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dc.rights.licenseCC-BY-NC-ND
dc.contributor.advisorGlas, R.
dc.contributor.advisorde Vries, I.
dc.contributor.authorJansen, M.A.
dc.date.accessioned2012-09-06T17:03:11Z
dc.date.available2012-09-06
dc.date.available2012-09-06T17:03:11Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.identifier.urihttps://studenttheses.uu.nl/handle/20.500.12932/20622
dc.description.abstractThis paper concerns the open source software project Bitcoin. Bitcoin is often described as virtual cash and this paper asks what the term ‘virtual’ signifies when applied to ‘cash’ and in turn what ‘virtual cash’ says about Bitcoin. Bitcoin is related to the 1990s activist movement of libertarian cryptographers known as ‘cypherpunks’ and to the cyber-libertarian political philosophy, demonstrating the historical intertwining of cryptography and politics. Cypherpunks argued that privacy is a prerequisite for an open society and that cryptography and anonymous transaction systems were needed as assurance. Bitcoin is the latest effort by cryptographers to create digital tokens similar to cash, where Bitcoin’s designer Nakamoto argues that with Bitcoin users no longer have to trust a third party, traditionally the bank. Bitcoin does not fulfill this promise as trust remains to be established, albeit in a different manner. Power is not destroyed, but transferred from banks to Bitcoin’s protocol. The paper concludes that ‘virtual’ refers to Bitcoin’s model of how cash appears to function in everyday exchange, allowing user privacy. Bitcoin does not model another aspect of cash, namely that it is a credential referring to debt. Bitcoin discontinues the concept of debt.
dc.description.sponsorshipUtrecht University
dc.format.extent1316943 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.titleBitcoin - The Political 'Virtual' of an Intangible Material Currency.
dc.type.contentMaster Thesis
dc.rights.accessrightsOpen Access
dc.subject.keywordsbitcoin, crypto-currency, cryptography, virtual cash, cybercash, electronic payments, online payments
dc.subject.courseuuNieuwe media en digitale cultuur


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