Currency is the fundamental economic technology that makes promises credible among actors within and across societies. From shells, to metals, to paper, the technology of money has continually evolved to meet the changing needs of human society. The twenty-first century is witnessing yet another evolution in the technology of money: digital currencies. Although political economy scholarship has begun to focus on digital currencies, this research has largely focused on single early examples like Bitcoin. I argue that this generally narrow focus has obscured important degrees of variation among digital currencies and, by extension, has omitted important lines of research on digital currencies as a familiar evolution in the technology of money. In this article, I revisit the history of digital currencies with explicit attention to not only economic inefficiencies but also political power structures and offer a new typology for theoretically organizing digital currencies along dimensions relevant to practitioners of political economy. I illustrate that variation along these typological dimensions produces important differences among different digital currencies and, relatedly, I explore the implications this has for digital currencies’ externalities and governance demands. Drawing on this typology, I conclude with a proposed research agenda for the political economy of digital currencies.

中文翻译：

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比比特币更大：数字货币的理论类型学和研究议程

货币是基本的经济技术，它使承诺在社会内部和跨社会的行为者之间变得可信。从贝壳到金属，再到纸，货币技术不断发展，以满足人类社会不断变化的需求。二十一世纪见证了货币技术的又一次演变：数字货币。尽管政治经济学研究已经开始关注数字货币，但这项研究主要集中在比特币等单一的早期例子上。我认为，这种普遍狭隘的关注点掩盖了数字货币之间重要程度的差异，并且推而广之，忽略了数字货币作为货币技术的常见演变的重要研究方向。在本文中，我重新审视了数字货币的历史，不仅明确关注经济效率低下，还关注政治权力结构，并为从与政治经济学从业者相关的维度理论上组织数字货币提供了一种新的类型。我说明了这些类型维度的变化会在不同数字货币之间产生重要差异，并且相关地，我探讨了这对数字货币的外部性和治理需求的影响。借鉴这种类型学，我提出了数字货币政治经济学的拟议研究议程。我说明了这些类型维度的变化会在不同数字货币之间产生重要差异，并且相关地，我探讨了这对数字货币的外部性和治理需求的影响。借鉴这种类型学，我提出了数字货币政治经济学的拟议研究议程。我说明了这些类型维度的变化会在不同数字货币之间产生重要差异，并且相关地，我探讨了这对数字货币的外部性和治理需求的影响。借鉴这种类型学，我提出了数字货币政治经济学的拟议研究议程。