Saving our savings: A beauty contest of monetary alternatives to keep reserve value and to allow for companies and individuals to transact more efficiently

• Autor(a) principal: Barroso, João Pedro Marques
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/24222
• topic: Precious metals; Cryptocurrencies; Política monetária -- Monetary policy; Reserve of value; Dinheiro -- money; Metais preciosos; Criptomoeda; Reserva de valor

Purpose – The main objective of this thesis is to study what commodities/assets/currencies can be considered as “feasible alternatives” to fulfill the role of “money” in society in comparison to the already established fiat currencies in circulation. Between those same alternatives, which specific advantages each have and what is their potential future. Design/Methodology/Approach – Dividing the study into two main sectors, the quantitative part looking into past prices of each possible currency and a qualitative part looking specifically into the characteristics that they have. For the first part, the main focus is on the concept of reserve of value, driven by the more or less stable the currency has been, and for the second part, six characteristics are laid down as thru them, a specific commodity can be analyzed properly. Findings - Gold is clearly the one performing the best for the quantitative analysis while Nano and Monero are the currencies with “the best characteristics for money”. Surprisingly, in general, the quantitative analysis is not so good for precious metals while some cryptocurrencies do perform better than what was expected. Research limitations/implications – A 2-year period of analysis while making all assumptions and conclusions in a context of a bull market and with historically very low interest rates. Originality/value – The study provides a methodology easily appliable to more commodities while crossing a comprehensive and extended multi-factor criteria.