On Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, and the Decentralization of Wealth

Abstract

The old school -which consists largely of middle-aged and elderly men- tend to claim that bitcoin is a "bubble", and seize on every downturn in the price of bitcoin as evidence that the bubble has burst or is about to burst. The bubble only gets fatter, and all of the anti-crypto arguments -notably the argument that currencies need themselves to possess, or to be based on something with "intrinsic" value, and cryptocurrencies lack intrinsic value- are fallacious. Here we propose that there are deep mathematical reasons why the conservatives are mistaken, and why cryptocurrencies will increasingly replace their traditional counterparts.