New Criticals


Even despite the vendetta against the third-party actor Bitcoin relies almost exclusively on third-party intermediaries to buy, sell, and exchange Bitcoins for other currencies. To even get access to the ability to own Bitcoins requires a computer and an internet connection (hardly a guarantee), not to mention the additional technology necessary to store and mine, let alone actually use, in the already limited marketplace. Mining, too, is now a fool’s errand. At this point, one would need the computational equivalent of IBM's Watson to actually get anything done by themselves. Too many cooks.

Anomalous to Bitcoin is materiality. In this way, Bitcoin performs the general de-materialization of labor in dominant capitalist countries. They tout information responsibility in the face shadowy governmental bodies and untrustworthy corporations. They are manufactured and authenticated by the same machines that produce them and monitored and policed by the same users that use them. There is very little operational overhead. Startups may yet have something to learn.