Bitcoin
Reading Hart’s article for this week made me wonder about Bitcoin—a coin that has neither head nor tail. I had never quite understood why people are so excited about Bitcoin or why anyone would want to use Bitcoins or why bitcoins are “mined” and not minted. This article—Maurer, Nelms & Swartz (2013) “When perhaps the problem is money itself!” The practical materiality of Bitcoin—provides an interesting analysis of the ideologies and semiotics surrounding Bitcoin, and it is filled with interesting tidbits (ie did you know that Bitcoin mining involves long hours of human labor and material resources, namely, electricity to undertake? This means, rather curiously, that at times the real cost of mining a Bitcoin can exceed its value.)
Check out the article here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10350330.2013.777594#.VMUmX2SsX39
And check out Bitcoin here: https://www.weusecoins.com/en/
-Cameron
Contributed by CameronOtt on 25/01/2015
