I am increasingly fascinated by Bitcoin, the crypto-currency, and thought it might be useful to begin compiling a list – a reading list – of articles and posts on bitcoin and the distributed ledger Block Chain.

Specifically, these articles relate to the politics and social/political implications of the technology.

Over the next few days and weeks I’ll continue to add to the list, so if I have missed anything, then please do make suggestions of further reading.

Reading List

Blockchain for Education: A Research Project

This one is more an ongoing project, rather than an article. As Audrey Watters says in her introduction to the piece:

what – if anything – can blockchain offer education technology? And more generally, how does blockchain work? (And then again, specifically how does it work in an educational setting?) What problems does blockchain solve? What are its benefits? What are its drawbacks? Who’s developing and who’s investing in the technology? To what end?

Bitcoin as Politics: Distributed Right-Wing Extremism

This is a scholarly article by David Golumbia of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) that explores the ideological underpinnings of Bitcoin.

The bitcoin magic is losing its Midas touch

This is an article about the political fights that are currently rocking the Bitcoin community.

This was originally published by Henry Farrell in the Financial Times article (behind paywall). So I have also included a link to the authors blog post on his article entitled Bitcoin Frenzy.

Bitcoin and the Politics of Non-Political Money

An article arguing that bitcoin needs level-headedness from its community members to survive as a non-political digital currency. Which begs the question whether the very idea of a non-political currency is itself an ideological/political position.

Visions of a techno-leviathan: The politics of the Bitcoin blockchain