Contributed
This content is contributed or sourced from third parties but has been subject to Finextra editorial review.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean- neither more nor less.” -
Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 6, by Lewis Carroll
One of the explanations for the value of bitcoin is based on its claimed anti-inflationary properties. The ultimate supply of bitcoin, unlike conventional currencies is limited by design, to 21 million coins. The rate at which new bitcoins are created halves
every four years. Originally the reward to bitcoin ‘miners’ for validating a block of transactions was 50 new bitcoins. Currently the reward after a succession of ‘halvings’ is 3.125 bitcoins. The rate at which the bitcoin supply increases is described by
cryptocurrency enthusiasts as the ‘bitcoin inflation rate’.
The low and falling bitcoin inflation rate is quoted as yet another reason for the superiority of bitcoin over ‘fiat’ currencies, such as the US dollar.
In Forbes Liam Wright, editor-in-chief of
Cryptoslate, says: “The current inflation rate for bitcoin stands around 0.84%, whereas the most recent US inflation data for May came in at 3.4%.”
Figure 1. Bitcoin inflation rate, based on data from https://www.blockchain.com/
The only problem with this story is that it is dependent on a Humpty Dumpty-like misuse of the word of inflation.
The standard economic definition is, to quote the
IMF, “inflation is the rate of increase in prices over a given period of time”.
This is measured by looking at the changes over time in the cost of buying a standard basket of goods. Inflation is not a measure of the change in the amount of money in circulation. So-called ‘bitcoin inflation’ measures a change in supply rather than a
change in value. While in conventional currencies changes in the money supply are related to changes in the inflation rate, they are not the same thing and other factors influence the extent to which a change in the money supply leads to change in the inflation
rate.
So, what is the real inflation rate for bitcoin using the normal economic definition?
Given the lack of usage of bitcoin in real world commerce it is impossible to simply find a representative basket of conventional goods regularly purchased with bitcoin and look at how the price level fluctuates over a period of time.
Even in
El Salvador, where bitcoin was, for a period, given official status it was little used in day-to-day commerce. The alternative is simply to look at the change in the value of bitcoin in dollar terms over the course of the year and adjust the rate of change
by the US dollar inflation rate. This gives the change in the cost of a standard basket of goods in the US in bitcoin.
The calculation does not show a steadily falling rate of inflation for bitcoin. Instead, it shows a wildly yo-yoing inflation rate as the bitcoin price periodically surges and collapses. Over a 12-year period the true annual bitcoin inflation rate varied
between 166% (hyper-inflation) and -93% (hyper-deflation).
Figure 2. Bitcoin, US Dollar and Turkish Lira Inflation Rates.
Sources: CoinMarketCap and the World Bank
Hyper-inflation in terms of bitcoin (when the bitcoin price periodically collapses) is not unique to bitcoin. Multiple fiat currencies have experienced similar rates, often to the point it completely destroys the value of the currency. The chart above shows
the inflation rates for the US dollar over the same period (consistently low apart from 2021) and for the Turkish Lira, which has experienced persistent high inflation. Hyper-deflation (the result of each bitcoin bubble) is unique to cryptocurrencies.
From an economic perspective, a currency is most useful when its value remains relatively stable. Price stability removes a great deal of the friction in commerce, investing and financial planning by firms and households.
A currency with a wildly unstable value (up and down) is as unsuitable as a currency that suffers from consistently high inflation. Even on the Dark Web, Ross Ulbricht, aka “Dread Pirate Roberts”, found himself having to
provide insurance against the wild movements in the value of bitcoin to his customers.
To quote
Forbes in 2013: “To insulate those sellers against bitcoin fluctuations, the eBay-like drug site also offers a hedging service. Sales are held in escrow until buyers receive their orders via mail, and vendors are given the choice to turn on a setting that
pegs the escrow’s value to the dollar, with Silk Road itself covering any losses or taking any gains from bitcoin’s swings in value that occur while the drugs are in transit.”
The annualised inflation rate for bitcoin actually provides an overly flattering view of the stability of its value since bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies have suffered even wilder gyrations over the course of months or even days. The price of bitcoin
has grown spectacularly since its creation but the arguments that its value derives from its anti-inflationary properties are simply down to an incorrect use of the word “inflation”.
The Gillmore Centre series features authors from the Gillmore Centre of Financial Technology at
Warwick Business School as they explore new innovations in fintech from an academic perspective. Keep an eye out for more articles from the Gilmore Centre to learn more about new developments in the field.