Paper Short Abstract:

This paper examines crypto-commons imaginaries, exploring how blockchain-based visions of decentralized governance challenge neoliberal digital norms. By reframing digital ownership and autonomy, these imaginaries reshape societal values and power dynamics in the evolving digital landscape.

Paper Abstract:

This paper explores emerging “crypto-commons” imaginaries as part of a broader landscape of digital imaginaries. By crypto-commons, I refer to the narratives, visions, and aspirations surrounding decentralized, blockchain-based digital infrastructures that promise a commons-based alternative to centralized governance structures. These imaginaries are not simply neutral visions of new technology but are embedded with ideological commitments to autonomy, transparency, and collective ownership. They draw upon utopian ideals of the internet’s early days, reshaping these visions within the logics of cryptography and blockchain. This paper traces the cultural symbols and discourses, and in particular the role of prominently circulating memes, that constitute crypto-commons imaginaries and examines how these imaginaries influence the ethical, political, and social dimensions of blockchain development. Specifically, it considers how crypto-commons offer both a critique of and a counterpoint to neoliberal digital transformations by re-imagining possibilities for digital ownership and access. By applying ethnographic insights, this paper argues that the crypto-commons imaginary represents both a continuity and a rupture with prior digital utopianism, foregrounding questions of governance and community autonomy in the face of contemporary challenges such as digital surveillance and data commodification. Through this analysis, I seek to demonstrate how crypto-commons imaginaries contribute to the evolving digital landscape and call into question prevailing digital infrastructures. This study contributes to the DEF working group’s mission by highlighting how these imaginaries reflect and shape societal values, addressing power dynamics and cultural identity within digital transformation.