I am on my way to Munich to give a talk at the annual conference of the German Ludwig von Mises Institute about cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology. I am looking forward to meet some of the most prominent Austrian Economists and to share our thoughts on stateless, decentralised money such as Bitcoin or Steem.
The Institute is named after Ludwig von Mises (1881 – 1973), one of the most influential thinkers of the Austrian School of Economics. He was born into a Jewish family in Lemberg (today: Lviv), then a part of the Austrian Empire, now Ukraine.
He studied at the University of Vienna and later founded the Austrian Institute for the Research of Business Cycles and a private teaching circle. Many of its participants became famous economists, among them nobel laureate Friedrich August von Hayek.
Both Mises and Hayek emigrated to the USA. Today, the Austrian School is much more popular in the US than in its home country of Austria, especially through the activity of the Libertarian politician Ron Paul and the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama.
Ron Paul
Mises' insights into the laws of the economy turned him from a socialist into an advocate of the free market. Already in the 1920s he predicted that Socialism was bound to fail, which was proven right by history. He was against any kind of intervention of governments into the economy. Mises especially rejected money that can be created out of thin air by central banks. He favoured a strict gold standard.
Many Crypto activists are big fans of Ludwig von Mises and Austrian Economics, but I know that most Austrian Economists in the Mises tradition are rather skeptical towards cryptocurrencies which are „backed by nothing“.
So I suppose the discussions tomorrow will be interesting!