Bitcoin: a coin? Main topic: Introduce the concept of bitcoin: What is bitcoin? How are bitcoins created? What can people use it for? What are the potential problems about bitcoin? Thesis statement: This research will introduce basic information about bitcoin to audiences. After reading this research paper, readers will be able to know the definition, the production process, the function and the possible future development about bitcoin. This research will also provide readers with useful information and facts about the bitcoin to help them make their own understanding and judgments. I. Introduction: a. Different opinions about bitcoins: Some people think that the bitcoin is new currency while bitcoin miners believe that bitcoin is a profitable investment. b. People need accurate information about bitcoins: Due to the lack of the information about bitcoins, people may have misconceptions about them and cause possible false use of bitcoins in the future, so it is worthwhile to educate people about bitcoins II. Definition: What is bitcoin? Bitcoin is an untraceable digital currency, and it charges relatively low transaction fees while trading with others. III. How are bitcoins created? The way to create bitcoin is to program the complex algorithm, and the final qualified outcome will receive bitcoins as the reward. ( sources) IV. What can people use it for? People are able to use bitcoins as a digital currency to make payments online. In addition, bitcoin has become a new investment because its value increases significantly over time. V. Current issues about bitcoin a. Does the process of producing bitcoins consume significant energy? Producing bitcoins will consume tremendous electricity and require many advanced electronic devices. (examples) b. Is the usage of bitcoins legal? Since everyone has the ability to create bitcoins, bitcoin is hard to trace. Some people are using bitcoins in black market for illegal proposes.(examples) c. What is the value of bitcoin? Bitcoin is a digital currency which people have not set up a standard measurement of its value. Therefore, it keeps changing over time. VI. Future concerned about bitcoin a. Will bitcoins be regulated by the government in the future? Currently, there are no international laws or regulations about bitcoins. However, Some counties, China, for example, already revoked the transactions of bitcoins. b. Will bitcoin develop in the future? Bitcoin, as a new digital currency, has potential ability for better use in the future. VII. Conclusion. Bitcoin is a type of new digital currency that draws people’s attention, so that people should have basic knowledge about bitcoins. In addition, bitcoin is on the developing stage which may cause some negative effects such as the instability of the market. Regulations or rules should be applied so that people can get benefits from bitcoins. Annotated Bibliography Use the example assignment in the following pages as a mo ...

1. Bitcoin: a coin?
Main topic: Introduce the concept of bitcoin: What is bitcoin?
How are bitcoins created? What can people use it for? What are
the potential problems about bitcoin?
Thesis statement: This research will introduce basic information
about bitcoin to audiences. After reading this research paper,
readers will be able to know the definition, the production
process, the function and the possible future development about
bitcoin. This research will also provide readers with useful
information and facts about the bitcoin to help them make their
own understanding and judgments.
I. Introduction:
a. Different opinions about bitcoins:
Some people think that the bitcoin is new currency while
bitcoin miners believe that bitcoin is a profitable investment.
b. People need accurate information about bitcoins:
Due to the lack of the information about bitcoins, people may
have misconceptions about them and cause possible false use of
bitcoins in the future, so it is worthwhile to educate people
about bitcoins
II. Definition:
What is bitcoin?
Bitcoin is an untraceable digital currency, and it charges
relatively low transaction fees while trading with others.
III. How are bitcoins created?
The way to create bitcoin is to program the complex algorithm,
and the final qualified outcome will receive bitcoins as the
reward. ( sources)
IV. What can people use it for?
People are able to use bitcoins as a digital currency to make
payments online. In addition, bitcoin has become a new
investment because its value increases significantly over time.
V. Current issues about bitcoin
a. Does the process of producing bitcoins consume significant

2. energy?
Producing bitcoins will consume tremendous electricity and
require many advanced electronic devices. (examples)
b. Is the usage of bitcoins legal?
Since everyone has the ability to create bitcoins, bitcoin is hard
to trace. Some people are using bitcoins in black market for
illegal proposes.(examples)
c. What is the value of bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a digital currency which people have not set up a
standard measurement of its value. Therefore, it keeps changing
over time.
VI. Future concerned about bitcoin
a. Will bitcoins be regulated by the government in the future?
Currently, there are no international laws or regulations about
bitcoins. However, Some counties, China, for example, already
revoked the transactions of bitcoins.
b. Will bitcoin develop in the future?
Bitcoin, as a new digital currency, has potential ability for
better use in the future.
VII. Conclusion.
Bitcoin is a type of new digital currency that draws people’s
attention, so that people should have basic knowledge about
bitcoins. In addition, bitcoin is on the developing stage which
may cause some negative effects such as the instability of the
market. Regulations or rules should be applied so that people
can get benefits from bitcoins.

3. Annotated Bibliography
Use the example assignment in the following pages as a model.
Your annotated bibliography should include
A title. The title should be the title of your research paper at
this point, not “My Annotated Bibliography” or something
similar.
Introduction/Overview. The introduction can be similar to the
introduction and rationale from your proposal. It should be 250-
400 words. The introduction should include in-text style
citations to the three sources you will discuss in the
bibliography.
Citation, Summary, and Analysis of 3 sources. Cite the source
using APA, MLA, Chicago, etc. using reference list style
citation (see model). For each source, write two paragraphs. The
first paragraph summarizes the source, while the second
critiques it, and also can describe how you are going to use the
source in your paper. Each of these should be 250-400 words
total.
Submit the assignment to Blackboard as a Word or PDF file. Do
not submit as text. If necessary convert your file to PDF. Make
sure your name is on the document you submit.

4. Regime Types, Government Spending on Public Goods, and
Poverty Deduction
In today’s world, poverty is a very serious problem for most
countries. Poor people are suffering from low income, hunger,
and illness. What’s more, poor people always lack access to the
basic healthcare and education, which then reinforce their poor
situation. Economists and sociologists have already done a lot
of research on explaining the causes of poverty and the methods
to overcome poverty. However, do regime types make effects on
poverty? Much current research pays strong attentions to the
particular effects of government expenditure on public goods in
dealing with poverty issues. They claim if a country spends
more on public goods and services, such as education and public
health infrastructures, then this country will have lower level of

5. poverty. What’s more, they also find that there exist differences
between different types of regimes on government public goods
expenditures, while democracies tend to spend more on public
services than nondemocracies do. In this research paper, I will
introduce three different outside sources, and all of them are
coming from books and academic articles. Those three previous
empirical works done by political scientists find that democratic
governments tend to spend more on one specific public sector
than nondemocratic governments, and then these spending are
effectively contribute to the welfare improving of the poor. The
first source is a book, and it addresses that democracy tend to
have lower poverty level because they generate pro-majority
policies coincide with pro-poor policies, producing more public
goods and carry out income distribution than nondemocracies do
(Acemoglue & Robinson, 2006). The second resource, which is
from a journal article, explores the political influences on the
public health. It states that a democratic country is more willing
to spend more money on the public health, resulting in high life
expectancy in the country (Ghobarah, Huth, & Russett, 2004).
The last source, which is also from a journal article, argues that
regardless the levels of development, for any random selected
country, its regime makes effects on the Infant Mortality Rate
(IMR), while fewer children die in a democratic regime country
(Navia& Zweifel, 2000). As a consequence, these three sources
are valuable for this my research because they all basically
address that to promote a democratic transition is a good choice
if a country wants to effectively improve the welfare of poor
and overcome poverty.
Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. A., 1960. (2006). Economic
origins of dictatorship and democracy. Cambridge; New York:
Cambridge University Press.
In this book, the two authors start their theory by conceiving the
society into two different groups-the elites and citizens, while
the later were more numerous. They state that their framework

6. emphasizes that social choices are inherently conflictual.
Democracies generate a political equality situation relative to
nondemocracies do because nondemocracies represent small
group of the society and generate a political inequality
situation. For short, they argue that the rich will be opposed to
redistributive taxation; whereas the citizens, who will be
relatively poor, will be in favor of taxation that would
redistribute resources to them. Policies or social choices that
benefit the elites will be different from those that benefit the
citizens.
This book is significant for my research because it provides a
theory to help me conduct the research. Those two authors did a
lot of research on the political transition theory and their
theories are really argumentative. Throughout this book,
Acemoglu and Robinson clearly states that democracy is
thought of as a situation of political equality and characterized
by its relatively more pro-majority policies. Often pro-majority
policies coincide with pro-poor policies, especially a greater
tendency to redistribute income away from the rich toward the
poor. In contrast, nondemocracy gives a greater say to an elite
and generally options for policies that are less majoritarian than
in a democracy. Moreover, they also argue that democracies
have its own institutions to prevent rulers stay in office for a
long time. Elections will automatically elect them out of office.
Therefore, in order to stay in office, rulers in democracies will
try to generate policies that favorable by the public. All in all,
this book would be helpful for my research topic in order to
support my argument because it provides a basic theory to
support my hypothesis. However, this book does not use
statistical methods to test the theory, but focus on using the
qualitative methods. I will use quantitative method in my
research to test my theory.
Ghobarah, H. A., Huth, P., & Russett, B. (2004). Comparative
public health: The political economy of human misery and well-

7. being. International Studies Quarterly, 48(1), 73-94.
doi:10.1111/j.0020-8833.2004.00292.x
In this second article, the author mainly focuses on political
influences on the public health. They argue that if a country
does not fund a lot to the health care system, then people who
suffer from disease will have no access to the healthcare, this
country will have low life expectancy. It is obvious that most of
the countries in this world that suffer from the poverty always
have low life expectancy. What’s more, their research also
verifies that there exists difference on government spending on
healthcare between democracies and nondemocracies. They
emphasizes that democracies tend to have high life expectancy
because they spend more money on healthcare system, while
nondemocracies are retultant to invest on the healthcare.
This article is significant for my research because it adopts the
statistical method and collect data from a lot of countries to test
its hypothesis. Also, because there are potentially wide-ranging
of complex causal connections that influence the efficiency of
public health, the authors use the two stages analysis in their
research. The first stage of the analysis is to test whether the
political independent variables they propose are statistically
significant on the allocation and total spending to the public
health or not. Then, the second stage of the research is to test
whether these health expenditure are contributing to increasing
the life expectancy in a country. This two stages analysis model
provides a good example for my research design and I will
adopt this model in my own research. Moreover, this research
does a really good work on data collection. It collects data from
various resources which make their argument more reliable.
However, this article does not control the effects of economic
development in their research, which then generates the
following problem: it is possible that countries spend more on
healthcare just because they have high level of economic
development, the regime types effects do not actually contribute

8. to the spending on public health. Under this circumstance, it is
necessary for us to eliminate economic development’s effects in
this research.
Navia, P., & Zweifel, T. D. (2000). Democracy, dictatorship,
and infant mortality. Journal of Democracy, 11(2), 99-114.
This very last article particularly concentrates on regimes types’
effects on the infant mortality rate, while controlling the effects
of economic development. They argue that regardless the levels
of development, for any random selected country, its regime
makes effects on the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), while fewer
children die in a democratic regime country. What’s more, they
find that democracies have lower infant mortality rate because
they provide much more opportunities for their citizens, these
factors could be access to the education, the provisions of
credits and income, and better healthcare infrastructures for
women to give births (since higher infertility can reduce the
infant mortality rate).
The most impressive thing they do in this research is to control
the effects of economic development when test the relationship
between regime types and infant mortality rate. Because we all
know that if a country has a high level of economic
development, the lower possibility people in this country will
suffered from hunger, the economic development contributes a
lot to the lower level of infant mortality rate. It solves the
problem emerges in the second article by using the Heckman
Two-Step Method. They assume that every democracy they
observe in a given year existed simultaneously as a dictatorship,
and vice versa. Therefore, they eliminate the effects of
economic development when conduct the significant test.
However, this resource is still a hypothesis testing article, while
lacking the specific case study. I will do some case studies in
my research paper to make it more specific.