Professional Hybridisations and Epistemic Practices of Cryptocapital. An Ethnographic Investigation of Cryptoasset Firms.

加密资本的专业混合和认知实践。

• 批准号: ES/T008237/1
• 负责人: Alexandru Preda
• 金额: $ 83.39万
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FT008237%2F1
• 关键词: Professional; Hybridisations; Epistemic; Practices; Cryptocapital.

Cryptoassets (CA) and distributed ledger technologies (DLT) are seen as key to FinTech, to the digital economy, and to new forms of capital. Yet, they cannot exist without computer engineers and finance professionals continuously working together within particular assemblages of computer hardware, software, or access to power sources and to exchange networks, among others. These configurations of technology, expert knowledge, and socio-professional relationships constitute specific trading zones, where two very different knowledge fields, with different paradigms, collaborate with each other and exchange expert knowledge in a sustained and continuous fashion. We can broadly distinguish two trading zones: the trading zone of accumulation, where CAs are generated (e.g., "mines" and "mining pools") and the trading zone of circulation, where CAs are circulated and traded against each other and against other assets (e.g., lightning networks and trading platforms). The challenge addressed by the project is to investigate what happens within these two trading zones with respect to: collaborations and the exchange of expert knowledge; how this exchange impacts the production of new knowledge; the forms of this new knowledge; the professions involved (computer science and finance, respectively). For instance, do we see new forms of hybrid knowledge emerging out of the exchange, combining computer engineering expertise with financial expertise? Or do we see software developers acquiring just an understanding of the financial vocabulary, and the other way around? These are important aspects, because without an exchange of expertise CAs could not exist: yet, we do not know how exactly this exchange takes place, how it impacts the expertise of each domain, whether new kinds of knowledge emerge out of it, how the boundaries (or jurisdiction) of each profession are impacted, and how this knowledge impacts the valuation of CAs, and the valuation of CA firms themselves. We also do not know how computer scientists and finance professionals in CA firms project their professional futures in relationship to society and in relationship to the evolving digital economy. These three aspects are also relevant, among others, with respect to how cryptoasset firms are regulated, how professional bodies and firms understand the needs and challenges of their workforce, the competitiveness of CA firms, and how education providers should respond to such needs. (For instance, do we need computer science courses on finance programmes, and vice versa? Do CA firms in different regulatory regimes evolve different types of collaborations?) The project addresses these questions through a multi-sited, globally oriented ethnography of professional collaborations between computer engineers and finance professionals within two trading zones: accumulation and circulation of CAs. Its research objectives are (1) to investigate specific forms of collaboration within CA firms and how they impact the knowledge production in these firms; (2) to investigate how this knowledge shapes the valuation of CAs; (3) to investigate how participants project professional futures, and the future of cryptocapital in relationship to broader social futures. The project's main research questions are: (1) what are the epistemic configurations of cryptocapital trading zones? (2) What valuation practices emerge in these trading zones? (3) What professional and socio-cultural imaginaries emerge in these trading zones? The project answers these questions by means of ethnographic observations, interviews with computer scientists and finance professionals, and document analysis from CA firms in both trading zones from the UK, US, Japan, Hong Kong and China. This approach is motivated, among other things, by the different CA regulatory regimes in the abovementioned locales and by the geographical concentration of CA, with implications for understanding globally the dynamics of CA firms and expertise.

加密资产（CA）和分布式账本技术（DLT）被视为金融科技、数字经济和新形式资本的关键。然而，如果没有计算机工程师和金融专业人员在计算机硬件、软件的特定组合中不断合作，或者没有电源和交换网络等，它们就无法存在。这些技术、专业知识和社会专业关系的组合构成了特定的贸易区，在这里，两个具有不同范式的非常不同的知识领域相互合作，并以持续不断的方式交流专业知识。我们可以大致区分两个交易区：积累的交易区，CA生成的地方（例如，“矿”和“矿池”）和流通交易区，其中CA相互流通和交易以及与其他资产（例如，闪电网络和交易平台）。该项目所面临的挑战是调查这两个贸易区在以下方面发生的情况：合作和专家知识的交流;这种交流如何影响新知识的产生;这种新知识的形式;所涉及的专业（分别是计算机科学和金融）。例如，我们是否看到新形式的混合知识从交易所中涌现出来，将计算机工程专业知识与金融专业知识相结合？或者，我们是否看到软件开发人员仅仅了解金融词汇，或者相反？这些都是重要的方面，因为如果没有专业知识的交流，CA就不可能存在：然而，我们不知道这种交流是如何发生的，它如何影响每个领域的专业知识，是否会产生新的知识，每个专业的边界（或管辖权）如何受到影响，以及这些知识如何影响CA的估值，以及CA公司本身的估值。我们也不知道CA公司的计算机科学家和金融专业人士如何预测他们与社会和不断发展的数字经济的关系。这三个方面也与加密资产公司如何监管、专业机构和公司如何理解其员工的需求和挑战、CA公司的竞争力以及教育提供商应如何应对这些需求有关。(For例如，我们是否需要有关金融方案的计算机科学课程，反之亦然？不同监管制度下的CA公司是否会发展出不同类型的合作？）该项目通过多站点，面向全球的计算机工程师和金融专业人士之间的专业合作的民族志两个贸易区：CA的积累和流通解决这些问题。其研究目标是：（1）调查CA公司内部的具体合作形式，以及它们如何影响这些公司的知识生产;（2）调查这些知识如何影响CA的估值;（3）调查参与者如何预测专业未来，以及加密资本的未来与更广泛的社会未来的关系。该项目的主要研究问题是：（1）加密货币交易区的认知配置是什么？(2)这些贸易区出现了哪些估值做法？(3)在这些贸易区出现了哪些专业和社会文化方面的问题？该项目通过人种学观察、与计算机科学家和金融专业人士的访谈以及来自英国、美国、日本、香港和中国的两个贸易区的CA公司的文件分析来回答这些问题。除其他外，这种做法的动机是上述地区不同的认证机构监管制度和认证机构的地理集中，这对了解全球认证机构和专业知识的动态有影响。

项目成果

Purity and dangers: Market making, structural uncertainty, and circuits of exchange in the cryptoeconomy

纯粹性与危险：加密经济中的做市、结构不确定性和交易循环

• DOI: 10.1080/03085147.2023.2242187
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Economy and Society
• 影响因子: 3.4
• 作者: Preda A

Blockchain imaginaries: Introduction to this special issue

区块链想象：本期特刊简介

• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8322.12824
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Anthropology Today
• 影响因子: 1.3
• 作者: Valk J

Frail hope and new frontiers

脆弱的希望和新的领域

• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8322.12823
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Anthropology Today
• 影响因子: 1.3
• 作者: Preda A