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Short abstract:

This paper explores the cultural architecture underlying the cryptocurrency market through ethnographic participation in market events and in-depth interviews with market actors (N: 70) in the Netherlands, the UK, and Russia.

Long abstract:

With approximately half a billion cryptocurrency users worldwide, the crypto market is one of the most rapidly emerging markets in modern history. The decentralized and transparent aspects of cryptocurrency are hailed by some as a way to economically level an unequal playing field, while others depict it as a new fertile breeding ground for online scams. Yet, early evidence suggests that there is much more to cryptocurrency than merely a technological innovation or cynical profit-making, but that a complex web of political, cultural, and social dynamics is behind the emergence of the crypto field.

This paper presents a country comparative field analysis that aims to map out the moral and cultural architecture that underlies the different positions in the crypto market by exploring the question: why do people buy into crypto? Based on in-depth interviews (N:70) with different market actors (ranging from cyberpunks to day traders) in the Netherlands, the UK, and Russia, and ethnographic participation in Meet Ups, hackathons, industry events, and conferences in the Netherlands and the UK, this study uncovers two principal structuring dimensions within the market.

One dimension involves positioning on the question of whether crypto is a new type of money (digital metallism) or to be understood as simply a smart, profitable, and lucrative type of investment. The second dimension revolves around actors’ commitment to the original values such as sovereignty, privacy, open source, and decentralization (infrastructural mutualism) versus those who support more regulation, centralization, and integration of crypto into traditional economic institutions.