OUR BANKER WHO ART IN CYBERSPACE
SATOSHI BE THY NAME
THY BITCOIN COME
DOLLAR BILLS BE GONE
IN OUR POCKETS, AS IT IS ONLINE
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR CONFIRMED TRANSACTIONS
AND FORGIVE US OUR DOUBLE SPENDING
AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN TRENDON SHAVERS
AND LEAD US NOT FROM THE BLOCKCHAIN
BUT DELIVER US THE MINED BLOCKS
FOR EVER AND EVER
AMEN
(Bitcoin Magazine November 2013)
Bitcoin does not respond to an effective demand, but to an emotional desire. The internet crypto currency expresses a longing for liberation through the mediation of technology. It grows out of a post-apocalyptic will to start all over again, in between financial crises of epic proportions, to put an end to the never-ending recession. This time, so do believers in Bitcoin maintain, the economy will be lead by our tribe of techno-libertarians, and not by the vile, corrupted banksters and politicians in their employ. Amidst the rubble of the collapsing global capitalism, there is nothing left to demand—who would listen anyway? What is your blueprint for the next monetary system? After all, Bitcoin architecture is not a given. Let’s be frank: everything is up for grabs, including the premises of the Bitcoin project itself, which is what we intend to do here.
The historical concurrence between Bitcoin and Occupy is no coincidence. The enthusiasm for Bitcoin amongst geeks and IT entrepreneurs stems from the popular disillusionment with the financial system, matched with an equally strong belief in the Internet ideology of nodism and anonymity. In line with the ‘anarcho-geek’ character of Bitcoin,[1] its ‘rugged individualists’ community exudes a deep distrust, even hatred of all ‘big’ institutions, foremost governments (as exemplified by the US government), but also of big business and large financial institutions. All stand accused, and to a large extent for good reasons, to squeeze the ‘little guy’ out of a living by all possible means.
Geeks and assorted believers in information technology assume that the only solution to overturn this unfair system is to truly implement the distributed, decentralized, ‘original’ values of the Internet. They reject the Internet of monopolies such as Google, Amazon and Facebook to embrace a romanticized version of it. They call, not for the Internet of the military, the telecommunication giants and their centralized logistics, but for a peer-to-peer assemblage of users who arrange their own monetary rewards. E-commerce was in their eyes its failed, compromised fore-runner since it did not question the nature of the currencies being used.
Bitcoin is driven by the eagerness of a specific, ‘tech’ elite to achieve social escape velocity so as to bail out from the murky complexity of the world. It should be seen as the umpteenth avatar of the privileged classes wanting to pull out of the grudge of everyday reality and its messy social sphere. Bitcoin is part and parcel of the ‘Masters of the Universe’ narrative, this time in its ‘Geek’ declination, and given its appeal, it cannot be considered as some subaltern, folkloric movement. The Bitcoin ideology reflects a profound, and widely shared, distrust in existing organizational formats and practices.