A New Theory of Money: From Ancient Japanese Copper Coins to Virtual Currencies

この研究では、通貨に対する信頼に着目して新しい通貨理論が構築し、古代の貨幣システム、兌換紙幣，不換紙幣、および仮想通貨の全体を一元的なフレームワークで説明する。貨幣の歴史は、貨幣や通貨への信頼形成のための取引費用を節約するプロセスとみなせる。理想的なブロックチェーンが開発されれば、現在の通貨システムを分権的な仮想通貨が取って代わることも可能である。そのための条件を理論モデルによって明らかにする。

This study introduces a new theory of money that can explain the ancient system of commodity money, the convertible and fiat systems of paper money, and the system of virtual currencies, in a unified manner. The key factor that underlies this theory is trust in money, which is built into the model in this study. The study demonstrates that the history of money can be thought of as a process that economizes transaction costs which builds trust in money and currencies. If an ideal blockchain is developed, it may replace the current monetary system of paper money and deposit money for which trust is provided by the central authorities. That will be possible if the decentralized system of blockchain-based money can sufficiently economize the transaction costs that are necessary to maintain the current centralized system of money.