In this presentation, we explain the implications of blockchain on people's lives, from an anthropological perspective. We touch upon Marxism and look at the way this technology can change dynamics on a micro, as well as a macro level. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gznz_P-xHg&t=35s

1. BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY,
MARXISM AND CHANGE

2. 2
PROLOGUE
Activist anthropology
Knowledge for everyone
More understanding
Better coexistence

3. CONTENT
▰ Blockchain: What is it and how does it work?
▰ Example: Money versus Cryptocurrencies
▰ Marxism and class division
▰ Change
▰ Why is this anthropology?
3

4. Our uncertainties
▰ Growing inequality
 Corruption
▰ The need for 3th parties
 Institutions as a guarantee
 Slow
 Expensive
▰ Security and Privacy
 Anything centralized is easy to hack
 Payment and settlement are not instant
4

5. ““In a time of crisis we
all have the potential to
morph up to a new level
and do things we never
thought possible”
- Stuart Wilde
5

6. 1.
THE BLOCKCHAIN
What is it and how does it work?

7. ““The digital ledger software
underlying [amongst other]
cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, for
the secure transfer of money, assets,
and information via the Internet
without needing a third-party
intermediary”
(Swan and de Filippi 2017:603)
7

8. Blockchain technology
▰ Ledger
 Database
 Managed independently
▰ Secure transfer
 Information and Money
 Via Internet
▰ No third-party intermediary
 Fast and direct
8

9. Content of blocks (Dar 2019)
▰ Data
 Sender
 Receiver
 Transaction
▰ Hash of block
 Fingerprint of block
▰ Hash of previous block
 Identify place in chain
9

10. 2.
Money vs
Cryptocurrencies
As an example

11. ▰ Government controlled
▰ Fairly stable?
▰ Functions (Kirkby 2018:527)
 Storage of value: 1970s
 Medium of exchange
 Unit of account: prices are
expressed in fiat
▰ Fetishized
 Value (Marx 1979:27)
 Materiality (Walker 2017:289)
Cryptocurrencies
▰ Decentralized (distributed)
▰ Not widely accepted
○ Agnes Water
▰ Price is measure of value (Kirkby
2018:528)
 Unstable compared to fiat
▰ Fluctuation
 Highly profitable and
dangerous
▰ Fetishized
 No materiality ⇢ “God of
commodities”? (Diwakar 2018)
11
Money (fiat)
vs

12. ▰ Government controlled
▰ Fairly stable?
▰ Functions (Kirkby 2018:527)
 Storage of value: 1970s
 Medium of exchange
 Unit of account: prices are expressed in fiat
▰ Fetishized
 Value (Marx 1979:27)
 Materiality (Walker 2017:289)
12
Money (fiat)

17. Cryptocurrencies
▰ Decentralized (distributed)
▰ Not widely accepted
○ Agnes Water
▰ Price is measure of value (Kirkby 2018:528)
 Unstable compared to fiat
▰ Fluctuation
 Highly profitable and dangerous
▰ Fetishized
 No materiality ⇢ “God of commodities”? (Diwakar 2018)
17

18. Cryptocurrencies
18

19. 3.
Marxism and class
division
Capital to maintain class division

20. Class division according to Marx
▰ Working class is controlled by capitalists
▰ Ruptures (Lund 2016:1202) as opportunities for working
class
 Financial crisis 2008: Satoshi Nakamoto
▰ Can this rupture offer opportunities to change the
terms of our class division?
20

21. 4.
Change
Can we call this anthropology of change?

22. Blockchain can solve (Tapscott 2016)
▰ Entitlement of property
▰ Secure sharing economy
▰ Lower the cost and transaction time of
remittances
▰ Improve privacy
▰ Protect creators of value
22

23. Life-changing solutions
23
▰ Property rights
 Property as “a legitimized claim to something of value sanctioned by
some form of political authority” (Lund 2016:1204)
 Corruption
 On individual level
 Stealing of land by people in power
 Colonization
 On market level
 Reduces growth
(Asoni 2008:974)

24. Life-changing solutions
24
▰ Remittances
 $689 billion in 2018 (World Bank 2018)
 Different receivers: Low, middle and high
income
 Better future for families
 See TEDxTalk Dillip Ratha

25. Life-changing solutions
25
▰ Democratizing knowledge
 Authors and artists can use
blockchain as a platform of
information
 They don’t need other
platforms/agencies
 Improves knowledge of general
public

26. 5.
Why is this anthropology?
Can we call this anthropology of change?

27. Why anthropology?
27
▰ Anthropology studies people bottom-up
▰ These changes affect people’s lives
▰ Changes in people’s life affect policy
▰ Advantages of ethnographic research
 Study with people – emic vs etic perspective
 Holistic, thick description
 Using this knowledge to improve the world

28. Why anthropology?
28
▰ Advantages of ethnographic research
 Study with people – emic vs etic perspective
 Holistic, thick description
 Using this knowledge to improve the world

29. References
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central-banks-of-the-world-can-play-a-key-role-in-the-growth-of-bitcoin/, accessed June 18, 2019.
Brown, Nina, Laura Tubelle de Gonzalez, and Thomas McIlwraith 2017 Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology. Arlington:
American Anthropological Association.
Cox, R.H., and A Schilthuis 2012 Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony in Gramsci. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization:
1–4. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42705295.
Dar, Ali Raza 2019 What Is Blockchain and How Can It Change Our Society? TEDxFHNW.
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Das, Samburaj 2018 Australia’s First ‘Digital Currency Town’ Accepts Bitcoin to Boost Tourism. CCN: 1. https://www.ccn.com/australias-
first-digital-currency-town-accepts-bitcoin-to-boost-tourism/.
Diwakar, Amar 2018 Bitcoin as Commodity Fetishism.
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Gaventa, John 2009 States, Societies, and Sociologists: Democratizing Knowledge from above and Below. Rural Sociology 74(1): 30–36. 29

30. Hasib, Anwar 2018 The Ultimate Blockchain Technology Guide: A Revolution to Change the World. https://101blockchains.com/ultimate-
blockchain-technology-guide/, accessed June 5, 2019.
Kirkby, Robert 2018 Cryptocurrencies and Digital Fiat Currencies. Australian Economic Review 51(4): 527–539.
Lund, Christian 2016 Rule and Rupture: State Formation through the Production of Property and Citizenship. Development and Change
47(6): 1199–1228.
Marx, Karl 1979 Capital, vol.I–III.
Marx, Karl, Ben Fowkes, and David Fernbach 1981 Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. V. 1: Penguin Classics CN - HB501 .M36 1981.
London ; New York, N.Y: Penguin Books in association with New Left Review.
Nieswand, Boris 2008 Ghanaian Migrants in Germany and the Social Construction of Diaspora. African Diaspora 1(1): 28–52.
Proschool N.d. FUNCTIONS OF COMMERCIAL BANKS AND ITS ROLE IN THE INDIAN ECONOMY.
https://www.proschoolonline.com/blog/functions-commercial-banks-role-indian-economy, accessed June 18, 2019.
Ratha, Dilip 2016 The Invisible Billions : Remittances. TEDxGateway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I3uURDuDAM, accessed
June 13, 2019.
Swan, Melanie, and Primavera de Filippi 2017 Toward a Philosophy of Blockchain: A Symposium: Introduction. Metaphilosophy 48(5):
603–619.
Tapscott, Don 2016 TED Talk: How the Blockchain Is Changing Money and Business. TED.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl8OlkkwRpc, accessed June 7, 2019. 30

31. Vertovec, Steven 2007 Super-Diversity and Its Implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies 30(6): 1024–1054.
Walker, Joshua Z. 2017 Torn Dollars and War-Wounded Francs: Money Fetishism in the Democratic Republic of Congo. American Ethnologist
44(2): 288–299.
WERBNER, PNINA 2007 Global Pathways. Working Class Cosmopolitans and the Creation of Transnational Ethnic Worlds*. Social Anthropology
7(1): 17–35.
World Bank 2018 Record High Remittances Sent Globally in 2018. Press Release. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-
release/2019/04/08/record-high-remittances-sent-globally-in-2018, accessed June 13, 2019.
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