Cryptocurrency: the Economics of Money and Selected Policy Issues
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Monetary Policy in Economies with Little Or No Money
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES MONETARY POLICY IN ECONOMIES WITH LITTLE OR NO MONEY Bennett T. McCallum Working Paper 9838 http://www.nber.org/papers/w9838 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 July 2003 This paper was prepared for presentation at the December 16-17, 2002, meeting of the Hong Kong Economic Association. I am indebted to Marvin Goodfriend, Lok Sang Ho, Allan Meltzer, and Edward Nelson for helpful comments and suggestions. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Bureau of Economic Research ©2003 by Bennett T. McCallum. All rights reserved. Short sections of text not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit including © notice, is given to the source. Monetary Policy in Economies with Little or No Money Bennett T. McCallum NBER Working Paper No. 9838 July 2003 JEL No. E3, E4, E5 ABSTRACT The paper's arguments include: (1) Medium-of-exchange money will not disappear in the foreseeable future, although the quantity of base money may continue to decline. (2) In economies with very little money (e.g., no currency but bank settlement balances at the central bank), monetary policy will be conducted much as at present by activist adjustment of overnight interest rates. Operating procedures will be different, however, with payment of interest on reserves likely to become the norm. (3) In economies without any money there can be no monetary policy. The relevant notion of a general price level concerns some index of prices in terms of a medium of account. -
Curious About Cryptocurrencies? Investors Need to Make Sure They Separate “Investing” from “Speculation” by Don Mcarthur, CFA®
Curious About Cryptocurrencies? Investors Need to Make Sure They Separate “Investing” from “Speculation” By Don McArthur, CFA® Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have received plenty of media coverage lately, and it is natural for investors to wonder about them. Even celebrities have become associated with Bitcoin publicity through social media. Interest has piqued to a point where there are even Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that invest in Bitcoin, giving investors the means to invest in the Futures market. After having performed in-depth research on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, our position at Commerce Trust Company is that they should not currently play a role in client portfolios. As part of that research, Commerce Senior Vice President and Investment Analyst Don McArthur, CFA, put together a primer on the topic of cryptocurrencies in general. In the following commentary, he explains why Bitcoin at this stage is more about speculating than investing in something with intrinsic value. He also touches on how Blockchain networking technology not only supports cryptocurrencies, but many other industrial applications as well. We thought you would enjoy this commentary as McArthur shares his thoughts in a mind-opening Q&A. Q . What is Bitcoin and how did it start? A. Bitcoin is one of hundreds of digital currencies, or cryptocurrency, based on Blockchain technology. As an early mover, Bitcoin is by far the largest digital currency. Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by a mysterious person (or persons) known only by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Unlike traditional currencies, which are issued by central banks, Bitcoin has no central monetary authority. -
Bitcoin Tumbles As Miners Face Crackdown - the Buttonwood Tree Bitcoin Tumbles As Miners Face Crackdown
6/8/2021 Bitcoin Tumbles as Miners Face Crackdown - The Buttonwood Tree Bitcoin Tumbles as Miners Face Crackdown By Haley Cafarella - June 1, 2021 Bitcoin tumbles as Crypto miners face crackdown from China. Cryptocurrency miners, including HashCow and BTC.TOP, have halted all or part of their China operations. This comes after Beijing intensified a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading. Beijing intends to hammer digital currencies amid heightened global regulatory scrutiny. This marks the first time China’s cabinet has targeted virtual currency mining, which is a sizable business in the world’s second-biggest economy. Some estimates say China accounts for as much as 70 percent of the world’s crypto supply. Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi suspended both crypto-mining and some trading services to new clients from China. The plan is that China will instead focus on overseas businesses. BTC.TOP, a crypto mining pool, also announced the suspension of its China business citing regulatory risks. On top of that, crypto miner HashCow said it would halt buying new bitcoin mining rigs. Crypto miners use specially-designed computer equipment, or rigs, to verify virtual coin transactions. READ MORE: Sustainable Mineral Exploration Powers Electric Vehicle Revolution This process produces newly minted crypto currencies like bitcoin. “Crypto mining consumes a lot of energy, which runs counter to China’s carbon neutrality goals,” said Chen Jiahe, chief investment officer of Beijing-based family office Novem Arcae Technologies. Additionally, he said this is part of China’s goal of curbing speculative crypto trading. As result, bitcoin has taken a beating in the stock market. -
Lecture Notes1 Mathematical Ecnomics
Lecture Notes1 Mathematical Ecnomics Guoqiang TIAN Department of Economics Texas A&M University College Station, Texas 77843 ([email protected]) This version: August, 2020 1The most materials of this lecture notes are drawn from Chiang’s classic textbook Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics, which are used for my teaching and con- venience of my students in class. Please not distribute it to any others. Contents 1 The Nature of Mathematical Economics 1 1.1 Economics and Mathematical Economics . 1 1.2 Advantages of Mathematical Approach . 3 2 Economic Models 5 2.1 Ingredients of a Mathematical Model . 5 2.2 The Real-Number System . 5 2.3 The Concept of Sets . 6 2.4 Relations and Functions . 9 2.5 Types of Function . 11 2.6 Functions of Two or More Independent Variables . 12 2.7 Levels of Generality . 13 3 Equilibrium Analysis in Economics 15 3.1 The Meaning of Equilibrium . 15 3.2 Partial Market Equilibrium - A Linear Model . 16 3.3 Partial Market Equilibrium - A Nonlinear Model . 18 3.4 General Market Equilibrium . 19 3.5 Equilibrium in National-Income Analysis . 23 4 Linear Models and Matrix Algebra 25 4.1 Matrix and Vectors . 26 i ii CONTENTS 4.2 Matrix Operations . 29 4.3 Linear Dependance of Vectors . 32 4.4 Commutative, Associative, and Distributive Laws . 33 4.5 Identity Matrices and Null Matrices . 34 4.6 Transposes and Inverses . 36 5 Linear Models and Matrix Algebra (Continued) 41 5.1 Conditions for Nonsingularity of a Matrix . 41 5.2 Test of Nonsingularity by Use of Determinant . -
Initial Coin Offerings: Financing Growth with Cryptocurrency Token
Initial Coin Offerings: Financing Growth with Cryptocurrency Token Sales Sabrina T. Howell, Marina Niessner, and David Yermack⇤ June 21, 2018 Abstract Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are sales of blockchain-based digital tokens associated with specific platforms or assets. Since 2014 ICOs have emerged as a new financing instrument, with some parallels to IPOs, venture capital, and pre-sale crowdfunding. We examine the relationship between issuer characteristics and measures of success, with a focus on liquidity, using 453 ICOs that collectively raise $5.7 billion. We also employ propriety transaction data in a case study of Filecoin, one of the most successful ICOs. We find that liquidity and trading volume are higher when issuers offer voluntary disclosure, credibly commit to the project, and signal quality. s s ss s ss ss ss s ⇤NYU Stern and NBER; Yale SOM; NYU Stern, ECGI and NBER. Email: [email protected]. For helpful comments, we are grateful to Bruno Biais, Darrell Duffie, seminar participants at the OECD Paris Workshop on Digital Financial Assets, Erasmus University, and the Swedish House of Finance. We thank Protocol Labs and particularly Evan Miyazono and Juan Benet for providing data. Sabrina Howell thanks the Kauffman Foundation for financial support. We are also grateful to all of our research assistants, especially Jae Hyung (Fred) Kim. Part of this paper was written while David Yermack was a visiting professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam. 1Introduction Initial coin offerings (ICOs) may be a significant innovation in entrepreneurial finance. In an ICO, a blockchain-based venture raises capital by selling cryptographically secured digital assets, usually called “tokens.” These ventures often resemble the startups that conventionally finance themselves with angel or venture capital (VC) investment, though there are many scams, jokes, and tokens that have nothing to do with a new product or business. -
What the Return of Private Currencies Could Mean for Central Banks by Susan E
FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF KANSAS CITY | JUNE 30, 2021 Déjà Vu All Over Again: What the Return of Private Currencies Could Mean for Central Banks By Susan E. Zubradt and Jesse Leigh Maniff Private digital currencies, or “crypto-assets,” have surged in popularity recently, but they are not new to the payments landscape and may present familiar challenges for central banks. Although they have yet to fulfill the main functions of money, crypto-assets still have the potential to affect financial stability and the implementation of monetary policy. The recent revival of private digital currencies has captured the imagination of those who envision a world where value can be transferred as seamlessly as information. Many individuals across a range of industries, from government to payments to finance, wonder whether private digital currencies may somehow sideline fiat money—the government-issued money that, coupled with reserves at central bank accounts, underpins the global financial system. In this article, we review the history of private currencies, reevaluate whether present private digital currencies satisfy the functions of money, and discuss the implications that “crypto-assets”—whether considered money or not—may have for monetary policy and financial stability. Historical Perspective Private currencies based on commodities have existed for millennia. Since around the sixth century B.C.E, commodity money has been the predominate monetary system (Velde 1998). Metal coins were a useful early means of payment to facilitate everyday transactions. Over time, paper currency, issued by a private entity and backed by a commodity such as gold, became the norm for money in circulation. -
Bitcoin Making Gold Redundant?
March 2021 Edition BloombergMarch 2021 GalaxyEdition Crypto Index (BGCI) Bloomberg Crypto Outlook 2021 Bloomberg Crypto Outlook Bitcoin Making Gold Redundant? `There's No Alternative' Tilting Toward Bitcoin vs. Gold, Stocks Bitcoin $40,000-$60,000 Consolidation and 60/40 Mix Migration Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Discount May Signal March to $100,000 Bitcoin Replacing Gold Is Happening -- A Question of Endurance Death, Taxes and Bitcoin Volatility Dropping Toward Gold, Amazon Worried About Bitcoin Sellers? They Appear Similar to 2017 Start 1 March 2021 Edition Bloomberg Crypto Outlook 2021 CONTENTS 3 Overview 3 60/40 Mix Migration 5 Rising Bitcoin Wave and GBTC 5 Bitcoin Is Replacing Gold 6 Bitcoin Volatity In Decline 7 Diminishing Bitcon Supply, Reluctant Sellers 2 March 2021 Edition Bloomberg Crypto Outlook 2021 Learn more about Bloomberg Indices Most data and outlook as of March 2, 2021 Mike McGlone – BI Senior Commodity Strategist BI COMD (the commodity dashboard) Note ‐ Click on graphics to get to the Bloomberg terminal `There's No Alternative' Tilting Toward Bitcoin vs. Gold, Stocks $100,000 May Be Bitcoin's Next Threshold. Maturation makes sense in the Bitcoin price-discovery process, but we see the upward trajectory more likely to simply stay the Performance: Bloomberg Galaxy Cypto Index (BGCI) course on rising demand vs. declining supply and an February +24%, 2021 to March 2: +77% increasingly favorable macroeconomic environment. Having February +40%, 2021 +64% Bitcoin met the initial 2021 threshold just above $50,000 and a $1 trillion market cap, the benchmark crypto asset is ripe to (Bloomberg Intelligence) -- Bitcoin in 2021 is transitioning stabilize for awhile, with $40,000 marking initial retracement from a speculative risk asset to a global digital store-of-value, support. -
Chapter 11: Monetary System Instructions: These Are the Notes for Chapter 11
Lecture notes for Chapter #11 Prof. Bilen Chapter 11: Monetary System Instructions: These are the notes for Chapter 11. Make sure you review the material pre- sented here and read the corresponding chapters on the textbook: Chapter 21 on Mankiw. • Barter. Exchange of one good or service for another. { Was the only method used until Lydians first used money (coins) in 700 B.C. Barter: Problems • Barter requires a double coincidence of wants. { Two people have to want each others goods or services. • People spend significant time searching for others to trade with. { Waste of scarce resources: time! • Money fixes the double coincidence of wants problem! The Three Functions of Money 1. Medium of exchange: Buyers give money to sellers when they want to purchase goods and services. • Solves the barter problems! 2. Unit of account: Makes measuring monetary value of goods and services easy. • Easy comparisons: $10 vs. $2000. 3. Store of value: You can hold onto your money today and spend it tomorrow: does not perish (except for inflation). 1 Lecture notes for Chapter #11 Prof. Bilen Two Types of Money 1. Commodity Money: Money that takes the form of a commodity with intrinsic value. • Intrinsic: has value even not used as money. • E.g. gold coins, cigarettes in prisons. 2. Fiat Money: Money without intrinsic value, used as money because of government decree. • E.g. the U.S. dollar. u Central Bank and Monetary Policy • Monetary system is the mechanism that provides money to a country's economy. { Where money comes from: the central bank! • Central bank is an institution that oversees the banking system and regulates the money supply. -
Chapter 9 MONEY Q.1. What Is Barter?
Chapter 9 MONEY Q.1. What is barter? Explain the difficulties of Barter system. Ans: Trade of goods with other goods without using money is called barter. This system was in practice before the invention of money. Following are the problems/difficulties of barter: • Lack of double coincidence of wants: The main difficulty of barter system is the lack of double coincidence of wants. In a barter system a person who wants to exchange his goods must find some person who is willing to exchange his commodity with his commodity. For example, a person possessed wheat, which he wanted to exchange for cloth. He could not succeed in acquiring cloth until he met someone who not only had cloth but was also willing to exchange with wheat. • Lack of store of value: The barter system suffered the lack of storing the value. There is no way of storing of wealth for a long period. Some commodities lose their value with the passage of time. Some commodities, such as milk, fish, vegetable, wheat, and cotton lose value with the passage of time. Such commodities could not store for a long period. • Lack of measure of value: It was very difficult to measure the value of the goods with other goods as we can measure the value of everything with the help of money today. Because, there was nothing that could measure the value of each good commonly. For example, it was difficult to tell how much milk should be given to get 1 kg of wheat. • Lack of transfer of value: In barter, people had been facing challenges in transferring wealth from one place to another due to heavy weight and size of the goods stored as wealth. -
Bitcoin: Technology, Economics and Business Ethics
Bitcoin: Technology, Economics and Business Ethics By Azizah Aljohani A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfilment of the degree requirements of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN SYSTEM SCIENCE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING University of Ottawa Ottawa, Ontario, Canada August 2017 © Azizah Aljohani, Ottawa, Canada, 2017 KEYWORDS: Virtual currencies, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, Bitcoin, GARCH model ABSTRACT The rapid advancement in encryption and network computing gave birth to new tools and products that have influenced the local and global economy alike. One recent and notable example is the emergence of virtual currencies, also known as cryptocurrencies or digital currencies. Virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, introduced a fundamental transformation that affected the way goods, services, and assets are exchanged. As a result of its distributed ledgers based on blockchain, cryptocurrencies not only offer some unique advantages to the economy, investors, and consumers, but also pose considerable risks to users and challenges for regulators when fitting the new technology into the old legal framework. This paper attempts to model the volatility of bitcoin using 5 variants of the GARCH model namely: GARCH(1,1), EGARCH(1,1) IGARCH(1,1) TGARCH(1,1) and GJR-GARCH(1,1). Once the best model is selected, an OLS regression was ran on the volatility series to measure the day of the week the effect. The results indicate that the TGARCH (1,1) model best fits the volatility price for the data. Moreover, Sunday appears as the most significant day in the week. A nontechnical discussion of several aspects and features of virtual currencies and a glimpse at what the future may hold for these decentralized currencies is also presented. -
The Ontology of Money and Other Economic Phenomena. Dan
Economic Reality: The Ontology of Money and Other Economic Phenomena. Dan Fitzpatrick PhD Thesis Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method London School of Economics. 1 UMI Number: U198904 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U198904 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 TH f , s*’- ^ h %U.Oi+. <9 Librw<V Brittsn utxwy Oi HouUco. J and Eoonowc Science m >Tiir I Abstract The contemporary academic disciplines of Philosophy and Economics by and large do not concern themselves with questions pertaining to the ontology of economic reality; by economic reality I mean the kinds of economic phenomena that people encounter on a daily basis, the central ones being economic transactions, money, prices, goods and services. Economic phenomena also include other aspects of economic reality such as economic agents, (including corporations, individual producers and consumers), commodity markets, banks, investments, jobs and production. My investigation of the ontology of economic phenomena begins with a critical examination of the accounts of theorists and philosophers from the past, including Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Marx, Simmel and Menger. -
Consent Order: HDR Global Trading Limited, Et Al
Case 1:20-cv-08132-MKV Document 62 Filed 08/10/21 Page 1 of 22 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK USDC SDNY DOCUMENT ELECTRONICALLY FILED COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING DOC #: COMMISSION, DATE FILED: 8/10/2021 Plaintiff v. Case No. 1:20-cv-08132 HDR GLOBAL TRADING LIMITED, 100x Hon. Mary Kay Vyskocil HOLDINGS LIMITED, ABS GLOBAL TRADING LIMITED, SHINE EFFORT INC LIMITED, HDR GLOBAL SERVICES (BERMUDA) LIMITED, ARTHUR HAYES, BENJAMIN DELO, and SAMUEL REED, Defendants CONSENT ORDER FOR PERMANENT INJUNCTION, CIVIL MONETARY PENALTY, AND OTHER EQUITABLE RELIEF AGAINST DEFENDANTS HDR GLOBAL TRADING LIMITED, 100x HOLDINGS LIMITED, SHINE EFFORT INC LIMITED, and HDR GLOBAL SERVICES (BERMUDA) LIMITED I. INTRODUCTION On October 1, 2020, Plaintiff Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“Commission” or “CFTC”) filed a Complaint against Defendants HDR Global Trading Limited (“HDR”), 100x Holdings Limited (100x”), ABS Global Trading Limited (“ABS”), Shine Effort Inc Limited (“Shine”), and HDR Global Services (Bermuda) Limited (“HDR Services”), all doing business as “BitMEX” (collectively “BitMEX”) as well as BitMEX’s co-founders Arthur Hayes (“Hayes”), Benjamin Delo (“Delo”), and Samuel Reed (“Reed”), (collectively “Defendants”), seeking injunctive and other equitable relief, as well as the imposition of civil penalties, for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (“Act”), 7 U.S.C. §§ 1–26 (2018), and the Case 1:20-cv-08132-MKV Document 62 Filed 08/10/21 Page 2 of 22 Commission’s Regulations (“Regulations”) promulgated thereunder, 17 C.F.R. pts. 1–190 (2020). (“Complaint,” ECF No. 1.)1 II. CONSENTS AND AGREEMENTS To effect settlement of all charges alleged in the Complaint against Defendants HDR, 100x, ABS, Shine, and HDR Services (“Settling Defendants”) without a trial on the merits or any further judicial proceedings, Settling Defendants: 1.