Issues raised by monetary theory concerning bitcoin and cryptocurrencies

Abstract

In terms of the quality of money, bitcoin/cryptocurrency enthusiasts are largely correct - they may be or become a better form of money and could replace sovereign fiat currencies. The major unresolved controversies are and no doubt will be over who should control the quantity of money; the source of capitalist economic instability; the main threat to freedom and liberties - governments in general or concentrated private labour command/wealth-holders and their enterprises; and the threat posed by the U.S state in particular, issuer of the world's major universal equivalent, the U.S dollar. For various reasons, politics regarding the political economy and feasibility of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies make for and most likely will continue to make for strange bedfellows.