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My colleagues and I spent almost three months studying cryptocurrency discussions on Reddit forums, trying to understand how people were talking about cryptocurrency and Bitcoin. The loudest voices on the forum are a group of crypto enthusiasts who call themselves “real bitcoiners.” Unlike tech enthusiasts or cryptocurrency marketers, “real bitcoiners” don’t talk about technology, nor their own use of cryptocurrency. Instead, they talked about trust and corruption.
These crypto enthusiasts often cite what they see as examples of government corruption and corporate corruption. Recognizing that society relies on governments and corporations to make and enforce rules, they complain that people are tied down by these “corrupt” institutions. Corruption, they say, is an inevitable human flaw that leads to attempts to control and abuse others.
Both of these beliefs—government corruption and encryption avoid corruption—are common among the crypto enthusiasts we studied. But enthusiasts go a step further.
They see encryption as how this change happens. For crypto enthusiasts, using crypto is more than a way to buy and sell things. They believe that by using encryption, society will become less dependent on governments and businesses. That said, using cryptocurrency — and making it available to as many people as possible — is a way to change the world and take power away from governments.
