Cryptocurrencies and the Denationalization of Money

Abstract

The theoretical foundations of bitcoin have been frequently traced back to the Austrian school of economics. To the extent that cryptocurrencies are not issued by a centralized authority and do not rely on an official legal tender status for their acceptance, they may indeed appear as a dramatic departure from the historical trend that has led, over the past few centuries, to the making of national money and as a decisive step toward the “denationalization of money” advocated by F. A. von Hayek. This article investigates to what extent bitcoin truly embodies the principles of stable money prescribed by Hayek and whether the proliferation of cryptocurrencies constitutes a Hayekian monetary competition.