Is Bitcoin the Only Cryptocurrency in the Town? Economics of Cryptocurrency and Friedrich A.Hayek

Mitsuru Iwamura, Yukinobu Kitamura () and Tsutomu Matsumoto

No 602, Discussion Paper Series from Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University

Abstract: This paper overviews the entire landscape of Bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin has not emerged out of cryptocurrency competition, but rather became a dominant currency as the first broad market based cryptocurrency. But there are more than a hundred of cryptocurrencies in the market, and some are catching up to Bitcoin. This is a healthy sign of currency competition á la Hayek. Through this competition new technological and security innovations may emerge. In this paper, we point out potential problems with Bitcoin and propose some ideas for an alternative cryptocurrency.

Keywords: Bitcoin; Cryptocurrency; Friedrich A. Hayek (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B31 E42 E51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14 pages
Date: 2014-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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