4 Money and Value

Subject(s):

Currency and the unit of account — Concept of money — Functions and status of money

This chapter looks at money’s most fundamental attribute: it is perceived as something that has value. It should be reasonably clear that something which was not perceived as having value would by definition have none of the traditional characteristics of money—a unit of account, a medium of exchange, and a store of value. It is important to understand what it is that gives money value in order to answer the question of whether virtual currency can be said to be valuable in the same way. One approach to this topic is addressing the criterion ‘store of value’. The chapter argues that out of the three, it is the one which is least unique since almost any commodity can function as a store of value.