Settling Bitcoin: How the State Institutionalized an Anti-State Movement

• In Event: 4110 - Finance and Its Challengers

Abstract

Released in 2009 amid a financial crisis, Bitcoin quickly found favor with libertarian computer programmers enticed by the first genuine opportunity to use a stateless, decentralized, all-digital currency. But Bitcoin also contained a groundbreaking technology called the blockchain, a distributed mode of record-keeping that circumvented the risk associated with central institutions. Taking the form of a social movement, Bitcoin contended with, and was finally incorporated into, the regulatory and definitional order of the state. This then acted back on the emerging Bitcoin field, settling it in favor of sorts of actors beyond the movement. We argue that this outcome was due to the “triple rewards” offered by blockchain technology: it satisfied Bitcoin’s political project, but also solved problems confronted by both finance and the state. Functioning as a “hinge,” blockchain at once resolved regulatory problems, facilitated the settlement of the Bitcoin field, and laid the groundwork for a new industry.

Authors

• Christopher Lawrence, University of California-Davis

• Stephanie L. Mudge, University of California-Davis