Ideologies and Imaginaries in Blockchain Communities : a case study on Bitcoin & Ethereum

Abstract: Blockchain technologies with its promise of transparency and security have during the last decade created quite the political stir. There exists an abundance of information, hype and research regarding blockchains 'disruptive and ‘transformative’ potential concerning every industry from finance to food production. However, there is an absence of scholarly attention given to identifying and analyzing the political premises and consequences of blockchain projects. I claim that modern technologies are political infrastructure and that it is crucial to analyze it from a political lens. This is framed in relation to the history of General Purpose Technologies and the concept of Political imaginaries. By using a framework from recent research by Husain et al., I analyze the two largest blockchain projects' political imaginaries. By looking at Bitcoin and Ethereum I conclude that Bitcoin can be categorized according to my model as “crypto anarchists” and “crypto libertarians” whereas Ethereum is more difficult as it is a more sophisticated project. Ethereum belong under “crypto anarchists”, however, have traits from both “crypto libertarians” and “crypto-commonists”.