The Bitcoin protocol as a system of power

Zamani, Efpraxia D.

Abstract

In this study, I use the Critical Realism perspective of power to explain how the Bitcoin protocol operates as a system of power. I trace the ideological underpinnings of the protocol in the Cypherpunk movement to consider how notions of power shaped the protocol. The protocol by design encompasses structures, namely Proof of Work and Trustlessness that reproduce asymmetrical constraints on the entities that comprise it. These constraining structures generate constraining mechanisms, those of cost effectiveness and deanonymisation, which further restrict participating entities’ ‘power to act’, reinforcing others’ ‘power over’ them. In doing so, I illustrate that the Bitcoin protocol, rather than decentralising and distributing power across a network of numerous anonymous, trustless peers, it has instead shifted it, from the traditional actors (e.g., state, regulators) to newly emergent ones.

Citation

Zamani, E. D. (2022). The Bitcoin protocol as a system of power. Ethics and Information Technology, 24(1), Article 14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-022-09626-1

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 5, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Feb 28, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-03
• Deposit Date: Aug 16, 2023
• Journal: Ethics and Information Technology
• Print ISSN: 1388-1957
• Electronic ISSN: 1572-8439
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 14
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-022-09626-1
• Keywords: Library and Information Sciences; Computer Science Applications
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1718939