After an introduction about crypto-currencies and the differences between them and national currencies, the authors will examine the legal problems posed by crypto-currencies and in particular Bitcoins, whose nature is decentralised, transnational, and, at least originally, immune from the control of public authorities. Mutatis mutandis, crypto-currencies share some common features with the system envisaged by Hayek in his “The Denationalization of Money”, wherein the Nobel laureate argues that: “There is no justification in history for the existing position of a government monopoly of issuing money. It has never been proposed on the grounds that government will give us better money than anybody else could” (Hayek, 1978, pp. 116-117). As a result, he proposed that banks should be allowed to issue money. In his opinion, this system would be preferable to the traditional one, because, under certain conditions – namely that money be asset backed – it rules on various subjects, such as international transport, the sale of goods, cheques, bills of exchange, and promissory notes. According to the authors, in conclusion, national governments should not stand in the way of progress, and neither should they try to harness these efforts towards harmonisation, but rather they ought to intervene lightly, simply facilitating this trend. This is, in fact, the safest approach to draft an efficient regulation that does not calcify the flexible and free nature of cryptocurrencies, thereby damaging their best feature. In this way, it is possible to reinterpret and modernise Hayek’s model, while, at the same time, softening the potential dangerous consequences of an approach where states play no role.
Hayek and Bitcoins: Which Governance for an International Currency?,
BORRONI, Andrea
2016
Abstract
After an introduction about crypto-currencies and the differences between them and national currencies, the authors will examine the legal problems posed by crypto-currencies and in particular Bitcoins, whose nature is decentralised, transnational, and, at least originally, immune from the control of public authorities. Mutatis mutandis, crypto-currencies share some common features with the system envisaged by Hayek in his “The Denationalization of Money”, wherein the Nobel laureate argues that: “There is no justification in history for the existing position of a government monopoly of issuing money. It has never been proposed on the grounds that government will give us better money than anybody else could” (Hayek, 1978, pp. 116-117). As a result, he proposed that banks should be allowed to issue money. In his opinion, this system would be preferable to the traditional one, because, under certain conditions – namely that money be asset backed – it rules on various subjects, such as international transport, the sale of goods, cheques, bills of exchange, and promissory notes. According to the authors, in conclusion, national governments should not stand in the way of progress, and neither should they try to harness these efforts towards harmonisation, but rather they ought to intervene lightly, simply facilitating this trend. This is, in fact, the safest approach to draft an efficient regulation that does not calcify the flexible and free nature of cryptocurrencies, thereby damaging their best feature. In this way, it is possible to reinterpret and modernise Hayek’s model, while, at the same time, softening the potential dangerous consequences of an approach where states play no role.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.