Cryptosphere and blockchain are perfectly suited in the Network Society: nodes, information as the basis of capitalism, space of flux, timeless time. Everything is just there. In fact, Nekrasenko, Bohdan and Kalinichenko define a cryptocurrency as a 'type of digital token that relies on cryptography for chaining together digital signatures of token transfers, peer-to-peer networking and decentralization.' (here).

Image by mmi9 from Pixabay

In our times we have already seen Cryptosphere sharply increasing and decreasing few times and we do not know how this is going to end. There is no doubt about the uncertainty about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, investors still do not fully believe in them, and in his article (here) Lawrence Wintermeyer summarises the role of Cryptosphere in the future society basically dividing the audience in Apocalyptic (e.g. Nuriel Roubini) and Integrated (e.g. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Unreliability is the keyword, the range of variation within the Cryptosphere is too large, however, taking into account our context with public debt becoming bigger and bigger and bubbles of bubbles in front of our eyes, the cryptos (in particular 'stablecoins') look like a safe heaven in case of bubble bursts or bank runs, although research shows stablecoins are not the solution (link): 'the three most popular stability techniques following after direct collateralization are unsustainable in the long run'. Moreover, they are vulnerable to speculative attacks.

In conclusion, cryptocurrencies are suitable for the Network Society, to the point that they are 'unstable' such as everything we know. The "old community" myth is definitely gone, we live in the age of uncertainty and decentralized relations.

Bibliography

Nekrasenko, L., Kalinichenko, A., Brzozowska, A., & Lazurenko, B. (2018). Decentralized social and economic network as an alternative economic relations development in society.

Pernice, I. G. A., Henningsen, S., Proskalovich, R., Florian, M., Elendner, H., & Scheuermann, B. (2019, May). Monetary Stabilization in Cryptocurrencies-Design Approaches and Open Questions. In IGA Pernice, S Henningsen, R Proskalovich, H Elendner and B Scheuermann." Monetary Stabilization in Cryptocurrencies-Design Approaches and Open Questions" 2019 Crypto Valley Conference on Blockchain Technology (CVCBT). IEEE.