Philosophy & Economics of Bitcoin

Andrew M. Bailey, Bitcoin Policy Institute

Key Information

• Instructor: Andrew M. Bailey (email)
• Time: 09:00-10:20, Tue/Fri
• Place: Classroom 1
• Office Hours: By appointment
• Fellow faculty: I am happy to consult with any instructors who'd like to adapt this material into their own classes or institutions.

Overview

Headlines about bitcoin focus on flashy topics like price, criminal use, and boiling oceans. But behind the hype lies a global monetary system used by thousands. In this class, we’ll apply economic and philosophical tools to introduce, situate, and evaluate it. Topics include bitcoin – the most important cryptocurrency – and competitors. Key dimensions of evaluation will include monetary institutions and policy, privacy, censorship-resistance, security, and environmental externalities. We will not address bitcoin as a vehicle for speculation; our focus is instead on bitcoin itself and how to evaluate it as a new kind of money.

Goals

Students who complete this class will be able to articulate the relevant facts and develop their own thoughtful perspectives on topics such as:

• What bitcoin is, how it works, and how it compares to both legacy monies and other cryptocurrency offerings
• Dimensions to consider when evaluating monetary species, policies, or institutions, and how philosophical and economic tools and approaches bear on them
• How to use abstraction techniques like the veil of ignorance to identify and move beyond biases when evaluating monies
• How bitcoin, various legacy monies, and other cryptocurrencies stack up along those dimensions of evaluation
• Trade-offs, externalities, and challenges that new monies like bitcoin incur or face

Format

Each instructional week is paired with a chapter of a new interdisciplinary book on bitcoin, Resistance Money (to be distributed in hard copy on the first day of class), alongside other articles or chapters, mostly drawn from peer-reviewed academic sources.

This is a seminar, not a lecture course. Accordingly, engagement is a substantial component of your grade for the course. Habitual silence in class is not a good way to learn how to do philosophy or economics; nor is it a good way to earn an "A".

Students who have never taken a philosophy or economics class can expect to find topics and readings challenging. A background in software will be helpful, too, but by no means required. That said: if you engage the course material carefully, you can learn everything you need to know without prior experience. You should expect to set aside at least eight hours every week for readings, reflection assignments, and practicum assignments.

Policies and Assignments

Guiding Principles

In this module, as in all others, I will aim to both challenge and exercise care for students.

Evaluation

Your grade for the module will be determined by the following activities (click for details):

• Reflection: 30%
You will write up to a few hundred words every week in response to brief prompts centering around the focal reading. These assignments are designed to prompt you into deeper engagement with key ideas in the readings. The schedule for each unit will indicate when the writing assignments for that unit are due. In each case, you may supply critical discussion questions as part of your Reflection assignment. These will often form the backbone of many of our class discussions. I recommend, accordingly, that you make them good: clear, concise, precise, probing, open-ended (rather than ‘yes’ or ‘no’), and specific. The Reflections you post will be visible to all; this is by design. I recommend that you write yours before looking at what anyone has submitted. You must submit 10 of the 12 possible Reflections assignments to complete the course, and two of them must be for Weeks 11 and 12. Absent a Dean's Note, no late Reflections will be accepted.
• Disquisition: 30%
Near the end of the term, you will complete an in-depth oral exam spanning a wide range of course topics. An extensive list of questions will be distributed in advance, and particular topics of focus will be selected at random at the time of exam. The best way to prepare for this exam will be to do the other work for the course as things unfold, rather than in a last minute cram.
• Engagement: 20%
Successful seminar engagement includes listening, asking questions, and lively and critical interaction with our focal texts, key ideas within them, and with your colleagues. You may, if you wish, supplement your engagement grade through sophisticated discussion in office hours.
• Practicum: 20%
Weekly group assignments will prompt you to engage the real world in some way. Much of the time, everything you need to know can be found in the readings or through a web search. But sometimes you’ll need to dig deeper. The onus will be on your group, in each case, to locate and understand the necessary background information for completing these assignments. The schedule for each unit will indicate when the practicum assignment for that unit is to be completed.

Class Attendance

You may miss up to two class meetings without penalty. Beyond that, each unexcused absence will count against your Engagement grade. You may ameliorate up to one unexcused absence with sophisticated discussion in office hours.

Academic Integrity

I tend to be an easy-going professor. Exceptions to this rule tend to involve intellectual fraud. Avoid intellectual fraud, submit only your own best work, and cite your sources. Use of generative tools must be explicitly acknowledged. Talk with me if you have any questions on this matter. Consider yourself warned; there will be no further warning.

Accommodations

If you have a condition that interferes with your ability to participate in this module, you may be entitled to accommodation. Please contact your Assistant Dean of Students to secure such accommodation.