Review: Brunton, Finn. 2019. Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency. Princeton University Press
| Author(s) |
Michaela Slussareff |
| Contact |
Michaela Slussareff, Charles University, Na Příkopě 29, Praha 1, 110 00, CZ. Email: michaela.slussareff@ff.cuni.cz |
| Issue |
CyberOrient, Vol. 16, Iss. 2, 2022, pp. 89-91 |
| Published |
December 15, 2022 |
| Type |
Book Review |
| Abstract |
The book Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency is a very important piece of work in the field of digital currencies development. The author applies the media archaeology method of research and points out the most important ideas, projects, but as well barriers and beliefs that influenced the way of thinking about digital currencies and their development. This includes description of political agendas of different stakeholders, and furthermore processes of setting up a basis for robust and reliable currency, but independent of governmental forces (like Bitcoin). The book surprisingly offers several positions for the reader, in the introduction and conclusion of the book the form is rather popularly educational, sometimes reflective, the middle part is, on the contrary, a very dense academic body of work filled with theories and facts from actual research and the author’s independent historical work. |
| Keywords |
cryptocurrencies, media history, media archaeology, Bitcoin
|
