Cryptocurrencies are files, bits with data – such as the popular PDF or MP3 – that seek to fulfill all the functions assigned to traditional money but using the internet as a means of transmission. Before delving into the concept, its economic conception, and its legal categorization, it is useful to distinguish cryptocurrencies from other similar concepts that invite confusion. Digital money or digital currency is the generic name given to any intangible that is used as a means of digital payment. This should be understood as opposed to the concepts of physical money, metallic, or paper money. Digital money is the genre that includes all the other categories: electronic money, virtual currencies, and cryptocurrencies. The concept, although too broad to be legally categorized, is of interest to economists because it includes different means of payment that could have an impact on the general price level. Incipient studies in macroeconomics consider that digital money is a variable that should be considered in monetary theory, especially if it functions as a mechanism for the expansion of bank credit. Electronic money, also known as e-money, is an electronic means of payment that eventually “obliges in” or gives “the right to” money in current or circulating use and that bears its name. The European Central Bank defines it as “an electronic deposit of monetary value [contained] in a t...
