Any views expressed within media held on this service are those of the contributors, should not be taken as approved or endorsed by the University, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University in respect of any particular issue.
Press "Enter" to skip to content

Category: Private Law

Monetary value, legal tender and cryptocurrencies

By David Fox, Professor of Common Law, University of Edinburgh

In 2018 the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, pronounced that cryptocurrencies were “failing” as money. Their extreme volatility against state-issued fiat currencies, like sterling or the US dollar, proved they were inefficient stores of monetary value. Storing value through time is one of the main functions of money.

Mr Carney’s comments raise important questions for lawyers. Does the law have a distinctive conception of monetary value, and is there any difference in how it might apply to a privately-created cryptocurrency compared with a state-issued fiat currency?

Comments closed

Welcome to the Edinburgh Private Law Blog

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Edinburgh Private Law Blog, picking up the baton from the Scots Law News Blog, the European Private Law Blog and the Obligations Law Blog.

The Edinburgh Private Law Blog will host a range of material including reports on seminars and conferences, précis of articles, and comments on recent cases and legislative material.

Comments closed
css.php

Report this page

To report inappropriate content on this page, please use the form below. Upon receiving your report, we will be in touch as per the Take Down Policy of the service.

Please note that personal data collected through this form is used and stored for the purposes of processing this report and communication with you.

If you are unable to report a concern about content via this form please contact the Service Owner.

Please enter an email address you wish to be contacted on. Please describe the unacceptable content in sufficient detail to allow us to locate it, and why you consider it to be unacceptable.
By submitting this report, you accept that it is accurate and that fraudulent or nuisance complaints may result in action by the University.

  Cancel