IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecanth/v10y2023i1p32-43.html

From money to culture: The practical indeterminacy of Bitcoin's values and temporalities

Author

Listed:
  • Yura Yokoyama

Abstract

Bitcoin, regarded as a decentralized currency of the future as well as a digital gold, faces various challenges, such as scalability, the geographical concentration of mining, its politically informed design and history, its high market volatility, and inequalities in the proportion of accumulation. However, the number of Bitcoin owners has risen exponentially, and relevant socioeconomic and political groups have become increasingly diverse. Consequently, this article argues that what has contributed to the global diffusion of Bitcoin and its embeddedness in different human societies is its practical indeterminacy. Practical indeterminacy characterizes the fundamentally undefinable, indeterminate nature of Bitcoin's value, as it can change its form depending on who it encounters. In terms of temporality, practically indeterminate Bitcoin can urge potential owners and users to compare their pasts and futures, thus driving them to perceive, own, and use Bitcoin for their own purposes. By paying attention to the agency of Bitcoin, practical indeterminacy explains how individuals form their own relations with Bitcoin and how these relations lead to Bitcoin's further sociocultural embeddedness. The proliferation of such a wide range of human–Bitcoin relations shows that Bitcoin is not only monetary but also cultural, as it offers different meanings to users and owners.

Suggested Citation

  • Yura Yokoyama, 2023. "From money to culture: The practical indeterminacy of Bitcoin's values and temporalities," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 32-43, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecanth:v:10:y:2023:i:1:p:32-43
    DOI: 10.1002/sea2.12257
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sea2.12257
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sea2.12257?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luca Fantacci, 2019. "Cryptocurrencies and the Denationalization of Money," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 105-126, April.
    2. Sam Dallyn, 2017. "Cryptocurrencies as market singularities: the strange case of Bitcoin," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(5), pages 462-473, September.
    3. Lucien Karpik, 2010. "Valuing the Unique: The Economics of Singularities," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9215, December.
    4. Jon Baldwin, 2018. "In digital we trust: Bitcoin discourse, digital currencies, and decentralized network fetishism," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Sean Foley & Jonathan R Karlsen & Tālis J Putniņš, 2019. "Sex, Drugs, and Bitcoin: How Much Illegal Activity Is Financed through Cryptocurrencies?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1798-1853.
    6. Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, 2015. "The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10581, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew Isaak & Baris Istipliler & Suleika Bort & Michael Woywode, 2025. "Regulation, Corruption, and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: Insights from Bitcoin Trading and Platform Founding Between 2011 and 2023," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(6), pages 2210-2244, November.
    2. Vivien Blanchet & Celine Berrier-Lucas, 2021. "15 ans de recherches sur les transitions socio-écologiques : bilan et propositions," Post-Print hal-04135096, HAL.
    3. Simon Mackenzie, 2022. "Criminology Towards the Metaverse: Cryptocurrency Scams, Grey Economy and the Technosocial," The British Journal of Criminology, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, vol. 62(6), pages 1537-1552.
    4. Fischer, Edward F., 2017. "Quality and inequality: Taste, value, and power in the third wave coffee market," MPIfG Discussion Paper 17/4, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    5. Peter Fratrič & Giovanni Sileno & Sander Klous & Tom Engers, 2022. "Manipulation of the Bitcoin market: an agent-based study," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-29, December.
    6. Lars Hornuf & Paul P. Momtaz & Rachel J. Nam & Ye Yuan, 2023. "Cybercrime on the Ethereum Blockchain," CESifo Working Paper Series 10598, CESifo.
    7. Timothy King & Dimitrios Koutmos & Francesco Saverio Stentella Lopes, 2021. "Cryptocurrency Mining Protocols: A Regulatory and Technological Overview," Palgrave Studies in Financial Services Technology, in: Timothy King & Francesco Saverio Stentella Lopes & Abhishek Srivastav & Jonathan Williams (ed.), Disruptive Technology in Banking and Finance, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 93-134, Palgrave Macmillan.
    8. Andrew L. Ofstehage, 2018. "Financialization of work, value, and social organization among transnational soy farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 274-285, June.
    9. Julia Reynolds & Leopold Sögner & Martin Wagner, 2021. "Deviations from Triangular Arbitrage Parity in Foreign Exchange and Bitcoin Markets," Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, vol. 13(2), pages 105-146, June.
    10. Erik Feyen & Jon Frost & Harish Natarajan & Tara Rice, 2021. "What Does Digital Money Mean for Emerging Market and Developing Economies?," Springer Books, in: Raghavendra Rau & Robert Wardrop & Luigi Zingales (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Technological Finance, pages 217-241, Springer.
    11. Jan van Duppen, 2021. "Book review: The Botanical City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(8), pages 1746-1750, June.
    12. David M. Waguespack & Robert Salomon, 2016. "Quality, Subjectivity, and Sustained Superior Performance at the Olympic Games," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(1), pages 286-300, January.
    13. Eriksson, Axel, 2025. "A critical note on binaries in tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    14. Tinglong Dai & Sridhar Tayur, 2022. "Designing AI‐augmented healthcare delivery systems for physician buy‐in and patient acceptance," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(12), pages 4443-4451, December.
    15. Hanna Halaburda & Guillaume Haeringer & Joshua Gans & Neil Gandal, 2022. "The Microeconomics of Cryptocurrencies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 971-1013, September.
    16. Donghun Kang & Moon Choi, 2025. "The development of Anthropocene Awareness Scale," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(2), pages 1-14, February.
    17. Emanuele Borgonovo & Stefano Caselli & Alessandra Cillo & Donato Masciandaro, 2018. "Between Cash, Deposit And Bitcoin: Would We Like A Central Bank Digital Currency? Money Demand And Experimental Economics," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 1875, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    18. Corbet, Shaen & Cumming, Douglas J. & Lucey, Brian M. & Peat, Maurice & Vigne, Samuel A., 2020. "The destabilising effects of cryptocurrency cybercriminality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    19. Katzenstein, Peter J., 2022. "Worldviews in World Politics," EconStor Open Access Book Chapters, in: Uncertainty and Its Discontents: Worldviews in World Politics, pages 1-69, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    20. Alexander Emile D'Aloia, 2024. "Circular Economies in an Unequal World: Waste, Renewal, and the Effects of Global Circularity," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 100(331), pages 583-585, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecanth:v:10:y:2023:i:1:p:32-43. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=2330-4847 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.