Cryptoeconomics: Social and Cultural Implications

Since the origin of Bitcoin was born on the internet under a pseudonym, which is environed with mysteries till today, the cryptoculture is a worldwide phenomenon, with influences from many different cultures. Assistant professor Dr. Paul Dylan-Ennis at the University College Dublin introduced the term cryptoculture in a paper from 2021 (Dylan-Ennis, 2021).

Hash, Bash & Cash

In this paper, he finds an approach to teaching his students about cryptocurrencies without dealing directly with economic or financial approaches. He suggests choosing the cultural aspects as an entry point. For this, he uses his hash, bash, cash model, whereby hash refers to the actual blockchain from a technological perspective, bash to the social media and the blockchain community, and cash includes the microeconomic aspects. In this course, it turns out that there is a multitude of cultural peculiarities. Most notably, one can distinguish the cultural aspects of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin, with the idea of being a post-apocalyptic money system, and Ethereum with its idea of decentralizing processes and making them more democratic.

Anarchy or Liberalism?

Using the example of the conversion of the consensus mechanism in Ethereum [The Merge], he shows the differences between the…