The writer is a global economist and the author most recently of ‘Edge of Chaos’

Scepticism over the viability of cryptocurrencies has its roots in the framework of money as a medium of exchange, unit of account and store of value. Critics of bitcoin point to its instability and lack of nimbleness in transactions, but there are very good reasons for business leaders to invest in it.

In terms of exchange, cryptocurrencies are cumbersome and transactions are slow to execute compared with incumbent platforms, like credit cards, and conventional currencies. Whereas Visa and PayPal can execute 24,000 and 193 transactions in a second respectively, bitcoin can only complete seven transactions per second. Moreover, in order to achieve status as a medium of exchange, money has to be both widely trusted and have a critical mass of users. Today, bitcoin fails on both counts.