Crypto-Egalitarian Life: Ideational and Materialist Approaches to Bitcoin. Issue 3 (1st September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shapiro, Matan
• Is Part Of: Social analysis. Volume 66:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 62
• Page End: 82
• Publication Date: 2022-09-01
• Subjects: Bitcoin -- blockchain -- cryptocurrency -- egalitarianism -- libertarianism -- money -- techno-utopianism; Sociology -- Periodicals; Ethnology -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Ethnology; Social sciences; Sociology; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.3167/sa.2022.660304
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0155-977X

Abstract

Abstract: In this article I explore the fundamental tension in the world of Bitcoin between 'maximalists', who see Bitcoin as a tool for the promotion of a moral revolution, and 'traders', who approach Bitcoin pragmatically as a financial tool. Based on ethnography of a crypto gold rush that took place in the Bitcoin Embassy in Tel Aviv, I argue that, despite heuristic distinctions, both of these attitudes advance egalitarian tendencies. While maximalists offer a sense of belonging to a close-knit community of equals, traders promote the nominal equality of all value-making strategies in an open financial environment. I use the terms 'ideational' and 'materialist' to characterize these two modes of practice, which realize contemporary visions of egalitarian life in different forms.