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Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I track the emergence and circulation of the “have fun staying poor” (HFSP) meme during my 15 months of ethnographic research among a diverse network of Bitcoin investors, advocates, miners and developers to illuminate the imaginaries that animate people’s engagements with the asset.

Paper long abstract:

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, unveiled their idea for a revolutionary payment system, which aimed to establish a peer-to peer exchange network that would remove the reliance on centralised authorities to authenticate transactions or endow currency tokens with value (Nakamoto 2008: 1-5). Since its inception, Bitcoin’s most avid proponents foresaw its potential to challenge the power of state actors and financial institutions to define and control monetary arrangements. In this paper, I track the emergence and circulation of the “have fun staying poor” (HFSP) meme during my 15 months of ethnographic research among a diverse network of Bitcoin investors, advocates, miners and developers, as well as FinTech players in London. By examining the rise of the HFSP narrative, I argue that the meme provides a dispersed and ‘decentralised’ network of actors with a powerful shared narrative with which to spread the value proposition of Bitcoin. Revealing the kinds of imaginaries that animate people’s engagements with the asset, HFSP constructs a dystopian future in which one’s continued reliance on traditional state backed currencies leads to poverty. By feeding into mounting fears surrounding post-COVID economic realities, the meme positions Bitcoin ownership as a life raft for those seeking to protect the value of their savings from the perceived threats of monetary printing and global economic uncertainty. In so doing, the meme constructs two seemingly opposing financial futures centred around Bitcoin ownership. The choice, it posits, is simple; buy Bitcoin or have fun staying poor.