BitCoin is a bubble like any other. The question is whether it will be the death knell of techno-utopianism (which I doubt) or rather another egregious example of cognitive dissonance (Festinger et al When Prophecy Fails). I wrote the next paragraph last week before the "market correction" occurred. One of BitCoin's boosters in the Guardian video said that it is as big as the internet, maybe bigger. I have had old friends contacting me via Facebook for advice on whether they should jump in. What we have here is a cross betwen a stock market bubble and a Ponzi scheme. BitCoin is a commodity currency, like gold, but with none of the customary or institutional supports that keep the gold price up or the euro (RIP) for that matter. As such it fits the folk model of what money really is. (But it isn't). Its value is solely a function of animal spirits. These have been fed by a Spring campaign in the universal media. The history of bubbles is well-known. Some people get in early and make quick money, others borrow beyond thei rmeans to get a slice of the action, then there is selling to cash to take profits, the price falls, panic selling follows, the bubble bursts. Actually the analogy between BTC and tulips is strong. At least the flowers were beautiful. Sure, some people will make money. They always do, but not as many as lose their shirt just for being drawn in by an exponential curve going irresitibly upwards. Jaromil's vision reproduces the neoliberal fantasy that markets can flourish without a political framework. See the saga of Europe's single currency passim. The existing states can't do the job either which means we are in for a lot of trouble. You haven't even seen what a seriosi US/China currency war will look like. There is more to all this than pinning labels like libertarian and social democratic on people. This piece is politically and economically naive. But since when did artists and designers have the time to master historical political economy? Keith On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 8:23 AM, Felix Stalder <felix@openflows.com> wrote:

I guess it all depends if you see "the state" as being capable of expressing something like the common interest. If so, then capture by financial and other economic interests is a corruption of that principle and one needs to fight politically against that corruption. This is, basically, a liberal/social-democratic position.

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