DP14972 The Microeconomics of Cryptocurrencies
Author(s): | Neil Gandal, Joshua Gans, Guillaume Haeringer, Hanna Halaburda |
Publication Date: | June 2020 |
Date Revised: | January 2021 |
Keyword(s): | Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin Blockchain |
JEL(s): | |
Programme Areas: | Financial Economics, Industrial Organization |
Link to this Page: | cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=14972 |
Since its launch in 2009 much has been written about Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchains. While the discussions initially took place mostly on blogs and other popular media, we now are witnessing the emergence of a growing body of rigorous academic research on these topics. By the nature of the phenomenon analyzed, this research spans many academic disciplines including macroeconomics, law and economics and computer science. This survey focuses on the microeconomics of cryptocurrencies themselves. What drives their supply, demand, trading price and competition amongst them. This literature has been emerging over the past decade and the purpose of this paper is to summarize its main findings so as to establish a base upon which future research can be conducted.