Bitcoin and Beyond: Cryptocurrencies, Blockchains, and Global Governance (RIPE Series in Global Political Economy)

Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009, several hundred different 'cryptocurrencies' have been developed and become accepted for a wide variety of transactions in leading online commercial marketplaces and the 'sharing economy', as well as by more traditional retailers, manufacturers, and even by charities and political parties. Bitcoin and its competitors have also garnered attention for their wildly fluctuating values as well as implication in international money laundering, Ponzi schemes and online trade in illicit goods and services across borders. These and other controversies surrounding cryptocurrencies have induced varying governance responses by central banks, government ministries, international organizations, and industry regulators worldwide. Besides formal attempts to ban Bitcoin, there have been multifaceted efforts to incorporate elements of blockchains, the peer-to-peer technology underlying cryptocurrencies, in the wider exchange, recording, and broadcasting of digital transactions. Blockchains are being mobilized to support and extend an array of governance activities. The novelty and breadth of growing blockchain-based activities have fuelled both utopian promises and dystopian fears regarding applications of the emergent technology to Bitcoin and beyond. This volume brings scholars of anthropology, economics, science and technology studies, and sociology together with global political economy (GPE) scholars in assessing the actual implications posed by Bitcoin and blockchains for contemporary global governance. Its interdisciplinary contributions provide academics, policymakers, industry practitioners, and the general public with more nuanced understandings of technological change in the changing character of governance within and across the borders of nation-states Cover......Page 1 Half Title......Page 2 Book Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Table of Contents......Page 6 List of figures......Page 8 List of tables......Page 9 Notes on contributors......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 14 1 Introduction: what are blockchains and how are they relevantto governance in the contemporary global political economy?......Page 16 Implications for, and insights into, contemporary global governance......Page 18 Technologies and global governance......Page 21 Summary of chapters......Page 28 Notes......Page 31 Bibliography......Page 32 Introduction......Page 40 How can money be?......Page 41 A slingshot full of (virtual) coins......Page 44 The evolution of the Bitcoin money game......Page 45 Moneys at the margins......Page 54 Notes......Page 58 Bibliography......Page 59 Introduction......Page 63 Corporate governance: what we know......Page 65 Cryptocurrency governance......Page 66 Methodology......Page 71 Analyses......Page 76 Results......Page 78 Acknowledgments......Page 80 Bibliography......Page 81 4 The mutual constitution of technology and global governance: Bitcoin, blockchains, and the international anti-money-laundering regime......Page 84 International regimes and the socio-technical environment of global governance......Page 85 Blockchains and the international AML regime......Page 86 Conclusion......Page 96 Bibliography......Page 98 Introduction: bring the state back in......Page 103 Literature review and methodology......Page 105 Origins and governance challenges of Bitcoin......Page 107 Challenges for formal governance of Bitcoin......Page 108 Governance of technology: three models of the future......Page 111 Conclusion......Page 118 Notes......Page 119 Bibliography......Page 120 6 Cryptocurrencies and digital payment rails in networked global governance: perspectives on inclusion and innovation......Page 124 Digital financial inclusion: towards “platformization” of financial innovation......Page 126 Disrupting financial inclusion in East Africa: amplifying networks through mobile money platforms......Page 129 Digital finance in Africa building on local financial practices......Page 131 Blockchain technology: implications for trust, governance, and monetary pragmatics......Page 133 Bitcoin, remittances, and growing global mobility......Page 135 Digital payment rails in the networked world order: concluding remarks......Page 140 Notes......Page 142 Bibliography......Page 144 Introduction......Page 148 Approaching (Bitcoin) governance through an STS lens......Page 150 Three controversies unveiling Bitcoin governance......Page 152 Conclusion......Page 165 Acknowledgments......Page 167 Bibliography......Page 168 8 Experiments in algorithmic governance: a history and ethnography of “The DAO,” a failed decentralized autonomous organization......Page 172 Visions of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations......Page 174 An ethnographic study of the DAO governance......Page 180 Discussion......Page 187 Notes......Page 189 Bibliography......Page 190 9 Conclusion: towards a block age or blockages of global governance?......Page 193 Blockchains as emergent technologies......Page 194 Implications for and insights into contemporary global governance......Page 196 Future avenues of inquiry......Page 203 Conclusion......Page 208 Bibliography......Page 209 Index......Page 213

Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009 several hundred different 'cryptocurrencies' have been developed and become accepted for a wide variety of transactions in leading online commercial marketplaces and the 'sharing economy', as well as by more traditional retailers, manufacturers, and even by charities and political parties.

Bitcoin and its competitors have also garnered attention for their wildly fluctuating values as well as implication in international money laundering, Ponzi schemes and online trade in illicit goods and services across borders. These and other controversies surrounding cryptocurrencies have induced varying governance responses by central banks, government ministries, international organizations, and industry regulators worldwide. Besides formal attempts to ban Bitcoin, there have been multifaceted efforts to incorporate elements of blockchains, the peer-to-peer technology underlying cryptocurrencies, in the wider exchange, recording, and broadcasting of digital transactions. Blockchains are being mobilized to support and extend an array of governance activities. The novelty and breadth of growing blockchain-based activities have fuelled both utopian promises and dystopian fears regarding applications of the emergent technology to Bitcoin and beyond.

This volume brings scholars of anthropology, economics, Science and Technology Studies, and sociology together with GPE scholars in assessing the actual implications posed by Bitcoin and blockchains for contemporary global governance. Its interdisciplinary contributions provide academics, policymakers, industry practitioners and the general public with more nuanced understandings of technological change in the changing character of governance within and across the borders of nation-states.

"Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009 several hundred different 'cryptocurrencies' have been developed and become accepted for a wide variety of transactions in leading online commercial marketplaces and the 'sharing economy', as well as by more traditional retailers, manufacturers, and even by charities and political parties.Bitcoin and its competitors have also garnered attention for their wildly fluctuating values as well as implication in international money laundering, Ponzi schemes and online trade in illicit goods and services across borders. These and other controversies surrounding cryptocurrencies have induced varying governance responses by central banks, government ministries, international organizations, and industry regulators worldwide. Besides formal attempts to ban Bitcoin, there have been multifaceted efforts to incorporate elements of blockchains, the peer-to-peer technology underlying cryptocurrencies, in the wider exchange, recording, and broadcasting of digital transactions. Blockchains are being mobilized to support and extend an array of governance activities. The novelty and breadth of growing blockchain-based activities have fuelled both utopian promises and dystopian fears regarding applications of the emergent technology to Bitcoin and beyond." -- Publisher's web site At their essence, blockchains are digital sequences of numbers coded into computer software that permit the secure exchange, recording, and broadcasting of transactions between individual users operating anywhere in the world with Internet access. Like most technological changes, the development of blockchains drew on and combined several existing technologies. Blockchains incorporate digital encryption technologies that mask, to varying degrees, the specific content exchanged as well as the identities of individual users. Algorithms, pre-coded series of step-by-step instructions, are also mobilised in solving complex mathematical equations and arriving at a consensus on the validity of transactions within networks of users. Time-stamping technologies then periodically bundle verified transactions into datasets, or 'blocks'. Linked together sequentially, these 'blocks' form 'chains' that make up larger 'blockchain' databases of transactions that broadcast a permanent record of transactions whilst maintaining the anonymity of users and specific content exchanged. Blockchains are intended to be maintained by all users in manners meant to be immutable, unless users arrive at a clear consensus to undertake changes This volume brings scholars of anthropology, economics, Science and Technology Studies, and sociology together with global political economy scholars in assessing the actual implications posed by Bitcoin and blockchains for contemporary global governance. Its interdisciplinary contributions provide academics, policymakers, industry practitioners and the general public with more nuanced understandings of technological change in the changing character of governance within and across the borders of nation-states. https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/33401 Bitcoin and Beyond enhances interdisciplinary conversations and mutual learning and provides academics, policymakers, the the general public with a critically informed understanding of the implications that Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, and Blockchain technologies pose for the governance of a rapidly changing global political economy.