Deleuze in the wild: making philosophy matter for fintech

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the role of Deleuzian philosophy in fintech projects which operate ‘in the wild’, i.e. far from the major institutional settings of fintech development, and which speculate towards an alternative financial economy, building upon algorithms, blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and crypto-assets. Based on ethnographic data collected with three different projects, I discuss the process of earmarking financial operations by means of philosophical concepts or theories, which enable the re-interpretation of the process of financialisation of everyday life. I further analyse the conceptual socialization of these technological endeavours with the wider-reaching theme of accelerating the capitalist process with the objective to overturn its excessive powers. The paper concludes by suggesting that fintech experiments which are socialized with accelerationist narratives re-interpret the process of financialisation as a path of liberation instead of exploitation, offering an escape from the capitalist crisis through machinic alchemy.

KEYWORDS:

• Blockchain
• financialisation
• cryptoeconomy
• ethnography
• accelerationism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The current average number of members, according to https://www.robinhoodcoop.org/

2 See ECSA's full post here: https://medium.com/economic-spacing/glossary-for-gravity-and-space-a8d62f6a2111

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Portuguese national funding agency for science and technology (FCT) under the project ‘Finance Beyond Fact and Fiction: financial transformations in post-2008 Europe’ [PTDC/IVC-ANT/4520/2014].

Notes on contributors

Sandra Faustino

Sandra is a PhD student in Economic Sociology (ISEG-IUL), has a MA in Development Studies (ISCTE-IUL) and a BA in Journalism (ESCS-IPL). She did research on blockchain-based financial technologies within the project ‘Finance Beyond Fact and Fiction: Financial Transformations in Post-2008 Europe', in the Research Centre in Economic and Organizational Sociology of the Lisbon School of Economics of the University of Lisbon (ISEG/UL) (2016/2019). Her main interests are framed by the fields of the social studies of finance and science and technology studies, and concern the political dimensions of technological development.