Finance and Society, 7(2): 130-39.
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This essay makes the case that current debates about the moneyness’ of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are occurring at the incorrect scale. Rather than being some form of transnational digital money to be used alongside or compete with national fiat currencies, I argue that, instead, each cryptocurrency represents its own self-contained ‘money-world’. A cryptocurrency is the uniquely specified unit of account and medium of exchange within the socio-technical bounds of its own blockchain. This perspective can open new lines of intellectual dialogue and inform better policy choices for regulating cryptocurrencies.