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Initial coin offerings: Linking technology and financialization

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew Zook

    (University of Kentucky, USA)

  • Michael H. Grote

Abstract

This paper elaborates on the interactions between digital technologies and financial practices and how they contribute to the ongoing process of financialization. We focus on the circumstances of blockchain-based token offerings and their contribution to reshaping existing systems of investment in startups. We show how future clients become investors via the initial coin offering (ICO) process. The paper is based on interviews with blockchain and industry practitioners during 2018 and 2019 and focuses on an in-depth case study of a specific ICO in early 2018. We suggest a framework consisting of catalysts, cracks and voids to analyze the financialization process and to inform theories of how financialization advances through the new spaces afforded by socially constructed technologies upon which entrepreneurs capitalize. With this framework we provide a better understanding of the mechanics behind financialization, particularly the ways in which business processes, and larger social relations such as the role of investors and clients, are reimagined and reworked.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew Zook & Michael H. Grote, 2020. "Initial coin offerings: Linking technology and financialization," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(8), pages 1560-1582, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:52:y:2020:i:8:p:1560-1582
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X20954440
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    5. Matthew Zook & Michael H Grote, 2017. "The microgeographies of global finance: High-frequency trading and the construction of information inequality," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(1), pages 121-140, January.
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    7. David Garcia & Claudio Tessone & Pavlin Mavrodiev & Nicolas Perony, "undated". "The digital traces of bubbles: feedback cycles between socio-economic signals in the Bitcoin economy," Working Papers ETH-RC-14-001, ETH Zurich, Chair of Systems Design.
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    Cited by:

    1. Eric Knight & Dariusz Wójcik, 2020. "FinTech, economy and space: Introduction to the special issue," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(8), pages 1490-1497, November.
    2. Ryan Wyeth & Ludovico Rella & Ed Atkins, 2024. "The material geographies of Bitfury in Georgia: Integrating cryptoasset firms into global financial networks," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(3), pages 816-832, May.

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