Decrypting Bitcoin('s) relations...

Forms of exchange have varied throughout human history, with multiple strains evolving and petering out, coming into fashion and going into disuse. Glocally and temporally they have intertwined themselves as a core aspect of individual and group relationships. Anthropologists have studied this variety from the gift exchange of pigs in Papua New Guinea to the pervasive nature of debt, from the incredulity of Wall Street speculation to the total social fact of potlach prestations, from time-banks to crowdfunding. Where do Bitcoins and Bitcoin participants appear in this picture? Could the Bitcoin community potentially benefit from an holistic and actor-centred analysis? This is a short introduction to comparing the wider network of exchange forms in which Bitcoins are embedded and Bitcoiners are emerging.