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Accepted Paper:
Paper Short Abstract:
Moving from current literature and an ethnographic study on a cryptocurrency community, this study explores the conflicting values surrounding blockchain as a technology and how they are solved by enthusiasts. What is noted is the general return of irrational, violent factors
Paper Abstract:
Drawing from ethnographic research I conducted on a cryptocurrency community and engaging with contemporary literature, this study scrutinizes the intricate conflicts and moral dilemmas inherent in blockchain technology. It explores the re-emergence of irrational and violent factors characterizing both the financial sphere and blockchain technology, challenging the Weberian notion of modernity as a disenchanted world.
Central to this investigation is the concept of techno-feudalism, a term employed here to describe the current shift in capitalistic societies marked by the lack of dialogue, the return of mysticism, and the growth of unproductive activities. This research highlights how cryptocurrencies fit into this new phase of capitalism, examining the continuity rather than the rupture they are supposed to represent. It will be presented how, despite their rhetoric on decentralization, crypto-communities present internal inequalities and conflicts, silencing discontents through moralistic sentences. In this sense, the material and technical development is coupled with and supports the resurgence of pre-modern, feudal traits and the intensification of capitalism's violent characteristics.
To show how they participate in the suppression of any form of contemporary politics, it will be analyzed how these communities react when hit by a crisis, that is when funds are stolen or a coin loses its value. What emerges is circular reasoning and the consequential defense of conflicting crypto ethics and principles, that are identical to markets' ones. The technology itself is never questioned; it's always fault of the single user, leading us to use Marcel Mauss' theory of magic to understand these communities
Ethnography and the (geo-)politics of digital infrastructures
Session 1 Wednesday 24 July, 2024, -