- search hit 1 of 1
The Continuous Materiality of Blockchain
- Both cryptocurrency researchers and early adopters of cryptocurrencies agree that they possess a special kind of materiality, based on the laborious productive process of digital ‘mining’ [1]. This idea first appears in the Bitcoin White Paper [2] that encourages Bitcoin adopters to construct and justify its value in metaphoric comparison to gold mining. In this paper, I explore three material aspects of blockchain: physical infrastructure, human language and computer code. I apply the concept of 'continuous materiality' [3] to show how these three aspects interact in practical implementations of blockchain such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. I start from the concept of ‘digital metallism’ that stands for ‘fundamental value’ of cryptocurrencies, and end with the move of Ethereum to ‘proof-of-stake’, partially as a countermeasure against ‘evil miners’. I conclude that ignoring material aspects of blockchain technology can only further problematize complicated relations between their technical, semiotic and social materiality.
Author: | Alesja Serada |
---|---|
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.48446/opus-11868 |
ISSN: | 1437-7624 |
Parent Title (German): | Konferenzband zum Scientific Track der Blockchain Autumn School 2020 |
Publisher: | Hochschule Mittweida |
Place of publication: | Mittweida |
Document Type: | Conference Proceeding |
Language: | English |
Year of Completion: | 2020 |
Publishing Institution: | Hochschule Mittweida |
Contributing Corporation: | The University of Vaasa |
Release Date: | 2021/01/27 |
Tag: | materiality; technology studies; value |
GND Keyword: | Ethereum; Bitcoin; Materialität; Wert |
Page Number: | 6 |
First Page: | 71 |
Last Page: | 76 |
Open Access: | Frei zugänglich |
Licence (German): | Urheberrechtlich geschützt |