THE FUNDAMENTAL FOUNDATIONS AND PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THEORY OF MONEY IN THE ERA OF DIGITAL CURRENCIES AND CRYPTOASSETS

Abstract

The article presents the results of research on the transformation of the classical theory of money under the influence of two key phenomena: digital currencies of central banks and decentralized cryptocurrencies. The evolution of money functions in the context of blockchain technologies and smart contracts is analyzed. The crisis of the traditional tenets of the quantitative theory of money and the actualization of F.’s ideas are considered. Hayek on private money. Based on the generalization of Russian scientific publications, the author’s periodization of the stages of the development of monetary theory in the digital age is proposed. Promising areas of monetary science such as programmable money, hybrid money circulation systems and decentralized emission mechanisms are formulated. The article presents empirical data on projects of crypto assets and digital currencies of central banks of different countries, a comparative analysis of the performance of money functions by five forms and a quantitative comparison of the multiplicative effects of the influence of decentralized finance (hereinafter - DeFi) with the traditional banking multiplier. An asymmetry in the performance of monetary functions by various digital forms has been revealed and it has been proved that the DeFi multiplier (1,5-2,0) is significantly lower than the banking one (8-10), but creates a shadow monetary system that weakly correlates with the monetary policy of central banks. A forecast model of a hybrid monetary system is proposed until 2035 with a distribution of shares between five forms of money.