Cryptocurrency: still a cause for concern

The article presents an original critique of cryptocurrencies, contesting claims made by the originators and many supporters of cryptocurrencies that they are future and that future is liberating, and contesting arguments made by opponents which downplay cryptocurrencies’ significance. While unlikely to simply replace the existing money of leading states, cryptocurrencies are likely to become enduringly important within complex monetary hierarchies, further removing money from critical scrutiny and democratic control. Following a brief summary of the claims of libertarian supporters, the article considers critics’ arguments and warns of too easy a dismissal of the social threat posed by cryptocurrency. Monetary outcomes are ultimately determined by social power not by the requirements of an abstract economic rationality. The shortcomings of monetary forms need not preclude their extension. Powerful backers resource cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies and it is likely that applications will continue to grow within complex, hierarchical and ever-changing monetary systems.