IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/94309.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Cryptocurrency, Imperfect Information, and Fraud

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Yiting
  • Wang, Chien-Chiang

Abstract

We study cryptocurrency in a monetary economy with imperfect information. The network imperfection provides traders opportunities to engage in double spending fraud, but the trackability of transaction messages allows us to impose proof-of-work (PoW), proof-of-stake (PoS), and currency exclusion to mitigate fraud incentives. However, PoW consumes energy, and PoS requires extra cryptocurrency to be held as deposits, so deterring fraud may not be optimal. We find that forks can serve as signals to detect double spending fraud and to trigger punishments. If the probability is high that forks appear under double spending, imposing PoW and PoS to deter fraud is optimal; otherwise, it is optimal to save the cost but allow for double spending. Finally, by endogenizing the incentives to double spend and the size of PoW and PoS, we show that cryptocurrency economy can achieve efficient allocation as the imperfectness of the internet is sufficiently low.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Yiting & Wang, Chien-Chiang, 2019. "Cryptocurrency, Imperfect Information, and Fraud," MPRA Paper 94309, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:94309
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/94309/1/MPRA_paper_94309.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    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. Shell, Karl & Wright, Randall, 1993. "Indivisibilities, Lotteries, and Sunspot Equilibria," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 3(1), pages 1-17, January.
    3. Yiting Li & Guillaume Rocheteau & Pierre-Olivier Weill, 2012. "Liquidity and the Threat of Fraudulent Assets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 120(5), pages 000.
    4. Chiu, Jonathan & Koeppl, Thorsten V, 2017. "The economics of cryptocurrencies – bitcoin and beyond," Working Paper Series 6688, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    5. Jonathan Chiu & Thorsten V. Koeppl, 2017. "The Economics Of Cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin And Beyond," Working Paper 1389, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    6. Ricardo Cavalcanti & Ed Nosal, 2011. "Counterfeiting as Private Money in Mechanism Design," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(s2), pages 625-636, October.
    7. Andolfatto, David, 2007. "Incentives and the Limits to Deflationary Policy," MPRA Paper 4681, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Berentsen, Aleksander & Molico, Miguel & Wright, Randall, 2002. "Indivisibilities, Lotteries, and Monetary Exchange," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 107(1), pages 70-94, November.
    9. Guillaume Rocheteau & Randall Wright, 2005. "Money in Search Equilibrium, in Competitive Equilibrium, and in Competitive Search Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(1), pages 175-202, January.
    10. Kocherlakota, Narayana R., 1998. "Money Is Memory," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 232-251, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Auer, Raphael & Shin, Hyun Song & Monnet, Cyril, 2021. "Distributed Ledgers and the Governance of Money," CEPR Discussion Papers 16752, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Raphael Auer & Cyril Monnet & Hyun Song Shin, 2021. "Permissioned Distributed Ledgers and the Governance of Money," Diskussionsschriften dp2101, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.

    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. Li, Yiting & Wang, Chien-Chiang, 2022. "A search-theoretic model of double-spending fraud," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    2. Williamson, Stephen & Wright, Randall, 2010. "New Monetarist Economics: Models," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: Benjamin M. Friedman & Michael Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 25-96, Elsevier.
    3. Berentsen, Aleksander & Huber, Samuel & Marchesiani, Alessandro, 2016. "The societal benefit of a financial transaction tax," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 303-323.
    4. Guillaume Rocheteau & Pierre‐Olivier Weill, 2011. "Liquidity in Frictional Asset Markets," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(s2), pages 261-282, October.
    5. Berentsen, Aleksander & Monnet, Cyril, 2008. "Monetary policy in a channel system," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(6), pages 1067-1080, September.
    6. Rocheteau, Guillaume & Rupert, Peter & Shell, Karl & Wright, Randall, 2008. "General equilibrium with nonconvexities and money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 294-317, September.
    7. Lukas Altermatt & Kohei Iwasaki & Randall Wright, 2023. "General Equilibrium with Multiple Liquid Assets," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 267-291, December.
    8. Benjamin Lester & Andrew Postlewaite & Randall Wright, 2008. "Information, Liquidity and Asset Prices," PIER Working Paper Archive 08-039, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    9. Venky Venkateswaran & Randall Wright, 2014. "Pledgability and Liquidity: A New Monetarist Model of Financial and Macroeconomic Activity," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(1), pages 227-270.
    10. Stephen Williamson & Daniel Sanches, 2008. "Money and Credit with Limited Commitment," 2008 Meeting Papers 502, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    11. Zachary Bethune & Tai-Wei Hu & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2018. "Optimal Credit Cycles," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 27, pages 231-245, January.
    12. Chao Gu & Han Han & Randall Wright, 2020. "The Effects Of News When Liquidity Matters," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1411-1435, November.
    13. Altermatt, Lukas & Iwasaki, Kohei & Wright, Randall, 2021. "Asset pricing in monetary economies," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    14. Guillaume Rocheteau & Peter Rupert & Randall Wright, 2007. "Inflation and Unemployment in General Equilibrium," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 109(4), pages 837-855, December.
    15. Guillaume Rocheteau, 2009. "A monetary approach to asset liquidity," Working Papers (Old Series) 0901, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    16. Guillaume Rocheteau & Peter Rupert & Karl Shell & Randall Wright, 2005. "General equilibrium with nonconvexities, sunspots, and money," Working Papers (Old Series) 0513, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    17. Charles M. Kahn & Francisco Rivadeneyra & Tsz-Nga Wong, 2018. "Should the Central Bank Issue E-money?," Staff Working Papers 18-58, Bank of Canada.
    18. Jean, Kasie & Rabinovich, Stanislav & Wright, Randall, 2010. "On the multiplicity of monetary equilibria: Green-Zhou meets Lagos-Wright," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 392-401, January.
    19. Guillaume Rocheteau, 2008. "Money and competing assets under private information," 2008 Meeting Papers 525, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    20. Sanches, Daniel & Williamson, Stephen, 2010. "Money and credit with limited commitment and theft," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(4), pages 1525-1549, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    cryptocurrency; money; search; imperfect information; fraud;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • E40 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - General
    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)

    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:pra:mprapa:94309. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.