IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/1608.00878.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the Use of Computer Programs as Money

Author

Listed:
  • Ross D. King

Abstract

Money is a technology for promoting economic prosperity. Over history money has become increasingly abstract, it used to be hardware, gold coins and the like, now it is mostly software, data structures located in banks. Here I propose the logical conclusion of the abstraction of money: to use as money the most general form of information - computer programs. The key advantage that using programs for money (program-money) adds to the technology of money is agency. Program-money is active and thereby can fully participate in economics as economic agents. I describe the three basic technologies required to implement program-money: computational languages/logics to unambiguously describe the actions and interactions of program-money; computational cryptography to ensure that only the correct actions and interactions are performed; and a distributed computational environment in which the money can execute. I demonstrate that most of the technology for program-money has already been developed. The adoption of program-money transfers responsibility from human economic agents to money itself and has great potential economic advantages over the current passive form of money. For example in microeconomics, adding agency to money will simplify the exchange of ownership, ensure money is only used legally, automate the negotiation and forming of contracts, etc. Similar advantages occur in macroeconomics, where for example the control of the money supply could be transferred from central banks to money. It is also possible to envisage money that is not owned by any external human agent or corporation. One motivation for this is to force economic systems to behave more rationally and/or more like a specific economic theory, thereby increasing the success of economic forecasting.

Suggested Citation

  • Ross D. King, 2016. "On the Use of Computer Programs as Money," Papers 1608.00878, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1608.00878
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.00878
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George J. Stigler, 1950. "The Development of Utility Theory. I," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(4), pages 307-307.
    2. Ali, Robleh & Barrdear, John & Clews, Roger & Southgate, James, 2014. "The economics of digital currencies," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 54(3), pages 276-286.
    3. Muthoo,Abhinay, 1999. "Bargaining Theory with Applications," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521576475, September.
    4. Herbert A. Simon & Massimo Egidi & Ricardo Viale & Robin Marris, 1992. "Economics, Bounded Rationality and the Cognitive Revolution," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 409.
    5. Ali, Robleh & Barrdear, John & Clews, Roger & Southgate, James, 2014. "Innovations in payment technologies and the emergence of digital currencies," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 54(3), pages 262-275.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sheila Dow, 2019. "Monetary Reform, Central Banks, and Digital Currencies," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 153-173, April.
    2. Elsayed, Ahmed H. & Nasir, Muhammad Ali, 2022. "Central bank digital currencies: An agenda for future research," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    3. Julián A. Parra & Carlos Arango - Joaquín Bernal & José E. Gómez - Javier Gómez & Carlos León - Clara Machado & Daniel Osorio - Daniel Rojas & Nicolás Suárez - Eduardo Yanquen, 2019. "Criptoactivos: análisis y revisión de literatura," Revista ESPE - Ensayos Sobre Política Económica, Banco de la República, issue 92, pages 1-37, November.
    4. Gabriele Camera, 2016. "A Perspective on Electronic Alternatives to Traditional Currencies," Working Papers 16-32, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
    5. Zura Kakushadze & Jim Kyung-Soo Liew, 2018. "CryptoRuble: From Russia with Love," Papers 1801.05760, arXiv.org.
    6. Barrdear, John & Kumhof, Michael, 2022. "The macroeconomics of central bank digital currencies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    7. Fish, Tom & Whymark , Roy, 2015. "How has cash usage evolved in recent decades? What might drive demand in the future?," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 55(3), pages 216-227.
    8. Dermine, J., 2016. "Digital banking and market disruption: a sense of déjà vu?," Financial Stability Review, Banque de France, issue 20, pages 17-24, April.
    9. Ng, Irene C.L. & Wakenshaw, Susan Y.L., 2017. "The Internet-of-Things: Review and research directions," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 3-21.
    10. Stephanie Rosenkranz & Patrick W. Schmitz, 2007. "Can Coasean Bargaining Justify Pigouvian Taxation?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(296), pages 573-585, November.
    11. Manzini, Paola & Mariotti, Marco, 2005. "Alliances and negotiations," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 128-141, March.
    12. Christie Smith & Aaron Kumar, 2018. "Crypto‐Currencies – An Introduction To Not‐So‐Funny Moneys," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 1531-1559, December.
    13. Simon Hug & Tobias Schulz, 2007. "Referendums in the EU’s constitution building process," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 177-218, June.
    14. Wu, WenTing & Chen, XiaoQian & Zvarych, Roman & Huang, WeiLun, 2024. "The Stackelberg duel between Central Bank Digital Currencies and private payment titans in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    15. Carter, Steven & McBride, Michael, 2013. "Experienced utility versus decision utility: Putting the ‘S’ in satisfaction," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 13-23.
    16. Jonathan Donier & Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, 2015. "Why Do Markets Crash? Bitcoin Data Offers Unprecedented Insights," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-11, October.
    17. White, Reilly & Marinakis, Yorgos & Islam, Nazrul & Walsh, Steven, 2020. "Is Bitcoin a currency, a technology-based product, or something else?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    18. Chua, Jess H. & Chrisman, James J. & De Massis, Alfredo & Wang, Hao, 2018. "Reflections on family firm goals and the assessment of performance," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 107-113.
    19. Pieters, Gina & Vivanco, Sofia, 2017. "Financial regulations and price inconsistencies across Bitcoin markets," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-14.
    20. Hindriks, Jean & Keen, Michael & Muthoo, Abhinay, 1999. "Corruption, extortion and evasion," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 395-430, December.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1608.00878. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.