Bitcoin And Beyond: Cryptocurrencies, Blockchains, And Global Governance

✍ Scribed by Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn

• Publisher: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group
• Year: 2018
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 223
• Series: RIPE Series In Global Political Economy
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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.

✦ Table of Contents

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

✦ Subjects

Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Electronic Funds Transfers, Financial Institutions