Cryptocurrency and the Affective Experience

The Missing Cryptoqueen is a BBC Sounds production podcast, which tells the story of OneCoin, an alleged cryptocurrency which is under investigation for fraud. One of the co-founders has already been arrested by the FBI and the founder is missing since 2017. However the company has not ceased trading and people globally continue to invest. (Bartlett, 2019)

OneCoin claims more than 3million investors worldwide, however the currency is still not tradeable. I was struck by the way members-investors have responded to the scandal and I wondered what is that “force” that makes them behave in this irrational and affective way.

Apart from the fact that the company used Multi Level Marketing and practices which resemble rituals of a cult, there was something else that made the members to develop a strong sense of denial towards the scandal.

I believe is the affective relationship that we have with money. We are emotionally connected to monetary transactions and financial status – we may feel pride and embarrassment or a sense of power and value. Trust is a foundational value in this relationship.

Blockchain technologies developed as a “decentralized  peer-to-peer transaction network” with no creditors or central management and appealed to a wider audience.The radical ideas of Satoshi Nakamoto, towards non restricted participation, expanded access and a sense of community in banking, formed in a political manifesto and were a response to “political struggles” (Campbell-Verduyn, p.90).

“The emergent technology is confronting power structures in manners that have significant socioeconomic and political implications” (Campbell-Verduyn, p.90).

Cryptocurrency can be considered a “a social movement” or “the currency of the future” (Betz, 2018). The inclusivity, creates this feeling of “we”, the collective – in other words it carries an affective force of a collective experience towards a system change.

The possibilities of “banking the unbanked” create a resonance of hope in countries where the economies and currencies are devalued. Seigworth and Gregg, locate affect in those moments of resonance in “…worldings and diffusions, of feeling/ passions – often including atmospheres of sociality, crowd behaviours, contacions of feeling, matters of belonging…” (p.8 ).

On the other hand, cryptocurrency’s promises: “…no need to prove value, identity, or worth…individuals freely trade with others they cannot see and do not know” (Thomas, 2018). Thus, trust is no longer a principal in this relationship – however Betz argues, “it is not a trustless currency”. It requires trust towards the system, its algorithm and its community (Betz, 2018).

With the new contemporary banking technologies and the cryptocurrency ethos,  the emotional qualities that accompanied the traditional centralised finance system, transform into a collective experience of empowerment, hope, enthusiasm and autonomy.

But perhaps the implications of those socio-technical processes may far be more complicated and intertwined in many ways. Lauren Berlant underlines the caution in regards to these “propitious moments” :  “‘… shifts in affective atmosphere are not equal to changing the world’ …” (Berlant in Seigworth and Gregg, p.12-13). As somehow is manifested in the case of the OneCoin story.

References:

Seigworth, G and Gregg, M. (2010). An Inventory of Shimmers. Introduction to the Affect Theory Reader. Durham: Duke University Press.

Navaro-Yashin, Y. (2003) ‘`Life is dead here’: Sensing the political in `no man’s land’’, Anthropological Theory, 3(1), pp. 107–125.

Massumi, B (2009) ‘The future birth of the affective fact. The Political Ontology of Fear’ Chapter 2 in Gregg, M and Seigworth, G The Affect Theory Reader. Durham: Duke University Press.

Robbins, B. (2002). The Sweatship Sublime. PMLA, 117 (1), pp. 84-97.

Campbell-Verduyn, M., 2017. Bitcoin and Beyond : Cryptocurrencies, Blockchains, and Global Governance, Milton: Routledge.

Online Resources:

Jamie Bartlett, BBC (2019), The Missing Cryptoqueen [Podcast]. 17 September 2019.   Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p07nkd84 (Accessed: 28 December 2019).

OneCoin, Available at:  https://www.onecoin.eu/en/ (site not accessible on the 13/01/20).

Thomas, D.A. (2018), Money and Its Effects. American Anthropologist, 120: 7-10. doi:10.1111/aman.13024. Available at: https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aman.13024 (Accessed: 3 January 2020).

Betz, S.  (2018) Encoding Value: What is cryptocurrency, and what does it mean for society? Available at: https://thefamiliarstrange.com/2018/10/04/what-is-cryptocurrency/  (Accessed: 4 January 2020).

Cerald, S. (2018) Can Cryptocurrency Revolutionize the Rituals of Money? Available at: https://www.sapiens.org/technology/cryptocurrency-money-ritual/  (Accessed: 5 January 2020).

“Airbnb until the last hole is rent”: Short-term renting economies in Athens.

Source: Airbnb

Airbnb, the most popular platform for short term renting, has been the subject of controversy in many countries in regards to the way that has transformed urban life, in popular city destinations, but tourism in general. The growth of Airbnb, accounts for evictions, restrictions in rental periods, mass gentrification, touristification of everyday life, to name a few.

On the other hand, it has also been a symbol of prosperity for some, and the potential for financial recovery and the easing of everyday financial struggles. But mainly for mass property investment. The focus will be on Athens, a city in a country in “crisis”. The AirBnb company declared that they boost the greek economy by 1.4 billion dollars within 2018 only (1).

In an age when each one of us is interpellated as a micro-entrepreneur with individual responsibility to negotiate his/her existence as a private individual matter, ‘post-crisis’ globalized capitalism provides new tools and narratives to secure its reproduction.

Giorgos Poulimenakos, Dimitris Dalakoglou

What kind of socialities are formed? And how are they produced ?

Athen’s residents have been struggling with extremely low employment levels, high living costs, high taxation and devalued properties. Airbnb was seen as the “transformative potential” (Harvey and Knox, p.25) for financial recovery, promises, dreams and fantasies to improve living standards (Harvey and Knox, p.34).

The company is using the prospect for financial alleviation as a marketing tool. We see the “monthly potential” on the website’s first page; drawing on the visitors’ location data it instantly presents a speculative monthly income to “seduce” the potential host.

Source: Airbnb

Its marketing approach is to let the users / locals tell “their stories”, sharing “real life” stories of hosts that have been eased financially by renting or sharing their home, saved money and fulfilled their dreams, relieved their loneliness.

Source: Airbnb

Source: Airbnb

Source: Airbnb

However the “transformative potential” not only influenced the However the “transformative potential” not only influenced the economy but also another internal crisis emerged; the one of the housing crisis. Within two years the city experienced immense change in the availability of housing resulting in rent prices reaching extremely high (2). Entire apartments (3) for rent dominate the Airbnb listings which the highest percentage is of hosts with multiple listings; meaning commercial operators (4).

What type of relationships and experiences develop?

Are the relationships that emerge consumer products which are required to be assessed and reviewed? The touristification of spaces and experiences may result in transient encounters, and loss of the “neighborly feeling” (Fennel, p.264). The experience services provided by the app requests locals with expertise, that can share the secrets of the area and offer  “unique” and “authentic”, “one of a kind”, “hard to find” experiences. This has a great impact in the communities and social relations creating tensions between groups and conflicting interests.

And what would be the role of the state in this? Currently, we see a flux in “golden visa” issues, a collaboration with “the colonizers” and “people at the mercy of the landowners” (Harvey and Knox, p.23, 27).

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References:

Harvey, P and Knox, H. (2015). Roads: An Anthropology of Infrastructure and Expertise. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Fennell, C. (2014). “Experiments in vulnerability: Sociability and care in Chicago’s redeveloping public housing”. City & Society 26 (2), 262-284.

Larkin, B. (2013). “The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure”. Annual Review of Anthropology 42, 327-343.

Online Resources:

Bateman, Jessica (2019). BBC News. Athens property boom: Greeks left out as prices rise [Online]. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47237923 [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].

Dalakoglou, Dimitris and Poulimenakos, Giorgos (2018). Open Democracy. Airbnbizing Europe: mobility, property and platform capitalism: New social class distinctions are increasingly relocated outside the borders of a particular national economy, becoming transnational and carried out by ‘ordinary people’. [Online]. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/airbnbizing-europe-mobility-property-and/ [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].

Greek Travel Pages (2019). Airbnb Says Home-sharing Boosted Greek Economy by $1.4bn in 2018 [Online] https://news.gtp.gr/2019/07/02/airbnb-says-home-sharing-boosted-greek-economy-1-4bn-2018/ [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].

Inside AirBnb (2018). Inside AirBnb: Adding Data to The Debate. [Online] http://insideairbnb.com/athens/?neighbourhood=&filterEntireHomes=false&filterHighlyAvailable=false&filterRecentReviews=true&filterMultiListings=false# [Accessed 10 Nov. 2019].