Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems (Sep 2018)
Bitcoin: Rube Goldberg Machine, Antique Throwback, Gigantic Distraction, Entertainment, Ripoff or New Money?
Abstract
A means of exchange and preservation of value is likely as old as our species. Global economic trade is often argued to be as old as trade. The question of the nature of the exchange, of who creates the value and how it is regulated is the issue. While tin from England may have reached Sumeria 4 000 years ago, or Phoenicians’ ships entered the Africa area of Cape Palmas at about the same time, the problem of exchange is a central issue. Ideas of money are as diverse as the cultures that produce them, yet today global trade is experiencing modifications of the satisfaction of exchange with new platforms of electronic money. Blockchain technology is touted as foolproof, such claims have appeared in the past with various financial innovations. Such abstractions of value may not be new, but as a product of technology and complexity they create psychological novelty and a form of mesmerizing fetishism (Douglas, M. and Isherwood, B., ed.: The World of Goods: Towards an Anthropology of Consumption. Routledge, London, 1978). Manias of value are also not new, from stock (South Seas Corporation) to tulips (MacKay, C.: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Crown Press, London, 1841). The form of the mania is defined and expressed culturally but is often associated with technological change and distance of exchange of partners and clients (Baric, L.: Some aspects of credit, saving and investment in a ‘non-monetary’ economy (Rossel Island). In: Firth, R. and Yamey, B.S., eds.: Capital, Saving and Credit in Peasant Societies. Aldine Publishing, Chicago, pp.35-52, 1964.). Inequality is also a feature, embedded in economic and technological disruption of trade and exchange. The role of redistribution and taxation are essential in maintaining social credit and equality. We can relate such behaviour to other systems of animal societies.
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