of Management Analytics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 367-388, July.
    15. Kareem Mohamed & Amr Aziz & Belal Mohamed & Khaled Abdel‐Hakeem & Mostafa Mostafa & Ayman Atia, 2019. "Blockchain for tracking serial numbers in money exchanges," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 193-201, October.
    16. Camille Meyer & Marek Hudon, 2019. "Money and the Commons: An Investigation of Complementary Currencies and Their Ethical Implications," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 277-292, November.
    17. Andrea Flori, 2019. "Cryptocurrencies In Finance: Review And Applications," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(05), pages 1-22, August.

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