A Model of Cryptocurrencies

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sockin, Michael; Xiong, Wei
• 署名单位: University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; Princeton University; The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2023.4756
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 6684-6707
• 关键词: Cryptocurrency; token price nonneutrality; optimism; platform fragility

摘要

We model cryptocurrencies as utility tokens used by a decentralized digital platform to facilitate transactions between users of certain goods or services. The network effect governing user participation, in conjunction with the nonneutrality of the token price, can cause the token market to break down. We show that token retradeability mitigates this risk of breakdown on younger platforms by harnessing user optimism but worsens this fragility when sentiment trading by speculators crowds out users. Elastic token issuance mitigates this fragility, but strategic attacks by miners exacerbate it because users' anticipation of future losses depresses the token's resale value.