World of Bitcoin

The virtual currency Bitcoin is one of the striking phenomena of recent years. I have participated in several conferences and meetings focusing exclusively on Bitcoin and listened to the opinions of the participants. Most of these views consider Bitcoin as positive, almost in an exalting way. Bitcoin should represent a decentralized new currency that is beyond the control of any government. The government can no longer manipulate inflationary with savings of citizens and citizens become free. Due to the anonymity of transactions, tax collection is impossible. The only possibility of funding the state should be crowdfunding, when the people themselves will decide what government project they support. States together will no longer be able to fight in wars, because by disabling of “money printing" they will no longer have the resources to finance wars. Bitcoin is a revolution in remittances, remittances could not be simpler. Bitcoin beats not only companies collecting exorbitant fees for sending money, but seriously threatens the financial intermediation as we know it. Since it is no longer possible to simply create money, it will also make impossible future financial crisis. I could go on in creating the list of concepts related to Bitcoin. Nevertheless I realized that most of the participants in such meetings are not economists, but computer scientists and technological enthusiasts. It gave me a definite answer to the question why there is so little space devoted to the economic aspects of Bitcoin. In principle, this fact could be explained from two perspectives: Economists either totally missed the onset of revolutionary news on financial markets, or they considered the whole thing as so minor and unrealistic, that they do not feel the need to express their opinions at all. As the time passes, Bitcoin attracts more attention of economists and this article is part of that.