The Socio-Technological Lives of Bitcoin

• Published in: Theory, culture & society Vol. 36; no. 4; pp. 49 - 72
• Main Author: Hayes, Adam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.07.2019; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Blockchain; Coins; Computer privacy; Computer science; Digital currencies; Expenditures; Historical sociology; Human rights; Ideology; Infringement; Internet; Mass media; Money; Privacy; Science and technology; Social life & customs; Social research; Social systems; Sociology; Sociology of science; Technology; economy; technology; money; assemblages; blockchain; Bitcoin
• ISSN: 0263-2764; 1460-3616
• DOI: 10.1177/0263276419826218

Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and blockchains have become buzzwords in the media and are attracting increasing academic interest, mainly from the fields of computer science and financial economics. In this essay, I argue that cryptocurrencies and blockchains are important objects of general social science research and thought, but not for their ‘moneyness’ per se. Through a historical sociology of the antecedents and discourse leading up to Bitcoin, I show that it was never meant to be ‘money’ in the economic sense, but rather a solution to a technical puzzle for preventing opportunistic actors from double-spending digital ‘coins,’ as well as a fervent ideology surrounding online privacy and infringement of individual rights in the digital age. Drawing from themes in science and technology studies, I suggest that Bitcoin and other ‘cryptoassets’ are properly socio-technological assemblages that constitute new and important objects of social inquiry that must be understood beyond the myopic context of crypto-money. I conclude by proposing three alternative ontologies for blockchains relevant to economic, political, and social life: as systems of accounting, as organizational forms, and as institutions in their own right.