From their shadowy origins in Bitcoin to their use by multinational corporations, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are remaking the rules of digital media and society. Meanwhile, regulators, governments, and the public are trying to make sense of it all.

In this accessible book, Quinn DuPont guides readers through the changing face of money to show how blockchain technology underpins new forms of value exchange and social coordination. He introduces cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to readers in terms of their developers and users, investment opportunities and risks, changes to politics and law, social and industrial applications - and what this all means for the new economy. The author argues throughout that, rather than being a technical innovation, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are social technologies enabling developers and users to engage in unprecedented experiments with social and political levers.

Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains dispenses with hype and offers sober reflection on this crucial and timely topic. It is essential reading for students and scholars of culture, politics, media, and the economy, as well as anyone who wants to understand, take part in, or change the future of work and society.

Web3 is the latest transformation of the World Wide Web, centred on public blockchains, Crypto tokens, and an ideology of decentralisation. Defining Web3 presents the state of the art in socio-cultural and economic research from leading scholars in the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchains.

Exploring Web3 as a ‘crypto-carnival,’ the papers in this collection take the carnival as their central motif and organising frame to mirror how Web3 is permeated by the carnivalesque, with its games, play, politics, anarchy, dissimulation, humour, vulgarity, excessive consumption, and counter-cultural aesthetics. Walking the line between both enthusiasts and critics, the authors analyse the token economy’s messy complications, excesses, dangers, and tensions, and how they might play out for the future of the Internet.

Bringing together researchers, artists, and organisational designers to explore Web3’s potential as a progressive platform for creative social coordination, this uniquely experimental volume tackles the deceptively simple question, ‘What is Web3?’ and imagines where it might take us next.

From their shadowy origins in Bitcoin to their use by multinational corporations, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are remaking the rules of digital media and society. Meanwhile, regulators, governments, and the public are trying to make sense of it all.

In this accessible book, Quinn DuPont guides readers through the changing face of money to show how blockchain technology underpins new forms of value exchange and social coordination. He introduces cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to readers in terms of their developers and users, investment opportunities and risks, changes to politics and law, social and industrial applications - and what this all means for the new economy. The author argues throughout that, rather than being a technical innovation, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are social technologies enabling developers and users to engage in unprecedented experiments with social and political levers.

Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains dispenses with hype and offers sober reflection on this crucial and timely topic. It is essential reading for students and scholars of culture, politics, media, and the economy, as well as anyone who wants to understand, take part in, or change the future of work and society.

Web3 is the latest transformation of the World Wide Web, centred on public blockchains, Crypto tokens, and an ideology of decentralisation. Defining Web3 presents the state of the art in socio-cultural and economic research from leading scholars in the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchains.

Exploring Web3 as a ‘crypto-carnival,’ the papers in this collection take the carnival as their central motif and organising frame to mirror how Web3 is permeated by the carnivalesque, with its games, play, politics, anarchy, dissimulation, humour, vulgarity, excessive consumption, and counter-cultural aesthetics. Walking the line between both enthusiasts and critics, the authors analyse the token economy’s messy complications, excesses, dangers, and tensions, and how they might play out for the future of the Internet.

Bringing together researchers, artists, and organisational designers to explore Web3’s potential as a progressive platform for creative social coordination, this uniquely experimental volume tackles the deceptively simple question, ‘What is Web3?’ and imagines where it might take us next.