After Money: If you change the representation of value, does it change the values that you can represent?

比特币等加密货币正在挑战我们对货币的看法。比特币等货币以信任为基础，通过开放的交易数据库维护，为金融交易提供了新的模式，挑战了我们目前使用的受政府监管的法定货币。然而，加密货币的用户开始意识到，区块链的底层技术可能会对我们如何理解货币产生最深远的影响。区块链是一个记录和验证交易的全球开放分类账，同时加密用户身份完全改变了价值的核算方式。银行或政府不再是货币的中介者，拥有剥离或投资的权力来决定社会内部的价值流动，区块链分散了资金，并为其创造性使用提供了一个平台。随着区块链等技术改变价值的表示方式，区块链的用户开始探索如何将货币作为代码来表示价值的新机会。该项目将向受众介绍区块链的基本原理，否则就不会就新货币的发展征求意见。利用设计主导和参与式的方法，该研究项目将通过与家庭、小企业和当地公民服务机构的参与，探索将金钱作为软件的潜在使用案例。这项研究对当代围绕新的价值交换形式出现的辩论做出了重大贡献，并为当地、经济和学术界提供了切实的成果。这项为期18个月的项目直接涉及ESRC的优先领域：经济表现和可持续增长。这个研究项目的创新设计，它与实际商业街环境的关系，以及新经济基金会和苏格兰皇家银行的参与，构成了研究光谱中高风险、高回报端的变革性研究。

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are challenging the way we perceive money. Offering new models for financial transactions, based on trust, and maintained through its open transactional database, currencies such as Bitcoin challenge the government-regulated fiat currencies that we currently use today. However, users of cryptocurrencies are beginning to realise that it is the underlying technology of the blockchain that is likely to have the most profound effect on how we understand money. The blockchain is an global open ledger that records and verifies transactions, whilst encrypting the identity of users changes entirely how value is accounted for. No longer are banks or governments the mediators of currencies, with the power to divest or invest to dictate the flow of value within society, the blockchain decentralises money and offers a platform for its creative use. Presenting money as code, users of the blockchain are starting to explore new opportunities for how values can be represented, as technologies such as the blockchain change the representation of value. This project will introduce the underlying principles of the blockchain to audiences that would otherwise not be consulted on the development of new currencies. Using a design-led and participatory approach, the research project will explore potential use cases for money as software through involvement with families, small businesses and local civic services. The research represents a significant contribution to contemporary debates around the emergence of new forms of value exchange and offers tangible outcomes for local, economic and academic communities.This 18 month project addresses directly the ESRC priority area: 'Economic performance and sustainable growth'. The innovative design of this research project, its relationship with actual high street environments and involvement of the New Economic Foundation and the Royal Bank of Scotland constitutes transformative research at the high risk, high reward end of the research spectrum.