Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Data money makers

An ethnographic analysis of a global cryptocurrency community

Bibliographic Data

ID5609732
AuthorsKoray Caliskan (0000-0001-9876-9405, Parsons School of Design The New School New York City New York USA, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume73
Issue1
Pages168-187
Publication date2022-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-4446.12916
PMID34961928
OpenAlexW4200018912
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited31

Proposed by an unknown young man using the pseudonym Electra01, Electra appeared in the cryptocurrency markets in 2018. Thanks to its innovative supply mechanism, the money's market capitalization briefly reached 136 billion USD, surpassing Bitcoin in value. Focusing on the empirical case of Electra, a project that was chosen as the "best cryptocurrency community" by the users of world's largest exchange, Binance, this paper ethnographically analyzes the sociological universe of a cryptocurrency community. The research consists of two years of fieldwork, interviews with the core team and the project's anonymous founder, a survey among its community members, and computational analyses of the interaction data of the project's Twitter community of 376,600 handles, as well as their Bitcointalk forum. The paper approaches the socio-technical universe of a cryptocurrency community by examining the devices, networks, and representations that the community actors produce, use, and maintain in data-money making and proposes a way to make visible and examine centers of power in a global community operating a seemingly "decentralized" blockchain

Business · Capitalization · Cryptocurrency · Economics · Ethnography · Political science · Pseudonym · Revenue · Sociology · Value (mathematics · World Wide Web · Anthropology · Blockchain Technology Applications and Security · Caching and Content Delivery · Computer Science · Finance · FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance · Law · Marketing

  • From users to co-creators

    Open Access•Robert Musil, Léna Pellandini-Simányi•Finance and Society•2026

  • On Simmel’s Financial Aristocrat

    Donato Cocozza•Simmel Studies•2022

  • Asset, Token, or Coin? A Semiotic Analysis of Blockchain Language

    Open Access•Olivia Sewell, Lachlan Robb et al.•International Journal for the…•2024

  • Going crypto-native

    Claire Shaw•Journal of Organizational…•2025

  • Exploring the making of crypto-masculinity in an era of decentralized money in Thailand

    Open Access•Jhitsayarat Siripai, C Haywood•Journal of Cultural Economy•2026

  • ‘I guess that’s the price of decentralisation… ’

    Open Access•Andrew Child•International Review of Victimology•2024

  • The modes of performativity

    Open Access•Sevde Nur Unal, Simone Polillo et al.•Finance and Society•2025

  • Narratives of Change to Platform Governance on DTube, an Emerging Blockchain-Based Video-Sharing Platform

    Open Access•Ashwin Nagappa•Social Media + Society•2023

  • Blockchain Scenes

    Open Access•Nathalie Casemajor, Will Straw•Journal of Digital Social Research•2023

  • Knowledge infrastructures and the paradox of enacting green and just transitions through dirty and unjust digital markets

    Open Access•Malcolm Campbell‐verduyn, Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn et al.•Globalizations•2026

  • Everyday geographies of cryptocurrency

    Open Access•Abbie Hardcastle, Jessa Loomis•Gender Place & Culture•2025

  • The rise and fall of Electra

    Koray Caliskan•Review of Social Economy•2024

  • Semantics and social dynamics of money

    Azhar Zholdubaeva, Zhanat Doskhozhina et al.•Reviews in Anthropology•2024

  • Governable Spaces

    Open Access•Nathan Schneider•Governable spaces•2024

  • Governable Spaces

    Open Access•N Schneider, Darija Medic•Governable spaces•2023

  • The new monies of the startup world

    Open Access•Emily H C Chua•Journal of the Royal Anthropologica…•2023

  • Cryptofinancial imaginaries

    Antônio Barros De Castro, Arturo Castro et al.•Journal of Cultural Economy•2025

  • Markets in the Making

    Michel Callon, Martha Poon et al.•Markets in the Making•2021

  • Market Threads

    Koray Caliskan•Market Threads•2010

  • What was Bitcoin, what will it be? The techno-economic imaginaries of a new money technology

    Lana Swartz•Cultural Studies•2018

  • Blockchains and the “Chains of Empire”

    Jordan Crandall•Design and Culture•2019

  • Crisis, reputation, and the politics of expertise

    Simone Polillo•Review of Social Economy•2023

  • The Politics of Bitcoin

    Quinn Dupont•Journal of Cultural Economy•2017

  • When perhaps the real problem is money itself

    B Maurer, Taylor C Nelms et al.•Social Semiotics•2013

  • An Equation and its Worlds

    Open Access•Donald Mackenzie•Social Studies of Science•2003

  • Market Threads

    Open Access•Kurtuluş Gemici•Contemporary Sociology A Journal…•2012

  • Dictionary of Social Sciences

    Open Access•Sirpa Wrede•Sociological Research Online•2002

  • The Social Life of Bitcoin

    Open Access•N Dodd•Theory Culture & Society•2018

  • Steps towards an ecology of money infrastructures

    Open Access•Ludovico Rella•Journal of Cultural Economy•2020

  • Data money

    Koray Caliskan•Economy and Society•2020

  • Economization, part 2

    Koray Caliskan, Koray Çalışkan et al.•Economy and Society•2010

  • Economization, part 1

    Koray Caliskan, Koray Çalışkan et al.•Economy and Society•2009

  • The big, bad wolf and the rational market

    Donald Mackenzie•Economy and Society•2004

  • Markets and money in social theory

    Ben Fine, Costas Lapavitsas•Economy and Society•2000

Unique citing works17
Citations per year4,25
Citation span2022 - 2026 (5)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 16
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae