This open access book examines the history and role of money. Money is
often defined in terms of three interrelated functions: as a medium of
exchange, store of value and unit of account. Researchers frequently
discuss the first two functions, but tend to ignore unit of account.
This book focuses on how a unit of account or denomination can be
defined and can be derived from the monetary system. In the case of
paper money and coins, we know how to determine the denomination of
money based on the problem of the least number of weights defined by
Bâchet and proved by Hardy and Wright (1960). However, in the case of
digital or cryptocurrency, denomination may not matter because digital
or cryptocurrency uses a wallet that is essentially denomination free: a
wallet can contain any amount of currency without upper and lower
limits. When people talk about the stablecoin, i.e. the stable price of
digital and cryptocurrency with the major legal tender, they take a unit
of account or denomination of digital or cryptocurrency as given. This
arrangement destroys the nature of denomination free or decentralized
autonomy as it were.
Exploring how we can consolidate with these two views of denomination,
this book will appeal to anyone interested in creating new digital or
cryptocurrencies. It also serves as a textbook on central bank digital
currency.