From Bitcoin to the Brixton Pound: History and Prospects for Alternative Currencies (Poster Abstract)

Abstract

The rise of Bitcoin has led to renewed interest in alternative currencies. While alternative currencies have regularly featured on the economic landscape over the last half-millennia we have a limited understanding of several salient questions, such as which factors explain their rise and decline. An alternative currency is considered here to be any medium of exchange other than legal tender. A new taxonomy is introduced below to more precisely define the many different types of alternative currencies and to address the disparate lexicon found in the literature. Alternative currencies can be broadly classified as either tangible (Table 1) or digital (Table 2).