2026-09-22T22:20:58Zhttps://digital.lib.washington.edu/server/oai/requestoai:digital.lib.washington.edu:1773/433422026-02-16T02:40:00Zcom_1773_4888col_1773_4907
Harold, Christine
Bellinger, Matthew Charles
2019-02-22T17:04:09Z
2019-02-22T17:04:09Z
2019-02-22
2018
Bellinger_washington_0250E_19261.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/1773/43342
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2018
The rise of Bitcoin and related digital currencies has been accompanied by a proliferation of discourse about these technologies, including debates about their value and status as forms of money. This dissertation examines digital currency discourse from a rhetorical perspective, and traces the development and impact of a key trope of early Bitcoin discourse--the application of commodity money rhetoric to Bitcoin--to understand the rhetorical construction of Bitcoin. It argues that early attempts to establish Bitcoin as a form of money, which figured Bitcoin as a "natural" entity beyond the reach of community politics, produced an unanticipated rhetorical fallout: the displacement of the politics of the Bitcoin community onto the development of Bitcoin as a technology. It further argues that this early displacement continues to influence the rhetorical dynamics of Bitcoin and its heirs by shaping subsequent debates over digital currency governance and valuation.
application/pdf
en_US
none
bitcoin
blockchain
cryptocurrency
digital currency
money
rhetoric
Communication
Rhetoric
Sociology
Communications
The Rhetoric of Bitcoin: Money, Politics, and the Construction of Blockchain Communities
Thesis
Open Access
open.access