Distributed Ledgers and the Governance of Money

Raphael Auer, Cyril Monnet and Hyun Song Shin

No 21.01, Working Papers from Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee

Abstract: Blockchain technology breathes new life into the classical analysis of money as a substitute for a ledger of all past transactions. While it involves updating the ledger through a decentralized consensus on the unique truth, the robustness of the equilibrium that supports this consensus depends on who has access to the ledger and how it can be updated. Using a global game analysis of an exchange economy with credit, we solve for the optimal ledger design that balances security, scalability and decentralization. When intertemporal incentives are strong, a centralized ledger is always optimal. Otherwise, decentralization may be optimal.

Pages: 70 pages
Date: 2021-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pay
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.szgerzensee.ch/fileadmin/Dateien_Anwend ... g_papers/wp-2101.pdf Full text (application/pdf)
None

Related works:
Journal Article: Distributed ledgers and the governance of money (2025)
Working Paper: Distributed ledgers and the governance of money (2021)
Working Paper: Distributed Ledgers and the Governance of Money (2021)
Working Paper: Distributed Ledgers and the Governance of Money (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:szg:worpap:2101

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
Studienzentrum Gerzensee, Postfach 21, 3115 Gerzensee

The price is Free.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee Studienzentrum Gerzensee, Postfach 21, 3115 Gerzensee.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by library ().