[[Cryptocurrency]] functions as a way to reify the most destructive parts of capitalism. Cryptocurrency emerged as a [[libertarian]] project, with the hope that it would replace the dollar and get around having a [[Federal Reserve]]. In practice, cryptocurrency has never been used as a currency[^fn:1] and has only been used for so-called criminal activity.
It is, in practice, essentially a get rich quick scheme, and those that benefit from it are the already wealthy.
So-called [[proof of work]] mining is βan encoding of the bourgeois labor theory of value.β It acts as a means of encoding libertarian politics into software.
1 It has only ever been used as an asset. Banks do not loan out cryptocurrency, thus blocking what would be a major step towards becoming a viable currency.