Bitcoin as a reaffirmation of property rights
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30800/mises.2024.v12.1549Keywords:
property, individual right, Bitcoin, trustAbstract
The right to property under jusnaturalism and classical liberalism was seen as an essential individual right and not subject to any relativization. With the “welfare state” and neoliberalism, the concept of property was gradually relativized under the argument that such a right could not be absolute, because it could violate other “social rights”. On the other hand, the advancement of technology allowed the emergence of Bitcoin and its block chain as a way of enabling transactions between two parties without the need for a third party as an intermediary, that is, a system entirely based on cryptography, which does not require the trust in a third party. Having established these premises, this essay intends to address how the creation of Bitcoin, perhaps pretentiously, came to rescue and reaffirm the classic right to property, given the characteristics of this cryptocurrency, such as its status as a store of value, possibility of its use as a means of exchange (coin), its ability to reduce bureaucracy in transactions and, above all, its non-confiscation nature (as long as it is used in the way it was designed to, through private custody) and impervious to manipulation.
Keywords: property; individual right; Bitcoin; trust.
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