Cryptocurrencies, Monetary Policy, and New Forms of Monetary Sovereignty

The article aims to bring to light the limits and contradictions of cryptocurrencies, as
well as to investigate possible alternative uses of them. Particularly focusing on Bitcoin, under-
stood as a benchmark for the entire sector, the authors seek to answer the following questions:
Should Bitcoin be considered a currency, an investment vehicle, or a speculative asset? On
which factors does Bitcoin volatility depend? Do Central Banks effectively have no power to
influence/stabilize Bitcoin volatility? Following the empirical strategy proposed by Baek and
Elbeck, the article shows that Bitcoin returns merely depend on financial conventions and that
the cryptocurrency is acting as a highly speculative asset. Sociotechnical innovations introduced
by Bitcoin, the authors argue, have concretely opened the possibility of deeply rethinking money.
However, several factors are currently negatively affecting the possibility of the cryptocurrency
to function as an effective means of payment. Whether this experience can pave the way for the
birth of new and more democratic monetary instruments, as the article discusses, is an issue that
calls into question a whole combination of political, technical and social elements.