Cryptocurrency manifestos: politicalideological elements in white papers and their consideration by regulators

Abstract

The article seeks to identify if cryptocurrency white papers bring purely technical positions. The research is justified on the growing discussion regarding the regulation of cryptocurrencies. Aside this discussion, there is a scenario in which cryptocurrencies seem to have emerged precisely from an attempt to move away from authoritative public control. At first, we analyzed the conceptualization of white papers, and their purposes. Subsequently, we evaluated the content of the cryptocurrency white papers with the highest market cap at the time of the esearch. We identified the presence of political-ideological content coupled with the technical content in these documents. Finally, the presented result shows that political-ideological elements in white papers can serve the regulating agent in their decision-making process, either to decide whether or not to regulate, but also to define the limits of their performance.

Keywords

• white papers
• criptomoedas
• regulação