Paper short abstract:

Based on fieldwork with NFT afficionados in London I argue that scholars should consider critically not only the impact of the outward-looking gaze on the observed – along with the power-imbalance it denotes – but also the impact of the surveying gaze on the person or group who is observing.

Paper long abstract:

Platforms used online for the exchange of decentralized digital assets regularly attract swindlers, hackers, and scammers of different kinds. For ‘honest’ traders, these individuals and organizations betray the Anracho-Libertarian spirit of collaborative experimentation that accompanied the open-source crypto ‘ecosystem’ in the previous decade. Naturally, then, members of the many crypto communities that coalesce online invest significant efforts in identifying and then excluding dishonest actors. This is done mainly by digitally tracking accounts on digital apps used heavily in this social environment for networking and communication. The ever-changing boundaries of online crypto communities thus become contingent on a continuous process of monitoring and surveillance that community members apply simultaneously and independently.

Based on my ongoing fieldwork with NFT afficionados in London, I argue that digital tracking in decentralized digital environments can be seen as a defensive tactic aimed at shielding the surveyors rather than exposing the surveyed. I suggest analytically that scholars should thus consider critically not only the impact of the outward-looking gaze on the observed – along with the power-imbalance this very act of observation denotes – but also the feedback impact of the surveying gaze on the person or group who is observing. This can open new ways to think not only of surveillance but also on postmodern ways of seeing, selfies, cancel culture, and other forms of self-objectification premised on the exclusion of unwanted others from the observing/objectifying frame.