A new article by Jillian (Lee) Crandall, current Geography PhD student, has been published open access in the Progress in Economic Geography Journal. In "Plotting Cryptoeconomic Imaginaries and Counterplotting the Network State," Crandall defines “cryptoeconomic imaginaries” as the multiple contesting ways in which blockchains and cryptocurrencies are used as a core plot device in reimagining, reshaping, rewriting economic relationships with people, ecologies, spaces, and temporalities. In addition to opening the potential to dream new economic futures, blockchain also has the potential to conscript people to imagine new futures under the parameters of cryptoeconomics, and/or foreclose certain futures from coming into being. The main goal of this paper is to present (counter)/plot work as a conceptual theoretical framework and geographic method of analysis for critical scholars to better understand cryptoeconomic imaginaries, their varied socio-spatial implications and power-geometries to question how future economic plots may come into being and who stands to benefit, specifically in the context of technofascist “network state” projects funded by Promonos Capital including California Forever, Próspera, and Puertopia.
Read the entire article here!