Community in a Crowd

Bitcoin and the Quest for Liberty in Tel Aviv

Matan Shapiro (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

262 Seiten

2026
Berghahn Books (Verlag)
978-1-83695-299-2 (ISBN)

Noch nicht erschienen (ca. Januar 2026)
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Based on ethnographic research in Tel Aviv, this book examines how Bitcoin enthusiasts use everyday practices to challenge centralised authority, revealing how decentralised technologies foster both sprawling online crowds and close-knit, libertarian communities rooted in techno-utopian ideals.

Set in Tel Aviv’s Bitcoin Embassy between 2017 and 2019, Community in a Crowd explores the everyday activities and social dynamics of Israeli Bitcoin enthusiasts. It examines how participants promoted Libertarian narratives and ritualized practices to challenge the moral authority of the ‘centralized’ political-economic order. Revisiting Bitcoin’s popular association with radical individualism, the book contrasts the sprawling, impersonal crowds of online trading with the formation of an intimate, egalitarian community through in-person encounters. Advancing a new theoretical framework, it offers insights into contemporary mass movements grounded in techno-utopian visions of society and reconsiders how decentralized technologies foster both anonymity and solidarity.

Matan Shapiro is a Social Anthropologist currently researching synoptic surveillance and changing notions of alterity online as part of the ERC-funded SAMCOM Project at the department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London.

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1. Roots

Chapter 2. The Community

Chapter 3. Individual Banks

Chapter 4. A Space in Between

Chapter 5. Decentralizing the Universe

Chapter 6. Bitcoin Crowds

Chapter 7. Nihilist Spectacles

Conclusion

References

Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	1.1.2026
Reihe/Serie	Egalitarianism
Zusatzinfo	Bibliography; Index; 10 Illustrations
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-83695-299-6 / 1836952996
ISBN-13	978-1-83695-299-2 / 9781836952992
Zustand	Neuware