Community in a Crowd

Set in Tel Aviv’s ‘Bitcoin Embassy’ – a meeting hub established by bitcoin early-adopters at the heart of Israel’s financial epicentre – this book revisits bitcoin’s popular association with radical individualism. Based on two years of in-person encounters and participation in multiple public events, it focuses instead on the collective humanistic promise advocated by members of the local community. Unveiling the ideas, beliefs and myths that underpin bitcoiners’ pursuit of liberation from centralized economic hierarchies, this ethnography offers valuable insights into latter-day techno-utopian visions of society, along with their inherent paradoxes and ultimate nihilist potential.