[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfinec/v144y2022i2p347-369.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bitcoin’s limited adoption problem

Author

Listed:
  • Hinzen, Franz J.
  • John, Kose
  • Saleh, Fahad
Abstract
We demonstrate theoretically that Bitcoin’s limited adoption arises as an equilibrium outcome rather than as a short-lived property. Our results are driven by negative network effects which arise due to Bitcoin’s need for consensus and the existence of network delay. As the Bitcoin network expands, network delay grows thereby prolonging the time needed for generating consensus. In turn, transaction settlement becomes prolonged, and users abandon the system, yielding limited adoption. Increasing transaction rates fails to solve this problem because increasing transaction rates increases fork probabilities which prolongs the consensus process and generates limited adoption.

Suggested Citation

  • Hinzen, Franz J. & John, Kose & Saleh, Fahad, 2022. "Bitcoin’s limited adoption problem," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 347-369.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:144:y:2022:i:2:p:347-369
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2022.01.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X22000198
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfineco.2022.01.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruno Biais & Christophe Bisière & Matthieu Bouvard & Catherine Casamatta & Albert J. Menkveld, 2023. "Equilibrium Bitcoin Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(2), pages 967-1014, April.
    2. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2020. "Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 293-319.
    3. Lin William Cong & Zhiguo He & Jiasun Li & Wei Jiang, 2021. "Decentralized Mining in Centralized Pools [Concentrating on the fall of the labor share]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(3), pages 1191-1235.
    4. Bruno Biais & Christophe Bisière & Matthieu Bouvard & Catherine Casamatta, 2019. "The Blockchain Folk Theorem," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1662-1715.
    5. John M. Griffin & Amin Shams, 2020. "Is Bitcoin Really Untethered?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(4), pages 1913-1964, August.
    6. Lin William Cong & Ye Li & Neng Wang, 2021. "Tokenomics: Dynamic Adoption and Valuation [The demand of liquid assets with uncertain lumpy expenditures]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(3), pages 1105-1155.
    7. Easley, David & O'Hara, Maureen & Basu, Soumya, 2019. "From mining to markets: The evolution of bitcoin transaction fees," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 91-109.
    8. Gur Huberman & Jacob D Leshno & Ciamac Moallemi, 2021. "Monopoly without a Monopolist: An Economic Analysis of the Bitcoin Payment System [Blockchain Economics]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(6), pages 3011-3040.
    9. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2020. "Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100409, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Max Raskin & Fahad Saleh & David Yermack, 2019. "How Do Private Digital Currencies Affect Government Policy?," NBER Working Papers 26219, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Sean Foley & Jonathan R Karlsen & Tālis J Putniņš, 2019. "Sex, Drugs, and Bitcoin: How Much Illegal Activity Is Financed through Cryptocurrencies?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1798-1853.
    12. Fahad Saleh & Wei Jiang, 2021. "Blockchain without Waste: Proof-of-Stake [Proof of Work vs Proof of Stake]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(3), pages 1156-1190.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hokkanen, Topi, 2023. "Externalities and market failures of cryptocurrencies," BoF Economics Review 4/2023, Bank of Finland.
    2. Kong, Xiaolin & Ma, Chaoqun & Ren, Yi-Shuai & Baltas, Konstantinos & Narayan, Seema, 2024. "A comparative analysis of the price explosiveness in Bitcoin and forked coins," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    3. Şoiman, Florentina & Dumas, Jean-Guillaume & Jimenez-Garces, Sonia, 2023. "What drives DeFi market returns?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Chen, Bin-xia & Sun, Yan-lin, 2024. "Risk characteristics and connectedness in cryptocurrency markets: New evidence from a non-linear framework," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(PA).
    5. Zhang, Xu & Naeem, Muhammad Abubakr & Du, Yuting & Rauf, Abdul, 2024. "Examining the bidirectional ripple effects in the NFT markets: Risky center or hedging center?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    6. David Cerezo Sánchez, 2022. "Pravuil: Global Consensus for a United World," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 1(4), pages 1-20, October.
    7. Choudhary, Priya & Thenmozhi, M., 2024. "Fintech and financial sector: ADO analysis and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    8. Florentina Șoiman & Jean-Guillaume Dumas & Sonia Jimenez-Garces, 2022. "The return of (I)DeFiX [Le rendement de (I)DeFiX]," Working Papers hal-03625891, HAL.
    9. Feng, Wenjun & Zhang, Zhengjun, 2023. "Risk-weighted cryptocurrency indices," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    10. Charles M. Kahn & Maarten R.C. van Oordt, 2022. "The Demand for Programmable Payments," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 22-076/IV, Tinbergen Institute.
    11. Conlon, Thomas & Corbet, Shaen & Hou, Yang (Greg) & Hu, Yang & Oxley, Les, 2024. "Bitcoin forks: What drives the branches?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    12. Nikolaus Hautsch & Christoph Scheu & Stefan Voigt, 2024. "Building trust takes time: limits to arbitrage for blockchain-based assets," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 28(4), pages 1345-1381.
    13. Divakaruni, Anantha & Zimmerman, Peter, 2023. "The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into money," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    14. Garud Iyengar & Fahad Saleh & Jay Sethuraman & Wenjun Wang, 2023. "Economics of Permissioned Blockchain Adoption," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(6), pages 3415-3436, June.
    15. Amini, Hamed & Deguest, Romain & Iyidogan, Engin & Minca, Andreea, 2024. "Blockchain adoption and optimal reinsurance design," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 318(1), pages 341-353.
    16. Florentina c{S}oiman & Guillaume Dumas & Sonia Jimenez-Garces, 2022. "The return of (I)DeFiX," Papers 2204.00251, arXiv.org.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matteo Benetton & Giovanni Compiani, 2024. "Investors’ Beliefs and Cryptocurrency Prices," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 197-236.
    2. Hanna Halaburda & Guillaume Haeringer & Joshua Gans & Neil Gandal, 2022. "The Microeconomics of Cryptocurrencies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 971-1013, September.
    3. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2021. "Blockchain analysis of the Bitcoin market," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118897, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Ferreira, Daniel & Li, Jin & Nikolowa, Radoslawa, 2023. "Corporate capture of blockchain governance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115618, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Luciano Somoza & Antoine Didisheim, 2022. "The End of the Crypto-Diversification Myth," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 22-53, Swiss Finance Institute.
    6. Igor Makarov & Antoinette Schoar, 2021. "Blockchain Analysis of the Bitcoin Market," NBER Working Papers 29396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Borri, Nicola & Shakhnov, Kirill, 2023. "Cryptomarket discounts," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    8. Nikolaus Hautsch & Christoph Scheu & Stefan Voigt, 2024. "Building trust takes time: limits to arbitrage for blockchain-based assets," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 28(4), pages 1345-1381.
    9. Aysan, Ahmet Faruk & Caporin, Massimiliano & Cepni, Oguzhan, 2024. "Not all words are equal: Sentiment and jumps in the cryptocurrency market," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. Li Guo & Wolfgang Karl Härdle & Yubo Tao, 2024. "A Time-Varying Network for Cryptocurrencies," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 437-456, April.
    11. Emiliano S Pagnotta, 2022. "Decentralizing Money: Bitcoin Prices and Blockchain Security," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(2), pages 866-907.
    12. Fernando E. Alvarez & David Argente & Diana Van Patten, 2022. "Are Cryptocurrencies Currencies? Bitcoin as Legal Tender in El Salvador," NBER Working Papers 29968, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Garud Iyengar & Fahad Saleh & Jay Sethuraman & Wenjun Wang, 2023. "Economics of Permissioned Blockchain Adoption," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(6), pages 3415-3436, June.
    14. Feng, Wenjun & Zhang, Zhengjun, 2023. "Currency exchange rate predictability: The new power of Bitcoin prices," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    15. Lin William Cong & Yizhou Xiao, 2021. "Categories and Functions of Crypto-Tokens," Springer Books, in: Maurizio Pompella & Roman Matousek (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of FinTech and Blockchain, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 267-284, Springer.
    16. Foley, Sean & Frijns, Bart & Garel, Alexandre & Roh, Tai-Yong, 2022. "Who buys Bitcoin? The cultural determinants of Bitcoin activity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    17. Arkorful, Gideon Bruce & Chen, Haiqiang & Gu, Ming & Liu, Xiaoqun, 2023. "What can we learn from the convenience yield of Bitcoin? Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 141-153.
    18. Michael Sockin & Wei Xiong, 2023. "Decentralization through Tokenization," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(1), pages 247-299, February.
    19. Hokkanen, Topi, 2023. "Externalities and market failures of cryptocurrencies," BoF Economics Review 4/2023, Bank of Finland.
    20. Zhang, Wei & Li, Yi & Xiong, Xiong & Wang, Pengfei, 2021. "Downside risk and the cross-section of cryptocurrency returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bitcoin; Limited adoption; Consensus; Network delay; Blockchain; Fintech;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • G00 - Financial Economics - - General - - - General
    • G29 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:144:y:2022:i:2:p:347-369. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505576 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.