Why Cryptocurrencies Want Privacy: A Review of Political Motivations and Branding Expressed in “Privacy Coin” Whitepapers

Abstract

New currencies designed for user anonymity and privacy – widely referred to as “privacy coins” – have forced governments to listen and legislate, but the political motivations of these currencies are not well understood. Following the growing interest of political brands in different contexts, we provide the first systematic review of political motivations expressed in cryptocurrency whitepapers whose explicit goal is “privacy.” Many privacy coins deliberately position themselves as alternative political brands. Although cryptocurrencies are often closely associated with political philosophies that aim to diminish or subvert the power of governments and banks, advocates of privacy occupy much broader ideological ground. We present thematic trends within the privacy coin literature and identify epistemic and ethical tensions present within the communities of people calling for the adoption of entirely private currencies.

Keywords:

• Bitcoin
• blockchain
• cryptocurrency
• money
• political brands
• privacy

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Harvey

Dr. Harvey is an Assistant Professor in Marketing at Nottingham University Business School and is the Economic Networks Lead within the Neo-demographic Laboratory for Analytics in Business. He holds a PhD in Economic Anthropology and specialises in the study of informal economies, particularly through ethnographic and computational network analysis methods. He has published widely in interdisciplinary peer-reviewed academic journals and conferences, including Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Industrial Marketing Management, Academy of Marketing Science Review, Journal of Critical Realism, and SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Ines Branco-Illodo

Dr. Branco-Illodo is a lecturer in Marketing at Stirling Management School, University of Stirling, UK. Her current research interests include gift-giving, sharing, consumer coping and attachment theory from a consumer perspective. She also works on political engagement and tourism research. Ines regularly presents her research in International conferences including AMS World Marketing Congress and publishes her work in journals, such as the Journal of Travel Research, Industrial Marketing Management and the International Journal of Market Research.