Read more
Cryptocurrencies are often associated with right-wing political movements, or even with the alt-right. They are the preserve of libertarians and fans of Ayn Rand and Friedrich Hayek. With their promotion of anonymity and individualism, there's no doubt that they seamlessly slot into the prevailing anti-State ideology. But in this book Mark Alizart argues that the significance of cryptocurrencies goes well beyond cryptoanarchism. In so far as they allow us 'to appropriate collectively the means of monetary production', to paraphrase Marx, and to replace 'the government of persons by the administration of things', as Engels advocated, they form the basis for a political regime that begins to look like a communism which has at last come to fruition - a cryptocommunism.
List of contents
Introduction: The Institution of Liberty Notes
Part I Government of People, Administration of Things
1 A State without Statism
Notes
2 Cybernetics and Governmentality
Notes
3 From Democratic Centralism to Decentralized Consensus
Notes
4 Fully Automated Blockchain Communism
Notes
Part II Collective Appropriation of the Means of Monetary Production
5 Thermocommunism
Notes
6 The Monetary Institutions of Capitalism
Notes
7 Fool's Gold
Notes
8 Everyone's a Banker
Notes
Part III A New International
9 Collectivist Intelligence
Notes
10 The Resurrection of Nature
Notes
11 Leviathan 2.0
Notes
12 Living Currency
Notes
Conclusion: Cryptoletarians of All Countries
Notes
About the author
Mark Alizart is a writer and philosopher who lives in Paris.
Summary
Cryptocurrencies are often associated with right-wing political movements, or even with the alt-right. They are the preserve of libertarians and fans of Ayn Rand and Friedrich Hayek. With their promotion of anonymity and individualism, there's no doubt that they seamlessly slot into the prevailing anti-State ideology. But in this book Mark Alizart argues that the significance of cryptocurrencies goes well beyond cryptoanarchism. In so far as they allow us 'to appropriate collectively the means of monetary production', to paraphrase Marx, and to replace 'the government of persons by the administration of things', as Engels advocated, they form the basis for a political regime that begins to look like a communism which has at last come to fruition - a cryptocommunism.
Report
"A fascinating antidote to reductive takes on cryptocurrencies. Blockchains are more than just cryptolibertarianism and this book makes a provocative and wide-ranging case for just how important they might be."
Nick Srnicek, King's College London
"Alizart's arguments are compelling and replete with insights into what a digital-empowered post-capitalist society might look like."
Red Pepper
