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

加密资产（CA）和分布式账本技术（DLT）被视为金融科技、数字经济和新资本形式的关键。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地协同工作，或者访问电源和交换网络等，它们就不可能存在。这些技术、专业知识和社会专业关系的配置构成了特定的贸易区，在这里，两个截然不同的知识领域，以不同的范式，相互合作，以持续和持续的方式交换专业知识。我们可以大致区分两个交易区：积累交易区，即ca产生的交易区（如“矿场”和“矿池”）；流通交易区，即ca相互之间以及与其他资产进行流通和交易的交易区（如闪电网络和交易平台）。该项目面临的挑战是调查这两个贸易区内发生的情况：合作和专业知识的交流；这种交流如何影响新知识的产生；这种新知识的形式；涉及的专业（分别是计算机科学和金融）。例如，我们是否会看到新的混合知识形式从交换中出现，将计算机工程专业知识与金融专业知识结合起来？或者我们看到软件开发人员仅仅理解了金融词汇，反之亦然？这些都是重要的方面，因为如果没有专业知识的交流，认证机构就不可能存在：然而，我们不知道这种交流究竟是如何发生的，它如何影响每个领域的专业知识，是否会产生新的知识类型，每个职业的边界（或管辖权）如何受到影响，以及这些知识如何影响认证机构的估值，以及认证机构本身的估值。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在与社会和不断发展的数字经济的关系中规划他们的职业未来。这三个方面也与如何监管加密资产公司、专业机构和公司如何理解其劳动力的需求和挑战、CA公司的竞争力以及教育提供者应如何应对这些需求等方面相关。(例如，我们是否需要金融项目的计算机科学课程，反之亦然？不同监管制度下的CA公司会发展不同类型的合作吗？)该项目通过计算机工程师和金融专业人士在两个贸易区（ca的积累和流通）内的专业合作的多站点、面向全球的人类学来解决这些问题。其研究目标是：(1)研究CA企业内部的特定合作形式及其如何影响这些企业的知识生产；(2)研究这些知识如何影响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)这些贸易区内出现了哪些估值实践？(3)这些贸易区内出现了什么样的职业和社会文化想象？该项目通过对民族志的观察、对计算机科学家和金融专业人士的采访，以及对来自英国、美国、日本、香港和中国两个贸易区的CA公司的文件分析，回答了这些问题。除其他因素外，上述地区不同的CA监管制度和CA的地理集中也推动了这种方法的发展，这对理解全球CA公司和专业知识的动态具有重要意义。

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.