ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a critical analysis of attempts to use blockchain technologies to improve the position of labor and limit exploitation in contemporary capitalism. It argues that, while blockchains originated as financial technologies, they were also used in experiments with new forms of organizing and funding labor. In doing so, blockchain advocates sought to escape the exploitation by both dominant digital platforms and venture capitalists. However, this chapter shows that, while some blockchain experiments hold some merit for narrow groups of skilled workers, they often fail to inspire more substantial change benefiting labor more generally. Instead, they risk to further the depoliticized idealization of markets. Various shortcoming of blockchain initiatives were initially covered up by the inflow of speculative funds. Yet, as these sources of funding dry up, many blockchain projects struggle to pay up, concerning the promises made to investors and contributors alike. Eventually, this chapter shows that blockchain experiments so far have been largely unable to live up to their aspirations, but does not preclude the option that the discontent with capitalist exploitation articulated in these experiments could become the foundation for more fruitful debates.
