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Is bitcoin money? And what that means

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  • Hazlett, Peter K.
  • Luther, William J.

Abstract

In a recent article, Yermack (2015) argues that bitcoin is not money because it functions poorly as a medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value. We offer a more conventional view. We maintain that the standard approach classifies an item as money if and only if it functions as a commonly-accepted medium of exchange. Then, we show that the demand for bitcoin is comparable to the demand for many government-issued monies. Finally, we argue that bitcoin is money—though perhaps only over a relatively small domain at present.

Suggested Citation

  • Hazlett, Peter K. & Luther, William J., 2020. "Is bitcoin money? And what that means," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 144-149.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:77:y:2020:i:c:p:144-149
    DOI: 10.1016/j.qref.2019.10.003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ricardo Lagos & Randall Wright, 2005. "A Unified Framework for Monetary Theory and Policy Analysis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(3), pages 463-484, June.
    2. William Luther, 2014. "Evenly rotating economy: A new modeling technique for an old equilibrium construct," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 27(4), pages 403-417, December.
    3. Malavika Nair & Nicolás Cachanosky, 2017. "Bitcoin and entrepreneurship: breaking the network effect," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 30(3), pages 263-275, September.
    4. Joshua R. Hendrickson & Thomas L. Hogan & William J. Luther, 2016. "The Political Economy Of Bitcoin," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(2), pages 925-939, April.
    5. William Luther, 2016. "Mises and the moderns on the inessentiality of money in equilibrium," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 1-13, March.
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    7. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Wright, Randall, 1989. "On Money as a Medium of Exchange," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 927-954, August.
    8. William J. Luther, 2016. "Cryptocurrencies, Network Effects, And Switching Costs," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(3), pages 553-571, July.
    9. Peter Rupert & Martin Schindler & Andrei Shevchenko & Randall Wright, 2000. "The search-theoretic approach to monetary economics: a primer," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Q IV, pages 10-28.
    10. Xavier Cuadras-Morató, 1997. "Can ice cream be money?: Perishable medium of exchange," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 66(2), pages 103-125, June.
    11. Luther, William J., 2019. "Getting off the ground: the case of bitcoin," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(2), pages 189-205, April.
    12. William J. Luther, 2013. "Friedman Versus Hayek on Private Outside Monies: New Evidence for the Debate," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 127-135, February.
    13. Lawrence H. White, 2015. "The Market for Cryptocurrencies," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 35(2), pages 383-402, Spring/Su.
    14. Luther, William J. & Salter, Alexander W., 2017. "Bitcoin and the bailout," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 50-56.
    15. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Wright, Randall, 1993. "A Search-Theoretic Approach to Monetary Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 63-77, March.
    16. Hogan Thomas L. & Luther William J., 2019. "Endogenous Matching and Money with Random Consumption Preferences," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 1-9, June.
    17. Tsang, Eric W. K., 2014. "Old and New," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(03), pages 390-390, November.
    18. William J. Luther, 2018. "Is Bitcoin Intrinsically Worthless?," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 33(Spring 20), pages 31-45.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Yuriy V. Belousov, 2024. "Bitcoin and Forms of Money: Theoretical Issues," Finansovyj žhurnal — Financial Journal, Financial Research Institute, Moscow 125375, Russia, issue 2, pages 126-141, April.
    2. Zhang, Dingxuan & Sun, Yuying & Duan, Hongbo & Hong, Yongmiao & Wang, Shouyang, 2023. "Speculation or currency? Multi-scale analysis of cryptocurrencies—The case of Bitcoin," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Karim, Muhammad Mahmudul & Ali, Md Hakim & Yarovaya, Larisa & Uddin, Md Hamid & Hammoudeh, Shawkat, 2023. "Return-volatility relationships in cryptocurrency markets: Evidence from asymmetric quantiles and non-linear ARDL approach," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Nezir Köse & Hakan Yildirim & Emre Ünal & Boqiang Lin, 2024. "The Bitcoin price and Bitcoin price uncertainty: Evidence of Bitcoin price volatility," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(4), pages 673-695, April.
    5. Davidson, Sinclair, 2023. "Blockchain and the information – calculation problem," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 142-150.
    6. Hendrickson, Joshua R. & Luther, William J., 2022. "Cash, crime, and cryptocurrencies," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 200-207.
    7. Abid, Ilyes & Bouri, Elie & Galariotis, Emilios & Guesmi, Khaled & Mzoughi, Hela, 2023. "Bitcoin vs. fiat currencies: Insights from extreme dependence and risk spillover analysis with financial markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    8. Şoiman, Florentina & Dumas, Jean-Guillaume & Jimenez-Garces, Sonia, 2023. "What drives DeFi market returns?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    9. Paulo Rupino Cunha & Paulo Melo & Helder Sebastião, 2021. "From Bitcoin to Central Bank Digital Currencies: Making Sense of the Digital Money Revolution," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-19, June.
    10. Ángeles Cebrián-Hernández & Enrique Jiménez-Rodríguez, 2021. "Modeling of the Bitcoin Volatility through Key Financial Environment Variables: An Application of Conditional Correlation MGARCH Models," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-16, January.
    11. Kyohei Shibano & Gento Mogi, 2022. "An analysis of the acquisition of a monetary function by cryptocurrency using a multi-agent simulation model," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-30, December.
    12. Lei Wang & Provash Kumer Sarker & Elie Bouri, 2023. "Short- and Long-Term Interactions Between Bitcoin and Economic Variables: Evidence from the US," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 61(4), pages 1305-1330, April.
    13. Wang, Zhan-ao & Samuel, Ribeiro-Navarrete & Chen, Xiao-qian & Xu, Bing & Huang, Wei-lun, 2023. "Central bank digital currencies: Consumer data-driven sustainable operation management policy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    14. Florentina Șoiman & Jean-Guillaume Dumas & Sonia Jimenez-Garces, 2022. "The return of (I)DeFiX [Le rendement de (I)DeFiX]," Working Papers hal-03625891, HAL.
    15. Florentina c{S}oiman & Guillaume Dumas & Sonia Jimenez-Garces, 2022. "The return of (I)DeFiX," Papers 2204.00251, arXiv.org.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bitcoin; Medium of exchange; Money; Store of value; Unit of account;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E40 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - General
    • E41 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Demand for Money
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System

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