Cryptoeconomics as governance: an intellectual history from “Crypto Anarchy” to “Cryptoeconomics”

Abstract

Abstract Existing scholarship on cryptoeconomics describes this field as a new and emergent phenomenon. In this paper, I claim that crypto anarchists and cryptoeconomists design and build decentralised networks as governance systems according to the common principles of cryptography, economics, and engineering, and thus, cryptoeconomics is not new but has historical intellectual roots in the political ideology of Crypto Anarchy. Cryptoeconomics is a multidisciplinary field of study concerned with the design of decentralised systems that facilitate the coordination of multiple actors. Practitioners of crypteoconomics, known as “cryptoeconomists,” employ engineering and economic methods to create institutional infrastructure for social coordination. Crypto Anarchy is a political ideology that emphasises autonomy and anonymity and the practice of self-organising through technical means largely attributed to a counter-cultural subgroup known as the “cypherpunks”. I demonstrate the link between Crypto Anarchy and cryptoeconomics through the analysis of empirical evidence from primary archival sources, secondary sources, and academic literature. The implication of these findings is a deeper understanding of what the creation of cryptoeconomic systems does in enabling a political economy of distributed, autonomous coordination. What cryptoeconomists did not adopt and perpetuate is a value for anonymity, which is where the social outcomes of Crypto Anarchy and cryptoeconomics diverge.