Title: On blockchains, cryptos, and media of exchange. Not there (yet)

Authors: Pablo Agnese

Addresses: UIC Barcelona, Inmaculada 22, 08017 Barcelona, Spain; IZA Bonn, Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße 5-9, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Abstract: Ever since the inception of the blockchain technology and bitcoin (Nakamoto, 2009), the first and foremost of so-called cryptocurrencies, the prospect within the 'crypto' community has been one of growing decentralisation and an impending threat to traditional monetary policy and its legal monopoly. Here we discuss the potential use of bitcoin and other competing 'cryptos' as media of exchange and argue that we are still far from seeing a dethroning of major currencies, in spite of the undermining effect that cryptos might have on monetary policy and central banking.

Keywords: blockchain; bitcoin; cryptos; money; decentralisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIPM.2021.113359

International Journal of Intellectual Property Management, 2021 Vol.11 No.1, pp.81 - 94

Received: 13 Dec 2019
Accepted: 29 Jan 2020
Published online: 01 Mar 2021 *

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