Bitcoin's value is subtle, but substantial. It's redeemability and the fact that it is a
meta-currency that is inflation proof is what gives bitcoin value (Patterson, S. 201 4). To
better put this into context, imagine the phenomenon that occurred to gold with paper.
How much more convenient, portable, divisible, easier to handle, and easier to count,
paper was compared to gold and why the market made people desire to have paper
currency instead of gold coins or bars anymore. Now imagine bitcoin causing the same
phenomena to paper.
An example of this comes from general banking history. Someone with a vault and
guards would offer to safely store everyone's gold for a fee and would write them a
receipt using special ink or paper that was very hard to duplicate. The receipts would be
valued for a certain amount of gold and were considered "as good as gold." After a while
people in the economy would stop going to the bank to withdraw their gold to carry it to a
vender who would then himself have to take it back to the bank to get a receipt. Instead,
people just started to trade the receipts. Thus paper money was essentially born.
Now imagine a world where instead of banking fees, credit card fees, and
carrying cash, that instead everything is done in bitcoin.
Which is far more divisible,
easier to count, easier to carry, impossible to duplicate, and more convenient for a
globalized economy. It's the next evolution of money. Bitcoin is also a meta-currency.
Meta-currency means that it is a currency of currency. The biggest issue with a
barter system of trade was the inefficiency issue of double coincidence of wants (Jevons,
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THE EFFECTS OF CRYPTOCURRENCIES ON THE BANKING INDUSTRY AND MONETARY POLICY
W. S. 1885). The double coincidence of wants is the needing of two individuals in a
market that had what each other needed and being able to come to an agreement in order
to trade the two goods. Currency became the solution to conquer that inefficient issue.
Now society faces the same issue with currency itself. Two traders now suffer from the
issue of a double coincidence of wants in regards to currency. With currency exchange
prices constantly changing and the massive exchange fees from bank intermediaries, the
cost of this inefficiency is in the billions as measured by the profit amounts of
international banks that charge these fees. Today's society is suffering from this
inefficiency issue similar to that of barter systems, but for currency instead of goods.
With the rise of globalization and ever more affordable travel, this is an issue that is
rising. Meta-currency is the answer.
If someone from the US wants to do business with someone from Africa but not
pay currency exchange fees or international fees, they could use bitcoins. The fee is either
zero or a fraction of a percent to pay the miners as discussed above. Let's say the product
the American wants to purchase costs the equivalent of one hundred dollars, then the
American citizen will buy one hundred dollars worth of bitcoin for the product he wants
to buy and then will send those bitcoins to the African citizen who will then turn the
bitcoins into his local currency. This is how bitcoin is a meta-currency that cuts out the
middle man banker who would charge high fees at every stage of the transaction.
Remember that bitcoin is peer-to-peer, so although miners might cost a small fee now or
in the future, their job is not to be a middleman in the transaction like a banker, but to
check the transaction data against the block chain to make sure no fraud is being
perpetrated and maintaining the integrity of the system. Unlike a banker, peer-to-peer means the transaction is handled faster,just as safely, and without the massive fees
businesses and individuals have to deal with currently.
33
Another aspect that gives bitcoin its value and keeps bitcoin in line with the
regression theorem is the blockchain itself. Bitcoin and the blockchain go hand-in-hand.
If bitcoin was to be separated from the blockchain then bitcoins value would plummet to
zero.
The blockchain is what makes bitcoin inflation proof. It allows property title to exist
in the digital world. The truly interesting idea to consider, which will be expanded upon
later in this paper, is using the blockchain for things other than just bitcoin and
cryptocurrency. However, the ability ofbitcoin and the blockchain to introduce this
transferable property title aspect into the digital world holds untold and massive value in
and of itself. Deeds and property titles have commodity roots, just like Mises required to
be in line with the regression theorem.
Lastly,
Bitcoin's final value can be easily summed up by viewing bitcoin not just
as a currency but also as an innovative payment system. Payment systems have always
been done by third parties such as banks, PayPal, and credit card companies. All of which
are massive multi-billion dollar ventures. However, despite how big, profitable, and
useful these middle-man payment system businesses are, they are not available to the
majority of the world's population according to the World Bank (2012).
Anyone not in a highly developed country with a strong financial foundation is
left behind in the global market place. In fact, if a country doesn't have a strong financial
foundation with domestic and international banks and with good capital markets and
exchanges then that entire country and all of its citizens are being held back from their potential level of economic prosperity (Burton, D. R., & Michel, N .J. 2016). However all
of these institutions are "middle-men" that cost billions of dollars a year in fees to
consumers.
Remember that bitcoin is peer-to-peer. Remember that the middle-man is cut
out of bitcoin transactions, which is why transaction fees are extremely small or
otherwise non-existent, while they have the potential to increase in the future, it would be
marginal in comparison to today's high level fees. By removing the middle-men the
economy keeps more money amongst the consumers to spend on more goods and
services and less on pricy financial services. This would increase the citizens' standards
of living within that country.
In the pre-modem economy these bank fees were justified because consumers
were getting a useful service in exchange for the fees such as: currency exchanges, being
able to trade and do business in markets oceans away,
go from a local or national
business to an international business that uses different currencies. However, consumers
can get the benefits of all these services without the middle-man by using bitcoin and
cryptocurrencies. The fees are becoming more and more unjustified as more and more
people discover bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. The economic timer is ticking for a lot of
these financial giants. The banking industry is in trouble.
Imagine the individuals trapped in corruptive regimes being able to undermine
their political dictators (Owen, T. 2015). Imagine the gains to trade, commerce, and
quality of life for the world's poor, if billions of people in the world were to become a
part of the global economy (Bardhan, P. 2006). Imagine small business owners, who have
enough trouble going international, being able to more easily participate international
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THE EFFECTS OF CRVPTOCURRENCIES ON THE BANKING INDUSTRY AND MONETARY POLICY
commerce with bitcoin and other ecommerce tools (Rogers, K. 201 5). Imagine the future,
a future of prosperity with cryptocurrency.
