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Set in Tel Aviv’s Bitcoin Embassy between 2017 and 2019, Community in a Crowd explores the everyday activities and social dynamics of Israeli Bitcoin enthusiasts. It examines how participants promoted Libertarian narratives and ritualized practices to challenge the moral authority of the ‘centralized’ political-economic order. Revisiting Bitcoin’s popular association with radical individualism, the book contrasts the sprawling, impersonal crowds of online trading with the formation of an intimate, egalitarian community through in-person encounters. Advancing a new theoretical framework, it offers insights into contemporary mass movements grounded in techno-utopian visions of society and reconsiders how decentralized technologies foster both anonymity and solidarity.
“This book is a thoroughly researched, detailed and conceptually thought-out example of what we call ‘ethnographic theory’ – which is really the best kind of anthropology.” • Diana Espírito Santo, Universidad Católica de Chile
Matan Shapiro is a Social Anthropologist currently researching synoptic surveillance and changing notions of alterity online as part of the ERC-funded SAMCOM Project at the department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London.
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1. Roots
Chapter 2. The Community
Chapter 3. Individual Banks
Chapter 4. A Space in Between
Chapter 5. Decentralizing the Universe
Chapter 6. Bitcoin Crowds
Chapter 7. Nihilist Spectacles
Conclusion
References
Index