With this article, I explore the connections between blockchain technology, coloniality, and decolonial practices. Drawing on Sylvia Wynter’s thought on the interdependent systems of colonialism, capitalism, and knowledge, as well as more recent work on the coloniality of digital technologies, I argue that blockchain-based systems reproduce certain dynamics at work in historical colonialism. Additionally, Wynter’s decolonial propositions provide a generative framework to understand countercultural practices with. Inspired by Wynter, Patricia de Vries explores the notion of “plot work as artistic praxis” to ask how artistic work, implicated as it is in capitalist logics, can create space for relating dierently in the context of the exploitations of those dominant logics. I apply this notion to examine how Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) in the countercultural blockchain space might contribute to this praxis.
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This paper analyses the performativity of the sociotechnical imaginaries that the online communities interested in blockchain applications (e.g., cryptocurrencies) construct through the memes they share, in the context of a crisis of truth and amid pervasive precarity. These memes adopt a subcultural language that is a mix of financial jargon and blockchain slang, neither building on the established codes of the regulated financial sector nor belonging fully to the colloquial nature of internet banter. Through them, the community collectively constructs ways to overcome the fundamental uncertainty that traverses all aspects of contemporary life – housing, precaritisation of labour, political ruptures, etc – by doubling down on them. Financial speculation is no longer reserved to those with disposable income but becomes a tactic for survival in a scene that actively destabilizes information for competitive market advantage. Through the use of repeated memetic subcultural phrases, blockchain memes blur the difference between fact and fiction in an effort to reconcile the extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies with the neoliberal conviction that the market is always right. As a result, no one is trustworthy, individualism takes on a new dimension, and what Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou calls a “speculative community” arises. Ultimately, this case study highlights how the iterative and distributed character of memes supercharges the normative character of performativity.
At the moment of writing of this article, mid-2018, the topic ‘blockchain’ was introduced in the real estate industry in the Netherlands about two years ago. Blockchain will have a large impact in the way we share information and make transactions. Its promise is big, interest in the topic and the number of experiments doubles each year, and not only in the Netherlands, but globally too. So you might expect the number of actual ‘blockchain products’ for the real estate market to follow the same exponential pattern.In reality, however, this is hardly the case at all. Does that mean there are barely any problems to which blockchain is the solution? Perhaps the problems do exist, but the market is not ready yet? And why not? The two most frequently asked questions in the real estate industry are the following: 1. How will blockchain change my business model?2. Where can I buy it so that I can employ it tomorrow?
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BCLivinglab combines the supply chain and logistics physical infrastructure of training centres (ROCs), research institutes and companies throughout the Netherlands, with the expertise and virtual infrastructure of blockchain specialists from BlockLab. Companies, especially SMEs, in supply chain and logistics will use this unique combination of physical facilities and the expert network to experiment with and develop blockchain applications. BCLivinglab is easily accessible for companies, due to its close proximity (distributed facilities) and low threshold procedures. It will make blockchain technology accessible for companies, thus supporting innovation and improving the competitive advantage of the Dutch supply chain and logistics sector.
For the development of a circular economy and the reduction of the environmental impact of supply chains, the sharing of reliable information throughout the entire chain is a prerequisite. In practice, this is difficult to realise which blockchain can improve. BCLivingLab aims to explore the application of blockchain technology in supply chain and logistics. The project develops four physical hubs and a virtual repository for blockchain knowledge to support SME’s in developing use-cases and experiment with blockchain applications. The ambition is to build a community of interested stakeholders and to be involved in current and future blockchain initiatives.
For the development of a circular economy and the reduction of the environmental impact of supply chains, the sharing of reliable information throughout the entire chain is a prerequisite. In practice, this is difficult to realise which blockchain can improve. BCLivingLab aims to explore the application of blockchain technology in supply chain and logistics. The project develops four physical hubs and a virtual repository for blockchain knowledge to support SME’s in developing use-cases and experiment with blockchain applications. The ambition is to build a community of interested stakeholders and to be involved in current and future blockchain initiatives.
