Coins, Currencies, Social Currencies, and Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies, with more than ten years of existence, are no longer a phenomenon that could be called novel. However, it is still largely unexplored by the social sciences and humanities. Some work has been done in this sense, but it is more oriented towards dissemination than academic discussion. It is, then, a first objective of this book to introduce Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchains in the social sciences, from an anthropological and economic perspective, without neglecting their mathematical and technical foundations. Secondly, this work is a study of cryptocurrencies as one form of currency among others. However, in order to carry out such an undertaking, it was necessary to address the history, if not of money itself, then of studies about it. Money and currency are rather marginal objects of study in both anthropology and economics. Those who are familiar with the most important authors and schools in anthropology will notice the almost total absence of any mention of them in this study. That is why the entire first part is not devoted to cryptocurrencies but to currencies in general and to the theories that exist about them, both in economics and anthropology. This work is, therefore, a study of money and currencies in general, including cryptocurrencies.