Cryptocurrency: technology and values
With an adoption rate comparable to the rise of the internet, the amount of cryptocurrency owners has climbed to more than 400 million worldwide. However, little is known to date about the architecture of the crypto market (i.e. how different actors relate to each other) and how value is created out of an interplay between economic logics, political motivation and technological developments. By seeing cryptocurrency as a socio-technical assemblage, this study investigates how socio-cultural values are economized through technological engineering. In this way, a protocol economy emerges out blockchain technology allowing for tokenization of crypto projects, each of which tries to realize a specific political-economic ideal (be it privacy, financial sovereignty, self-custody or decentralization). This research explores the central dimensions that structure the crypto market based on the different values and logics that the crypto players uphold.
Speaker: Kobe De Keere, Ph.D. in sociology from the Free University of Brussels and assistant professor in economic and cultural sociology at University of Amsterdam. He was a fellow at The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (KNAW) and is affiliated scholar of the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion (Harvard University). He published on topics such as educational inequality, cultural class boundaries, moral position taking, meaning of work and hiring. Currently, his main research focus is on subjects such as economic valuation, field formation, and digital assets (cryptocurrencies). He is a visiting fellow at Theseus in June 2023.
Introduction: Alvise Mattozzi (lecturer in Social Studies of Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino)