Money Code Space: Hidden Power in Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Decentralisation

Following the catastrophic events of the 2008 global financial crisis, an anonymous hacker released Bitcoin to claw back power from commercial and central banks. It quickly garnered an enthusiastic following who sought to forge a stable and democratic global economy--a world free from hierarchy and control. In their eyes, Bitcoin's underlying architecture, blockchain, hailed the dawn of decentralisation.

Money Code Space shatters these emancipatory claims. In their place, Jack Parkin constructs a new framework for revealing the geographies of power that lie behind blockchain networks. Drawing on first-hand experience in cryptocurrency communities and start-up companies from Silicon Valley to London, Parkin untangles the complex web of culture, politics, and economics that truly drive decentralisation.

Author: Jack Parkin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 09/17/2020
Pages: 302
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9780197515082
ISBN10: 0197515088
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | Public Policy | Economic Policy
- Philosophy | Political
- Business & Economics | Money & Monetary Policy

About the Author

Jack Parkin is an Adjunct Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, where he researches the political economy of cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystems. His ethnographic work focuses on points of control in digital networks, analysing software development models, technical infrastructure, and start-up industries. He also provides consultancy services for automation and distributed ledger solutions internationally.