Four political science students recently presented research papers at the annual Louisiana Political Science Association conference in Lafayette.

Senior political science major, Erin Abney, presented on Bitcoin.

“It was amazing to have the chance to present our research at a higher level,” Abney said.

Bitcoin is a form of virtual currency not backed by any form of government. “It’s a great concept, but at the current moment not enough people are using Bitcoin for it to benefit me to use it instead of regular currency,” Abney said.

Abney based her project around answering the question: Is Bitcoin a way to fund terrorism?

She said that although there is no evidence that says terrorist groups are using Bitcoin to fund their organization, Bitcoin does have the capability to be used to fund terrorism.

“That makes us think, should we make changes now when terrorist aren’t using it? Or do we wait until it is a problem to start making changes?” Abney said.

Senior Mallory Keene thinks there should definitely be some changes now to make it safer “before it comes back to bite us.”

At the conference, the students were able to sit in on a table discussion which discussed ISIS and the Middle East. Other students who presented were political science majors Adam Karaminis, Caleb Fenn and Josh Dean.