The DOI matches its Crossref record; 23 of the 23 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
“When perhaps the real problem is money itself!”: the practical materiality of Bitcoin
Open accessAbstract
This paper investigates the semiotics of Bitcoin, an electronic cash system that uses decentralized networking to enable irreversible payments. For enthusiasts, Bitcoin provides an alternative to currencies and payment systems that are seen to threaten users' privacy, limit personal liberty, and undermine the value of money through state and corporate oversight. Bitcoin's promise lies in its apparent capacity to resolve these concerns not through regulatory institutions or interpersonal trust, but through its cryptographic protocols. We characterize this semiotics as a “practical materialism” and suggest it replays debates about privacy, labor, and value.
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“Indeed, as we have previously argued (Maurer et al., 2013), the discourse around Bitcoin suggests a shared belief that the value of a commodityin this case, a cryptographic one-forms the basis for a shared economy and, thus, community.”
From Social Payments: Innovation, Trust, Bitcoin, and the Sharing Economy (2018) · cites this paper as Maurer et al., 2013
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“Ultimately, in early bitcoin, ' trust in the code does not erase entirely the community that bestows it '”
From In Digital We Trust: Bitcoin Discourse, Digital Currencies, and Decentralized Network Fetishism (2018) · cites this paper as Maurer et al., 2013
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“Maurer et al. consider that bitcoin represents a promise like any other money form, ' but a promise underwritten and backed by an algorithm and its manifestation in a digital peer-to-peer network '”
From In Digital We Trust: Bitcoin Discourse, Digital Currencies, and Decentralized Network Fetishism (2018) · cites this paper as Maurer et al., 2013
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“For them, this is a trust in the code that ' substitutes for the (socially and politically constituted) credibility of persons, institutions, and governments. It is this -not the anonymity or the cryptography or the economics -that makes Bitcoin novel in the long conversation about the nature of money '”
From In Digital We Trust: Bitcoin Discourse, Digital Currencies, and Decentralized Network Fetishism (2018) · cites this paper as Maurer et al., 2013
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Metadata
- Authors
- Maurer, B., Nelms, T. C., & Swartz, L.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- University of Southern California (US)
- Corresponding author
- Maurer, Bill
- Venue
- Social Semiotics
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2013-04
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 261-277
- ISSN
- 1035-0330 (ISSN-L)
- 1470-1219
- OpenAlex
- W1993755359
- Cited by
- 465
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 51 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 53 · 2020: 64 · 2019: 66 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 319.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- escholarship.org
- Locations
- Social Semiotics (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0960423)
- University of California, Irvine
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Semiotics and Representation Studies
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
- Social Sciences › Communication › Cultural Studies and Postmodernism
- Keywords
- Bitcoin, semiotics, practical materialism, electronic money, decentralized networks, cryptographic protocols, privacy, money, values, labor, alternative currencies, payment systems
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