Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
This study develops a monetary model featuring (i) ‘virtual’ goods, sold against virtual currency, and (ii) agents providing payment services (miners), remunerated with newly issued virtual currency. Virtual money growth may have effects opposite to those predicted by monetary theory. Declining virtual currency issuance, like in Bitcoin, raises the price of virtual goods, which counteracts the traditional impact of a reduced inflation tax. The paper also shows that welfare improves as virtual currency issuance decreases, but only if the virtual currency growth rate is sufficiently larger than the fiat money growth rate.