Zamani, E. orcid.org/0000-0003-3110-7495 (2022) The Bitcoin protocol as a system of power. Ethics and Information Technology, 24 (1). 14. ISSN 1388-1957
Abstract
In this study, I use the Critical Realism perspective of power to explain how the Bitcoin protocol operates as a system of power. I trace the ideological underpinnings of the protocol in the Cypherpunk movement to consider how notions of power shaped the protocol. The protocol by design encompasses structures, namely Proof of Work and Trustlessness that reproduce asymmetrical constraints on the entities that comprise it. These constraining structures generate constraining mechanisms, those of cost effectiveness and deanonymisation, which further restrict participating entities’ ‘power to act’, reinforcing others’ ‘power over’ them. In doing so, I illustrate that the Bitcoin protocol, rather than decentralising and distributing power across a network of numerous anonymous, trustless peers, it has instead shifted it, from the traditional actors (e.g., state, regulators) to newly emergent ones.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Ethics and Information Technology. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | decentralisation; power; Bitcoin; critical realism |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Information School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 18 Feb 2022 10:42 |
Last Modified: | 28 Feb 2023 01:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Verlag |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10676-022-09626-1 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:183758 |