Redux series
Series editor: Laurent de Sutter
Published Titles
Mark Alizart, Cryptocommunism
Armen Avanessian, Future Metaphysics
Franco Berardi, The Second Coming
Alfie Bown, The Playstation Dreamworld
Laurent de Sutter, Narcocapitalism
Roberto Esposito, Persons and Things
Graham Harman, Immaterialism
Helen Hester, Xenofeminism
Srećko Horvat, The Radicality of Love
Dominic Pettman, Infinite Distraction
Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism
Cryptocommunism
Mark Alizart
Translated by Robin Mackay
polity
Copyright © Mark Alizart 2020
This English edition © Polity Press, 2020
Polity Press
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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3859-1
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Alizart, Mark, author.
Title: Cryptocommunism / Mark Alizart ; translated by Robin Mackay.
Other titles: Cryptocommunisme. English
Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity Press, [2020] | Series: Theory redux series | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “The communist manifesto for the age of Bitcoin”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020004522 (print) | LCCN 2020004523 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509538577 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509538584 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509538591 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Communism and technology. | Cryptocurrencies--Philosophy. | Value--Philosophy.
Classification: LCC HX543.5 .A4513 2020 (print) | LCC HX543.5 (ebook) | DDC 332.4--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004522 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004523
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Communism = Soviets + Electricity
Lenin
Acknowledgements
My thanks first of all to Laurent de Sutter, for the trust he placed in me by accepting this book into his collection. I would also like to express my gratitude to John Thompson and Polity Press, to my translator Robin Mackay, and to the readers who agreed to reread my manuscript and helped guide my thinking: Brune Compagnon-Janin, Anthony Masure, Aliocha Imhoff and Kantuta Quiros, Mathieu Potte-Bonneville, as well as Odile Lakomski-Laguerre, Jacques Favier and Adli Takkal Bataille.
Introduction: The Institution of Liberty
Cryptocurrencies are often deemed ‘revolutionary’ and, indeed, Bitcoin’s manifesto shares striking similarities with the most prominent revolutions in history. Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision that it is possible to trade without bankers as intermediaries cannot but remind us of Martin Luther’s claim that believers can entertain a direct relationship with God without priests as intermediaries, which in 1517 kickstarted the Protestant Reformation. It has a similar feel to the declarations of Oliver Cromwell, George Washington and Maximilien de Robespierre, according to which the people can govern themselves without princes as intermediaries, declarations that gave rise to the great political revolutions.
Obviously, the Bitcoin ‘White Paper’ doesn’t tell us how to obtain eternal life like the Reformation did, and the petty calculations of small investors worried about their savings seem to have little in common with the struggle for liberty, so one might well doubt whether any of this goes beyond a vague resonance, and whether Bitcoin really promises the same kind of disruptions as those earlier revolutions. But it would be a great mistake to overlook cryptocurrencies because they are just about ‘money’. Finance is anything but trivial. The economy is not only a fundamental aspect of our societies; in some senses it is the continuation of the religious and political spheres by other means.
Holy communion wafers are shaped like coins because originally both were cast in the same moulds.1 The first ‘central banks’ in history were founded in reformed countries; financial engineering required ‘trust’, above all, trust being just another word for ‘faith’.2 By placing faith (fides) and guilt at the centre of religious life, Protestantism allowed associates who trusted one other (con-fide) to give each other ‘credit’ (crede, ‘to believe’) for their debts (moral as well as financial). It was a Protestant, John Law, who introduced the first paper money into France at the beginning of the eighteenth century.3 And it is also the Protestant concept of faith, in the sense that implies trust and letting go, and therefore being free, that supported the construction of liberal democracies and allowed them to emancipate themselves from monarchy.
In fact, Satoshi’s invention, insofar as it also deals in trust and faith, is a substantial and worthy heir to the theological-political history of the West that runs from the Reformation to liberal democracy.
