Have the Indigenous peoples of the world nothing to lose but their (block)chains? Ashley Cordes, ‘Storying Indigenous cryptocurrency: reckoning with the ghosts of US settler colonialism in the cultural economy’, Journal of Cultural Economy, 2022 | settler colonial studies blog

Have the Indigenous peoples of the world nothing to lose but their (block)chains? Ashley Cordes, ‘Storying Indigenous cryptocurrency: reckoning with the ghosts of US settler colonialism in the cultural economy’, Journal of Cultural Economy, 2022

27Aug22

Abstract: Since 2008, cryptocurrencies, or digital peer-to-peer currencies/assets, have amassed interest and proven unique in their ability to circumvent traditional financial institutions (disintermediation). The system can supersede the nation-state, while also garnering the attention of nation-states and marginalized groups. Indigenous individuals and Nations are among those interested in cryptocurrency, experimenting with it to express resistance to economic imposition beginning in the colonial era. Utilizing an Indigenous storytelling method, this article unveils the technological life and afterlife of an altcoin, MazaCoin, as a ghost of empire, insofar as it links the technological present of financial capital and the past (and ongoing present) of US settler colonialism. Throughout its various complicated reanimations, it expresses a relentless remembering of settler colonial injustices, performing productive haunting work within the twenty-first century cryptocurrency ecosystem. This article offers a reminder that there is much to learn about Indigenous alternative currencies in the cultural economy as the strings of racism, settler colonialism, poverty, financialization, and empire continue to tangle.

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