The Evolution of Currency: Cash to Cryptos to Sovereign Digital Currencies

(2019) 42(4) Fordham International Law Journal 1041

UNSW Law Research Paper No. 18-69

57 Pages Posted: 27 Sep 2018 Last revised: 14 Aug 2019

See all articles by Anton N. Didenko

Anton N. Didenko

University of New South Wales (UNSW) - Faculty of Law

Ross P. Buckley

University of New South Wales (UNSW) - UNSW Law & Justice

Date Written: January 1, 2018

Abstract

In 2009, Bitcoin created a world-first decentralised alternative currency that has spawned over 1,700 imitations by private parties. In 2018, governments finally joined the race, as Venezuela issued a world-first sovereign digital currency. Major economies like Canada, China, Singapore and the UK are all developing their own versions. These new versions differ significantly from Bitcoin and among themselves, creating the potential to flood the global financial system with a myriad of new digital currencies. Existing taxonomies of currency struggle with the speed of change (frequently due to inadequate understanding of the underlying technology) and, as a result, remain incomplete and filled with confusing and conflicting vocabulary (with terms like ‘virtual currencies’, ‘digital currencies’, ‘cryptocurrencies’ frequently being used to refer to the same thing). This article resolves this problem. First, it analyses existing forms of currency based on their functional characteristics and provides a comprehensive taxonomy. Second, it integrates the likely forms of upcoming sovereign digital currencies into this taxonomy and outlines the corresponding challenges. At the moment, no major economy seems keen to issue a sovereign digital currency, but if one does, others will, for good reasons, respond in kind and the ground will be laid for a sovereign digital currency battle royale.

Keywords: Bitcoin, decentralised currency, alternative currency, sovereign digital currency, virtual currencies, digital currencies, cryptocurrencies

Suggested Citation

Didenko, Anton N. and Buckley, Ross P., The Evolution of Currency: Cash to Cryptos to Sovereign Digital Currencies (January 1, 2018). (2019) 42(4) Fordham International Law Journal 1041, UNSW Law Research Paper No. 18-69, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3256066 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3256066

Anton N. Didenko (Contact Author)

University of New South Wales (UNSW) - Faculty of Law ( email )

Kensington, New South Wales 2052
Australia

Ross P. Buckley

University of New South Wales (UNSW) - UNSW Law & Justice ( email )

Sydney, New South Wales 2052
Australia

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