There's no reason to be afraid of bitcoin. At least nowadays

Economists Andre Fourcans and Radu explain, in a forum at the "World", that even if it is still a long way off, cryptomonnaies could achieve Friedrich Hayek's liberal utopia, which favours the existence of competing private currencies.

Tribune. A financial innovation launched in 2009, the bitcoin would threaten governments and central banks, which could find themselves dispossessed of their monetary management powers with all the associated risks. However, there is no real reason - at least today and probably for a long time to be afraid of the big bad Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a special unit of account that measures the prices of certain goods, services or financial assets and is traded against traditional currencies on many platforms. The stock of bitcoins increases at a fixed rate according to decentralized computer production; this rate decreases over time, with a maximum limit of 21 million units of account.

When it was launched in 2009, one bitcoin was worth $12. Today, its price has broken records: it was trading at $17,000 at the end of December 2017. This price level and the fluctuations it has shown since its creation do not a priori have any influence on the monetary policy of central banks or on economic activity. It can either enrich or impoverish those who participate in this market, and that's about it?

1.5% of U. S. Currency Inventory

Because bitcoin fulfils almost none of the three functions that characterize a currency: medium of exchange, cash, reserve of value. It is on the first function that the bitcoin comes closest to a currency. But it is far from being a generalized medium of exchange; if it is used to carry out certain transactions (more than 100,000 merchants, and companies such as PayPal, Microsoft, Dell or Tesla would accept bitcoin), it is far from being accepted in exchange for any good or service as is a real currency. As for the other two functions, given its volatility and the frequent fluctuations in its value both upwards and downwards, it is obvious that it cannot satisfy them, in particular...