IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/quaeco/v77y2020icp144-149.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is bitcoin money? And what that means

Author

Listed:
  • 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
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062976919301528
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.qref.2019.10.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    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. 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. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Wright, Randall, 1991. "A contribution to the pure theory of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 215-235, April.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Xavier Cuadras-Morató, 1997. "Can ice cream be money?: Perishable medium of exchange," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 66(2), pages 103-125, June.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Tsang, Eric W. K., 2014. "Old and New," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(03), pages 390-390, November.
    12. 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.
    13. William J. Luther, 2016. "Cryptocurrencies, Network Effects, And Switching Costs," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(3), pages 553-571, July.
    14. 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.
    15. Lawrence H. White, 2015. "The Market for Cryptocurrencies," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 35(2), pages 383-402, Spring/Su.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    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.
    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. 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.
    2. 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).
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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).
    8. Florentina Șoiman & Jean-Guillaume Dumas & Sonia Jimenez-Garces, 2022. "The return of (I)DeFiX [Le rendement de (I)DeFiX]," Working Papers hal-03625891, HAL.
    9. 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).
    10. Davidson, Sinclair, 2023. "Blockchain and the information – calculation problem," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 142-150.
    11. Florentina c{S}oiman & Guillaume Dumas & Sonia Jimenez-Garces, 2022. "The return of (I)DeFiX," Papers 2204.00251, arXiv.org.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Cordelius Ilgmann & Martin Menner, 2011. "Negative nominal interest rates: history and current proposals," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 383-405, December.
    6. William J. Luther, 2022. "Regulatory ambiguity in the market for bitcoin," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 35(1), pages 1-14, March.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Lagos, Ricardo & Wright, Randall, 2016. "Introduction to the symposium issue on money and liquidity," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-9.
    10. Menner, Martin, 2007. "The role of search frictions for output and inflation dynamics: a Bayesian assessment," UC3M Working papers. Economics we076235, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    11. Giuseppe Mastromatteo & Luigi Ventura, 2007. "The origin of money: A survey of the contemporary literature," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 54(2), pages 195-224, June.
    12. Zeira, Joseph, 2005. "Money and the Size of Transactions," CEPR Discussion Papers 5010, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Shouyong Shi, 2006. "A Microfoundation of Monetary Economics," Working Papers tecipa-211, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    14. Levulytė, Laura & Šapkauskienė, Alfreda, 2021. "Cryptocurrency in context of fiat money functions," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 44-54.
    15. Yener Gök, Zeynep, 2018. "Yeni Parasalcılık: Bir Yazın Taraması [New Monetarism: A Survey Of The Literature]," MPRA Paper 88349, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Thorsten Hens & Klaus Reiner Schenk-Hopp… & Bodo Vogt, 2007. "The Great Capitol Hill Baby Sitting Co-op: Anecdote or Evidence for the Optimum Quantity of Money?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(6), pages 1305-1333, September.
    17. Ricardo Lagos & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2005. "Inflation, Output, And Welfare," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(2), pages 495-522, May.
    18. Menner Martin, 2006. "A Search-Theoretic Monetary Business Cycle Model with Capital Formation," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-36, November.
    19. Ed Nosal & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2006. "The economics of payments," Policy Discussion Papers, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Feb.
    20. 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.

    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

    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:eee:quaeco:v:77:y:2020:i:c:p:144-149. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620167 .

    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.