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Unveiling the power behind cryptocurrency mining in Venezuela: A fragile energy infrastructure and precarious labor ☆
Abstract
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis (2008-2010), peer-to-peer online payment mechanisms emerged as a way to avoid financial intermediaries and untrusted centralized state authorities. Cryptocurrencies proliferated among like-minded individuals, generally depicted by scholars as anarcho-capitalists. Much social science literature has focused on governance and technical puzzles that these new market tools bring about as well as on the risks associated with the problems of trust, security, money laundering and illegal financing. In this article, I shift gaze to center on the material underpinnings of cryptocurrencies, such as energy systems and infrastructure, as well as how cryptocurrencies can expand in contexts of crisis in peripheral societies. I focus on the case of Venezuela to explain some of these processes in the rise and expansion of cryptocurrency markets that have remained at the margins of energy and political economy discussions. A deep dive into Venezuela allows us to de-virtualize our understandings of cryptocurrencies. It redirects our attention to infrastructure, energy, rent, and precarious conditions of living in a crumbling rentier society, shedding light on the use and expansion of cryptocurrencies in a nominally socialist country.
... W ten sposób przeciwdziałają postrzeganiu kryptowalut jako zjawiska czysto niematerialnego, eterycznego, które nie ma odzwierciedlenia w fizycznej rzeczywistości. Tego typu analizy były przeprowadzane na różnych poziomach odniesienia przestrzennego: lokalnym (Greenberg, Bugden, 2019;Lally i in., 2022), regionalnym (Atkins i in., 2021) i krajowym (Rosales, 2019(Rosales, , 2021Wyeth i in., 2023). Głównym polem eksploracji było zagadnienie, jak technologie związane z przestrzenią cyfrową "przybliżają się do rzeczywistości", odzwierciedlają, naśladują ją. ...
... oddziaływania na obszary, w których zjawiska te zachodzą. Prace reprezentujące ten nurt literatury przedmiotu koncentrują się głównie na procesie wydobywania -szczególnie bitcoina, czyli intensywnym obliczeniowo generowaniu nowych jednostek kryptowalut, chociaż Rosales (2021) wskazuje także na wzrost usług związanych z kryptowalutami w powiązaniu z działalnością badawczo-rozwojową w tej dziedzinie. ...
... Badania jednak wskazują, że związki te nie mają uniwersalnego charakteru, nie występują we wszystkich miejscach. Poza wspomnianymi czynnikami lokalizacyjnymi są także czynniki kontekstowe, takie jak: postindustrialne krajobrazy (Atkins i in., 2021), krajowe i międzynarodowe wydarzenia polityczne i gospodarcze (Rosales, 2019(Rosales, , 2021 czy też dochody z nadwyżek produkcji energii elektrycznej (Lally i in., 2022). Podobne czynniki czynią daną lokalizację atrakcyjną dla "górników" kryptowalut, czynią proces "wydobywania" kryptowalut atrakcyjnym źródłem dochodów dla lokalnych społeczności. ...
Streszczenie W wyniku rewolucji związanej z pojawieniem się i rozwojem Internetu ujawniły się nowe pola eksploracji naukowej, również w geografii. Jednym z rozszerzeń funkcjonalności Internetu są technologie blockchain (łańcuch bloków) i ściśle związane z nimi kryptowa-luty. Są one często postrzegane głównie z perspektywy zmian na rynkach finansowych, jednak także jako pomysł na decentralizację funkcjonowania sieci, społeczeństwa czy gospodarki. Dotychczasowe prace empiryczne i teoretyczne pozwalają na formułowanie kierunków rozwoju badań tej problematyki i wskazanie ich istotności w kontekście pro-cesów przestrzennych. Celem artykułu jest omówienie dotychczasowego stanu badań nad kryptowalutami na gruncie geografii. Szczególna uwaga została zwrócona na geo-graficzne aspekty funkcjonowania Internetu, zwłaszcza te związane z technologią block-chain oraz kryptowalutami. W opracowaniu scharakteryzowano też wybrane współcze-sne problemy badawcze geografii w odniesieniu do Internetu. Słowa kluczowe: blockchain, kryptowaluta, przestrzeń cyfrowa, Internet Wyeth R., Janc K., Ilnicki D. (2023). Blockchain i kryptowaluty-"nowa" odsłona w geograficznym podejściu do badania Internetu. Czasopismo Geograficzne, 94(4): 749-768. https://doi.org/10.12657/czageo-94-30 Otrzymano/
... Scholars following the paradoxes of the adoption of cryptocurrencies in Latin America tend to view these experiments as an upgraded version of "crypto-colonialism," which is an ideological rather than pragmatic assessment applicable to any phenomena. They describe Bitcoin and similar experiments as exploitation of the citizens who were promised and tricked by a technocratic "fix" (Rosales 2021;Vázquez 2022;Zimmer, 2017). In this view, the volatility of cryptocurrencies is an important feature that perpetuates the lack of security and prospects for most citizens in the region while preserving the status quo, which is responsible for their misery:"…. ...
... It is a model that supports the economic interests of the crypto investors, entrepreneurs, and early adopters while pushing the rest further into poverty. Several recent studies of blockchain implementations in Latin America describe this as a form of "crypto-colonialism" (Crandall and Vázquez 2022;Jutel, 2022) and point to the uncanny similarities between Bitcoin mining and the history of oil and mining industries in the region (Rosales 2021;Zimmer, 2017). ...
... Due to international sanctions that prevent the Venezuelan government from trading and operating within the international monetary system, cryptocurrencies are tolerated with occasional attempts to regulate them, such as the creation of a "Registry of Cryptoactive Services" and agencies such as SUNACRIP (National Supervisory Authority for Cryptocurrencies) (Hore 2022). Venezuelan government tries to monitor and tax miners who have set up store because of cheap energy and labor costs (Rosales 2021). Rosales (2021) noted, this bitcoin experiment in Venezuela paradoxically supports the socialist agenda of the authoritarian government while also replicating the colonial model. ...
The paper focuses on the philosophical challenges of governance over trustless ledgers, namely Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions in El Salvador. Blockchain adoption in El Salvador is an example of policy based on a ‘frontier epistemology’ (Nickles 2009), creating a situation where “facts are uncertain, values are in dispute, stakes are high, and decisions are urgent” (Funtowicz and Ravetz 1993). Trustless ledgers play a role of such ‘frontiers’ of knowledge and governance that support a variety of technocratic, heuristic, and experimental policy approaches. They challenge the traditional knowledge frameworks and governance processes responsible for attempts to embed (align) predetermined ideologies (values and stakes) into the technology over standards. Instead, as amalgams of social, political, legal, and economic interventions, ledgers function simultaneously as a contract, a monetary system, a political value commitment, and a governance structure. By integrating facts, values, and stakes into algorithms, they define the frontiers of epistemology and governance in two opposing ways. On the one hand, trustless ledgers embody Augustine’s Civitas Dei (the City of God) as a new design (novum consilium) that promises a future world (futurum saeculum) (Augustine 1968). With a promise of a system, where everyone is ‘free’ to not being able to ‘sin’ (non posse peccare - delet the res non peccare), social agency is reduced to a code of a trustless infrastructure. On the other hand, ledgers support experimental (Sabel and Zeitlin 2012) and heuristic policymaking (Nickles 2009) that saves social agency and cuts ‘through traditional discovery/justification and descriptive/ normative distinctions’ (Nickles 2009). The distributed ledgers as governance experiments then redefine Civitas Terrena’s governance as a challenge of ‘heuristic appraisal’ (Nickles 2009), ‘directly deliberative polyarchy’ (Cohen and Sabel 1997), and ‘experimentalist governance’ (Sabel and Zeitlin 2012). To elaborate on the blockchain governance experiments, we will use two Bitcoin initiatives in El Salvador (Bitcoin City and Bitcoin Beach) and discuss them in the context of a broader adoption of blockchain in South America.
... to any country or financial intermediary. The consensus is that Satoshi Nakamoto, an anonymous entity, created the cryptocurrency system known as Bitcoin (Rosales 2021). Blockchain, on the other hand, is a tamper-proof ledger containing a complete history of all transactions that take place on it (Pistor 2019). ...
... That is, every action and transaction is computationally recorded and cannot be deleted or altered. Thus, the Bitcoin blockchain acts as a digital ledger, accounting for all transactions, and rather than being held by one central bank, a copy of the ledger is distributed across all computers that participate in the Bitcoin network (Rosales 2021). ...
... Together, these two projects would turn El Salvador into a tropical crypto-sanctuary, reinventing the Panama model of a deregulated offshore financial service center (Cuéllar 2021a). Rosales (2021) has engaged in a systematic analysis of the socioenvironmental and political-economic implications of cryptocurrency in Venezuela, demonstrating that these technologies reproduce extractivist practices, undermine local sovereignty, and curtail the global South's effort to tackle class, gender, and racial inequalities. Other Latin American countries are considering cryptocurrency as an alternative path toward "financial sovereignty," to jumpstart the post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery, and to renovate the region's decayed financial sector (Cuéllar 2021a). ...
... The application of blockchain to conservation, described in more detail below, raises issues related to the energy, land and material requirements necessary to employ this technology. Green neoliberalism, in essence, is constructing new green infrastructures to develop a natural capital asset class (Hildyard 2016;Sullivan 2013aSullivan , 2017, which relies on energy intensive data centers (Bresnihan & Brodie, 2021;Sovacool et al., 2022) and other political and economic infrastructures (Rosales, 2021;Rosales et al., 2023). Nicolas Hildyard (2016) reminds us that developing natural capital infrastructure is, in fact, an extractive process, which, then, becomes an asset class in itself (see Calvão & Archer 2021;Rosales et al., 2023). ...
... Token buyers can then freely re-sell their carbon offset with jaguar tokens attached for turning a profit, akin to any other stock. 30 Equally concerning, and in need of further research, are the energy-intensive realities related to mining, mineral processing and manufacturing supply webs to create digital infrastructures and devices (Rosales, 2021;Dunlap, 2023). These are compounded by the required energy to operate digital infrastructures (Bresnihan & Brodie, 2021;Sovacool et al., 2022;Hook et al., 2020). ...
This article explores the seemingly unlikely intersection of jaguar conservation and green extractivism in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. The 'green' or environmental aspect of jaguar conservation, we argue, is largely manufactured, employing the qualities of ecosystems to market and advance forms of 'place-based' extraction. Analyzing jaguar conservation programs through green extractivism not only shows problems related to market-based conservation schemes, but how these conservation projects advance spatial legibility of resources and political control over territories for public and private actors, aiding capitalist and extractive trajectories. Drawing on fieldwork in Laguna Om, an ejido––rural community––in the south of the Peninsula, the article reveals how an entanglement of market-based instruments (MBIs), voluntary carbon markets, NGOs, corporate financing, environmental policy, and technological developments continue to consume ecosystems into circuits of capitalist control and accumulation. Finally, the article demonstrates, jaguar conservation serves to greenwash traditional extractive and infrastructural development projects, such as Tren Maya. Digitalized and market-based forms of conservation, moreover, reduce ecosystems to units of accounting that are fit for trade in international markets, advancing the capture and accumulation of value through conservation, enacting a process of green extractivism.
... While essential for maintaining network security and integrity, the process has attracted significant scrutiny due to its high energy consumption, raising environmental concerns (Li et al., 2024). Economically, mining offers incentives for participants through newly minted cryptocurrency and transaction fees (Rosales, 2021). However, it is resource-intensive, requiring substantial investments in specialized hardware and energy, leading to economic inefficiencies and concerns about long-term sustainability (Swan, 2015). ...
... Thanks to these new applications, it will be possible to produce clean energy with lower costs. According to Rosales (2021), it is necessary to invest in clean energy technologies to increase green crypto assets. These advanced technologies allow solar panels to be produced on a smaller scale. ...
Businesses should make an examination to find the critical actions to make crypto assets environmentally friendly. This situation can help crypto assets to be environmentally friendly while keeping costs within a reasonable range. Accordingly, in this study, it is aimed to find the most essential innovation and knowledge-based criteria for the improvement of the green crypto assets. Within this context, a new model is generated by integrating different techniques. DEMATEL approach is adopted to facing expressions, quantum theory and Spherical fuzzy sets. Similarly, a comparative evaluation is also performed by using M-SWARA methodology. In the final part of the decision-making model, artificial intelligence (AI)-based decision-making approach is taken into consideration to rank 4 alternative strategies with respect to the green crypto asset investments. Additionally, a comparative examination is also made with TOPSIS technique for ranking these alternatives. On the other side, a sensitivity analysis is conducted by considering 6 different cases. The main contribution of this study to the literature is that a novel AI-based decision-making model is constructed to find appropriate investment strategies for the improvement of the green crypto assets. AI technique is integrated to the fuzzy decision-making theory. This situation has an important impact on the management of the uncertainty in an effective way. With the help of this issue, both methodological originality can be increased and more appropriate evaluations can be conducted. The findings indicate that technical support plays the most crucial role for the improvement of green crypto assets. Hence, for the purpose of making crypto assets environmentally friendly, it is necessary to invest in technology first. Owing to this situation, it will be possible to achieve cost-effectiveness of clean energy projects.
... Nonetheless, much attention has been given to the potential oppressive implications of blockchain and cryptocurrencies in re-enacting forms of colonial dependencies and upholding imperial powers' logics and interests (Atiles, 2022;Campbell-Verduyn and Giumelli, 2022;Crandall, 2019;Howson, 2023;Howson et al., 2024). In this case, these authors argue that blockchain and cryptocurrencies emerge not as a panacea of free markets, anonymity and networked exchanges, but rather as forms of predatory schemes designed to extract profits from the poor, and create new forms of dependency, take advantage of poor labour conditions and appropriate energy resources from run-down electric grids (Howson et al., 2024;Howson and de Vries, 2022;Rosales, 2021). These sets of scholarship have drawn connections between crisis, vulnerability and extraction with cryptocurrency expansion (Howson, 2023;Rosales et al., 2023;Vázquez, 2022). ...
In 2021, El Salvador declared bitcoin legal tender. According to President Nayib Bukele, the measure was intended to expand access to financial services in a country with a high proportion of unbanked people and to cheapen and ease remittance flows for migrants and their families. In this article, we inquire about the use of bitcoin as a tool for financial inclusion and contend that this policy needs to be seen in the broader context of democratic backsliding. We show that bitcoin has not translated into financial inclusion, but instead, the bitcoin law serves as a public relations tool to capture new support from like-minded constituencies, build closer relations with them, and empower international "crypto-bros." On the other hand, this is a tool to benefit a close circle close to the president with the use of public funds, as part of a broader historical shift of elites in El Salvador. Resumen En 2021, El Salvador declaró al bitcoin moneda de curso legal. Según el presidente Nayib Bukele, la medida tenía como objetivo ampliar el acceso a los servicios financieros en un/home/pla país con una alta proporción de personas no bancarizadas, así como abaratar y facilitar los flujos de remesas para los migrantes y sus familias. En este artículo, indagamos sobre el uso de bitcoin como herramienta para la inclusión financiera y sostenemos que esta política debe verse en el contexto más amplio del retroceso democrático. Mostramos que la política de bitcoin no se ha traducido en inclusión financiera, sino que, en cambio, la ley bitcoin sirve como una herramienta de relaciones públicas para captar el apoyo de grupos con ideas afines al presidente, construir relaciones más estrechas con ellos y empoderar a los "crypto-bros" globales. Por otro lado, esta es una herramienta para ben-eficiar a un círculo cercano al presidente con el uso de fondos públicos, como parte de un cambio histórico más amplio de las élites en El Salvador.
... This flexibility in catering to various financial demands is evident in the development of cryptocurrencies. Despite economic uncertainty, the use of cryptocurrency as means to save money and to make transactions is gaining popularity in Venezuela (Rosales, 2021). It is also evident from the case of Zimbabwe, an economically constrained environment, that cryptocurrencies can facilitate international transactions and most importantly provide access to foreign money (Mazikana, 2018). ...
The present study discusses how adopting cryptos affects financial inclusion in developing economies. Primary constructs like Financial Inclusion (FI), Perceived Economic Empowerment (PEE), Trust in Financial Institutions (TFI), User Satisfaction (US), and Cryptocurrency Adoption (CA) were tested through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicated that CA significantly and positively influenced FI, US, TFI, and PEE. These relationships extend to the interaction effects: US, TFI, and PEE all positively related to FI. It is a reflection of cryptocurrencies as an opportunity to redress most of the afflictions characteristic of traditional finance systems and to promote financial inclusion and economic empowerment in developing countries. Future research should also investigate whether digital literacy and regulatory environments support cryptocurrency access.
... With time, their use has grown to encompass activities such as microtransactions, international payments, and backing local businesses, hence empowering individuals financially (Kulkarni et al. 2019). Irrespective of the political and economic uncertainties, using cryptocurrencies for saving and transactions is gaining popularity in countries like Venezuela (Rosales 2021) and Zimbabwe, where they facilitate international transactions as well as enable access to foreign currencies (Mazikana 2018). ...
The present study discusses how adopting cryptos affects financial inclusion in developing economies. Primary constructs like financial inclusion (FI), perceived economic empowerment (PEE), trust in financial institutions (TFI), user satisfaction (US), and cryptocurrency adoption (CA) were tested through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicated that CA significantly and positively influenced FI, US, TFI, and PEE. These relationships extend to the interaction effects: US, TFI, and PEE, all positively related to FI. This is a reflection of cryptocurrencies as an opportunity to redress most of the afflictions characteristic of traditional finance systems and to promote financial inclusion and economic empowerment in developing countries. Future research should also investigate whether digital literacy and regulatory environments support cryptocurrency access.
... El avance de la economía digital no solo deja una huella física en el territorio -por ejemplo, a través de los cableados o de la propagación de centros de procesamiento y de minado de criptomonedas (Rosales, 2021;Vázquez Brust, 2015)-, sino que se extiende como modelo deseado para la creación de centros de conocimiento o innovación, que concentren y de los que "emanen" proyectos de desarrollo tecnológico. En la entrevista realizada a una trabajadora sanmartinense de Lemon Cash, ésta expresaba que la elección de la ciudad por parte de la empresa para iniciar sus operaciones obedecía, además del "microclima especial", a la existencia de cierta tendencia a la innovación. ...
El objetivo de este artículo es indagar, de modo exploratorio, en la creación de una marca territorial en San Martín de los Andes (Argentina) y en sus implicancias en cuanto a la (re)configuración de un sentido global de lugar. Se parte de examinar la creación de la empresa de tecnología digital Lemon Cash, que dio origen a la denominación Patagonia Crypto Valley para designar a dicha ciudad como incubadora de su proyecto y como lugar de innovación. El abordaje metodológico es de tipo cualitativo e incluyó el análisis de notas en medios de comunicación y en portales de noticias especializados en economía digital; a lo cual se suman observaciones y entrevistas semi-estructuradas realizadas en la ciudad. La principal conclusión es que la idea del Patagonia Crypto Valley se fue nutriendo de la intervención de actores que, con diferentes intereses y grados de participación, se involucraron en la resignificación de un territorio como parte de un conjunto de lugares de innovación a escala global.
... Among these power dynamics are issues of imperialism and coloniality, whose legacies play out in peripheral countries' insertion into the global economy (Atiles, 2022;Crandall, 2019). Furthermore, long established practices of rentierism and the use of energy infrastructures to maximize exports of fossil-fuel energy sources has played an important role in creating incentives for subsidized energy (Rosales 2021). It is unsurprising that some of the areas of the world where bitcoin farms have spread are taking advantage of these policy incentives and of old -and often decaying-infrastructures that had in the past been used to kickstart industrial processes, such as in the former Soviet Union and the middle east (Leterrier, 2021;Russell and Hasan, 2022). ...
Cheap and abundant energy is an important incentive for the proliferation of cryptocurrency mining farms. With China's crackdown on bitcoin mining, investors have moved to the United States, Scandinavian countries, and Canada. From the perspective of business, these jurisdictions provide cheap, reliable electricity within a stable institutional context. At the same time, cryptocurrency mining has the potential to generate instability, not only through material demands on the capacity of the electricity grid, but also in jeopardizing governments' climate goals. This article examines some strategies used by the industry to seek out favorable regulatory environments and take advantage of energy sources and infrastructures, through the case of HIVE blockchain technology, a mining company in Atlantic Canada. The article explains how in contrast with negative reports of marginal employment opportunities and drains on domestic energy supplies, bitcoin miners are developing new narratives to make cryptocurrency mining investment attractive to governments and the public. We find that HIVE has leveraged intra-provincial regulatory differences to expand operations and is currently using a "reverse battery" narrative to improve regulatory and public acceptance of cryptocurrency mining.
... The findings of this study reveal that crypto miners hold a diversity of attitudes toward the ecological implications of mining, which cannot be generalized. This is consistent with the findings of previous research, which have presented several different, and oftentimes opposing findings [31,32,6]. Most miners held a neutral attitude toward the ecological implications of mining, seeing the ecological implications as dependent on several different factors [6]. ...
The ecological consequences of cryptocurrency mining have been a topic of debate since the inception of blockchain technology. The widely used proof-of-work (PoW) mining technique, which requires a significant amount of energy, has raised concerns about the long-term environmental sustainability of cryptocurrencies. However, the perspectives of crypto miners have been largely underrepresented in these debates. This study used the Values-Belief-Norms (VBN) framework to explore how cryptocurrency miners perceive the potential environmental effects of PoW mining. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with twelve crypto miners from South Africa (5), Argentina (2), the United States (1), Australia (1), Taiwan (1), France (1), and Switzerland (1). The results indicate that crypto miners’ values, environmental worldviews, and convictions about the value of cryptocurrency and PoW mining significantly influence their environmental attitudes. The findings of this study shed light on the attitudes and viewpoints of crypto-miners and the implications of their beliefs regarding the mining process. This not only contributes the perspectives of crypto miners to the discussion on the ecological effects of cryptocurrencies, but it also offers policymakers insights into how people perceive the environmental consequences of their actions.
... This study highlights the role of renewable energy and sustainable disposals of mining hard-ware in alleviating the carbon footprint of Bitcoin at the country level. Similar arguments are made in Nanez Alonso et al. (2021); Rosales (2021), who support the transition of coin mining activity from low-environmental-performance to high-environmentalperformance countries. ...
... The energy system in the countrypowered mostly by hydroelectric sourceshas long been underinvested and poorly maintained, and many new infrastructural projects have been left idle due to mind boggling corruption schemes. Despite this fragility, the country maintains unsustainable subsidies in energy as part of a long 'petro-state' tradition to promote industrial development and satisfy local demands via the nation's energy wealth (Rosales, 2021b). Aside from 'traditional' cheap energy, for some Venezuelan citizens, cryptocurrencies have been a window of opportunity or need to evade multiple economic restrictions (Guerrero, 2022). ...
This article examines how cryptocurrencies are increasingly entangled with crises in Latin American political discourse and everyday economic life. In an effort of interdisciplinary integration, combining human geography with political economy and cultural anthropology, we critically assess the linkages between cryptocurrency, economic crisis and forms of political and economic precarity and exploitation. Drawing on experiences in Latin America, mostly on the cases of El Salvador and Venezuela, we explore how cryptocurrencies have rapidly emerged and expanded during periods of economic and political crises. We ground this discussion on social theories of money and critical analysis of blockchain and cryptocurrencies that question the apolitical assumptions of these apparent “trustless” infrastructures. The article contends that cryptocurrencies have the capacity to create potential niches for makeshift economic survival, speculation and quick profit, while at the same time reproducing historical conditions of vulnerability, inequality and ‘crypto-colonialism’. Though cryptocurrencies are surrounded by stories of freedom and decentralised community control, our ethnographic data on El Salvador and Venezuela suggest they often rely on free market fundamentalism and conditions of political corruption by authoritarian state-backed elites.
... The power consumption of the bitcoin mining industry occupies nearly 5.41% of the entire power supply, which leads to the overmining of coal (Chen and Liu 2022). In addition, bitcoin's energy demand is estimated to reach a maximum of 296.59 TWh in 2024, which would emit more than 130 million tons of CO 2 and limit the effect of air governance (Rosales 2021). Second, China has been at the forefront of promoting innovation in green finance and has achieved remarkable advancements in this domain. ...
This paper discusses the dynamic long- and short-term effects of bitcoin price (BTP), crude oil price (COP), and uncertainty of economic policy (EPU) on China’s green bond (CGB) market, separately. Depending on the quantile autoregressive distributed lag method, the empirical results are shown that BTP and EPU exert substantial positive and negative effects on the CGB market in the long term for most circumstances, while their effects reflect not prominent in the short term. The main contributions can be summarized as follows. Given that China is the largest bitcoin mining state and a major green bond issuer, this study first explores the linkages between them. Furthermore, both long- and short-term effects are investigated from BTP, COP, and EPU to CGB, and long-term effects are dominated in the interrelationships among variables, indicating that the CGB market is mainly driven by permanent shocks. In addition, the mentioned long-term effects are deeply discussed from time- and quantile-varying aspects. This approach considers diverse situations in the bond market and various incidents that occur at various durations of time. The results underscore the significance of market participants gaining a deeper comprehension of how BTP, COP, and EPU impact green bond within varying market conditions. Implementing specific policies, such as establishing a cohesive and efficient bond market and making careful adjustments to economic policies, can be advantageous in maintaining stability within the CGB market.
... This is in line with the literature that reveals Bitcoin to be an instrument to build extra savings for a country like Japan (Kliber et al., 2019). The anomalous position of Venezuela 3 in the second cluster can be explained by the continuous expansion of the cryptocurrency market during the crisis of embargos by the USA, malfunctioning services, and lack of investments in the economy of the country (Rosales, 2021). Since Bitcoin is considered a "safe asset" in Venezuela (Kliber et al., 2019), its position is therefore outside the group of high-income countries. ...
Cryptocurrencies have increasingly been traded against fiat currencies and as a result, governments globally have been trying to regulate these largely decentralized currencies. In this study, event study methodology has been used to evaluate the effect of regulatory announcements made by 25 countries. Based on cryptocurrency usage and returns of three major cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, Ether, and XRP, this study finds that regulatory news results in significant abnormal returns for Bitcoin and Ether, but not for XRP. The authors find that irrespective of the type of news, abnormal returns are almost always negative. The countries have also been clustered based on their abnormal returns and it has been found that country characteristics such as income level, technological readiness and innovation potential affect the magnitude of abnormal returns. Thus, cryptocurrencies being global in essence, their regulatory oversight in countries do not exist in isolation, but they are also affected by the countries' development.
... Participants who first received the money would spend it on goods and services, and consequently increasing price, which the majority would have to endure until the capital reached everyone (if ever). During this period, inflation would be evenly distributed, unlike purchasing power (Rosales 2021). In that time, early participants would only benefit due to their proximity to the king or new gold deposits. ...
Volatility and investor sentiment have been factors for the slow adoption rate of Bitcoin (BTC) that was first recognized in 2008 as a potential store of value, investment vehicle and a hedge alternative to gold during a recession. The purpose of this applied mathematics study will use a multivariate DCC GARCH model. Bitcoin holds its ground in volatility. This study examines Bitcoin as an investment and hedge alternative to gold as well as the major stock index. To perform the research to explore the viability of Bitcoin as an investment and hedge alternative to gold, the authors conducted a DCC GARCH model analysis. The findings of this research paper confirm Bitcoin’s cyclical performance between volatility and adoption. The findings give a strong ground for Bitcoin as the new digital currency, store of value, medium of exchange, and a unit of account and incentivize further research by theorists, scholars and examiners. The significance of this applied mathematics research and analysis will allow an unstoppable, incorruptible, and uncontrollable store of value, and investment vehicle, without governmental or institutional intervention. This study contributes by comparing and contrasting volatility stability based on the return levels of each Bitcoin on major indexes traded with BTC (based on fiat currencies) and gold.
... Yet, while digital technologies can bring such benefits, technology adoption within supply chains is often slow and incomplete and additional operational challenges are created by managing heterogeneous users (e.g., brands, farmers). Blockchain in particular and a correlated growth in cryptocurrencies have been shown to result in negative impacts to employment, energy consumption, air pollution, and community resilience in the United States and Venezuela (Rosales 2021;Goodkind et al. 2020;Greenberg and Bugden 2019). ...
While innovation is expected to play a major role in decarbonization, the development and diffusion of low-carbon technologies are too slow in most sectors and countries to stabilize the climate. In this introductory paper to a Special Issue on “Innovation and climate change”, we review selected innovation studies literature, reflect on historical trends and insights, and cast light on future research on innovation and climate change. To set the stage for this Special Issue we present an analysis of key research topics, most influential papers and innovation journals, highlighting contributions across four interrelated themes: fostering climate action, shaping policy, promoting experimentation and learning, and examining effectiveness. While past studies and this special issue made significant contributions, we suggest that research on innovation have not sufficiently engaged with three important topics: i) blending behavioural change with technological innovation; ii) the socio-technical drivers of accelerated low-carbon transitions, and iii) the role of digital technologies as new venues of solutions to managerial challenges in addressing climate change. The nexus of climate change and innovation calls for different disciplines and coevolutionary views, as opposed to a traditional disciplinary focused approach. It also may require the need for broader, more inclusive and interdisciplinary research teams.
... For an analysis of crypto-colonialism, see Howson 2020. 19 There are several studies that address the technological dimension of blockchains and cryptocurrency (Howson 2020;Howson, Crandall, and Rasillo 2021;Rosales 2021;Zook and Blankenship 2018). 20 ...
This paper develops a sociolegal analysis of the legislation and tax policies implemented by the US and Puerto Rico (PR) governments to incentivize venture capitalists and cryptocurrency investors to relocate to PR. Specifically, the paper looks at the role that Act 60 of 2019 played in attracting blockchain proponents and cryptocurrency investors to PR. By analyzing this tax policy and the governmental official discourses, this paper demonstrates that the blockchain and cryptocurrency sectors have contributed to the transformation of PR into an offshore financial center or tax haven. Furthermore, the paper shows how grassroot movements, among them Abolish Act 60, have organized against this transformation. Thus, the paper demonstrates how the slogan “the paradise performs” is largely embedded in legal practices, tax evasion, and fraud.
... Regarding social impacts, in the Andean Region they are mainly focused on human movement from the poorest villages to the mining areas, as this activity will always represent an opportunity to generate new income. These results are similar to those found in other countries, such as Colombia [61], Perú [62][63][64], Venezuela [65,66], and Bolivia [67], where migration problems present similar dynamics. In addition, it became evident that mining areas generally create new settlements and a greater demand for resources, increasing the cost of living at these sites. ...
Mining in Ecuadorian territory comprises three stages of Ecuadorian history: pre-Columbian, colonial, and republican times. In its beginnings, this activity did not have regulations or a legal foundation. The first Mining Law dates back to 1830, and it has been modified until the most recent update in 2009. The Andean region consists of 10 provinces, 9 of which have registered gold concessions, the most important of which are Loja, Azuay, and in recent years, Imbabura and Pichincha, which are the provinces with the highest number of reported concessions. The objective of this study focused on analyzing the historical and current situation of Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASGM) and the emergence of large-scale (industrial) mining. For the elaboration of this study, different methodological techniques were used, such as literature review, field interviews, and expert judgment validation. The main findings show that the provinces of Loja, Azuay, Imbabura, and Pichincha are the most conflictive areas in the region due to the impacts caused by mining activities. In socio-economic terms, there are conflicts between inhabitants in favor and against these activities and problems associated with human health. In environmental terms, the findings suggest historical contamination of water sources by heavy metals, which has altered the surrounding aquatic and terrestrial systems. Finally, the study concludes that implementing public policies should be promoted to balance socio-economic and environmental aspects in gold mining activities in the Andean region of Ecuador, strengthening the use of new technologies and education to raise awareness of the serious effects of mining activities.
... Thirdly, our focus on the Arctic brings into focus various salient geopolitical issues including autonomy and independence for Greenland, regional plans for Nordic industrial strategy, and even proposals to invest in infrastructure to counter major shifts in global power such as a current concentration of data infrastructure among China and the United States. Connected to this theme is an investigation of how blockchain technology and the growth of cryptocurrencies can expand in contexts of crisis in peripheral societies, as they have in rural areas of the United States or Venezuela [20][21][22]. ...
Digital platforms and the online services that they provide have become an indispensable and ubiquitous part of modern lifestyles, mediating our jobs, hobbies, patterns of consumption and forms of communication. However, no one is steering this development, or closely looking at the impacts that it may have on remote communities in the Arctic and Nordic region, a hotspot for datacenter development. Moreover, unlike other areas of energy consumption or technology adoption prone to rich, qualitative assessments, such work on datacenters involving local stakeholders and environmental concerns is less common, particularly at a larger scale. In this study, based on novel mixed methods-including corporate data, expert interviews, focus groups, and extensive site visits across three countries, we offer a geographically and technologically bounded assessment looking at the sustainability impacts of datacenters on local communities. We ask: What impacts are occurring as part of datacenter development or planning proposals in Greenland, Iceland, and Norway? What is the actual and anticipated scale of those impacts on local Arctic communities? Finally, what impacts to datacenter development occur at the "whole systems" level? We examine not only impacts onsite at existing or proposed datacenters, but an entire range of consequences including the manufacturing of equipment, the laying of data cables, the construction of buildings, and issues of the dark web, cryptocurrency mining, hacking, spying, waste and decommissioning. Moreover, we humanize risks and benefits not only across scales, but also categorical types, including local impacts such as boom and bust cycles, the displacement of indigenous groups for land-particularly for power supply-and impacts on employment, especially after datacenters may close.
... Estos estudios revelan que la penetración de monedas distintas al bolívar es mayor en las zonas fronterizas y los grandes centros urbanos. Comienzan además a registrarse pagos por medio de criptomonedas, cuya minería e intercambio ha sido crecientemente incentivada por el gobierno nacional (Rosales, 2021). Las diferencias geográficas y la coexistencia de distintos mecanismos de pago dan cuenta de importantes retos para la economía venezolana. ...
Este trabajo es un análisis del capitalismo bodegonero como síntoma de la profunda crisis económica venezolana y de los intentos para solventarla. Aunque los bodegones y
las Zonas Económicas Especiales (ZEE) se han venido anunciando oficialmente como la panacea, la experimentación económica ad hoc no solo no es suficiente, sino que puede generar perversas dinámicas de opacidad y nuevas desigualdades. Por ello, cambios en el ámbito político, social, económico y jurídico deben ir de la mano de posibles aperturas productivas o comerciales.
Purpose: Dynamism is the fundamental element in all phenomena in the world. Humans perceive phenomena through "systems concepts" and study their dynamic behaviors over time. One practical method of systems concepts is the Strategic Area Assessment used as a tool for local and regional development. This Strategic Area Assessment the potential facilities specific to a local area with the identification of the most probable strategies for innovation. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to investigate the application of the SAA method as a case study for sustainable development of the" Torud" region through the mining industry and digital assets (while addressing the issue of electricity shortage resulting from mining).
Research Methodology: In this study, a strategic assessment approach, which is considered one of the soft operations research methods, was used. Within this approach, a wide range of stakeholders is collected, and based on their knowledge, their readiness to pursue new pathways is strengthened. In this research, the five main stages of the SAA have been implemented as follows: a conference consisting of 54 stakeholders and experts in the mining and digital currency industry in Torud village was formed. Also, "Innovation Compass" was used as the main tool of SAA. After identifying the 9 components and 45 sub-components of SAA, and after conducting key questions in the past and present, the final score of each component and sub-component was obtained. These scores are plotted in a "Spider web diagram" to identify strategic priorities for innovation in the mining and digital currency industry, and in the final stage, the identified priorities are used to draw a forward path.
Findings: With the help of the strategic area assessment tool, not only is the problem of electricity shortage for cryptocurrency miners solved, but also by utilizing the region's potential resources (solar energy), electricity becomes more accessible and cost-effective through solar panels. This approach not only results in cost savings but also generates additional income, fostering the sustainable economic development of this region.
Origin/Scientific Added Value: Strategic area assessment, including methods of systems thinking and soft operations research, has been rarely used in Iran, and very limited in research worldwide. Hopefully, this present study will serve as a source for further research, both globally and especially in Iran.
This article traces the trajectory of critical geographical scholarship on the body’s intertwinement with infrastructure systems. In doing so, it argues that although the body is not ontologically infrastructure, it can nevertheless enable infrastructure’s functioning – whether by being made into infrastructure of surplus value production or by suturing widening gaps in sub-optimal infrastructure systems. Analysing these dynamics, the article theorises the body as infrastructured – given over to the violence of capital and its infrastructures that subject specifically gendered, racialised, and classed bodies to surplus value extraction and/or abandonment; but also as simultaneously fleeting in its irreversible exposure to this violence.
Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, have garnered significant attention in scholarship and beyond. Geographical work on cryptocurrencies has focussed on how their energy demand interacts with local communities and economies. Less is said about the organization of cryptoasset firms and their associated demands. This paper illuminates the complex geographies of one such firm, Bitfury Group, to investigate the global and national forms and structures such companies take and the factors encouraging them to concentrate operations in certain areas. To investigate the latter, we adopt the case study of Bitfury’s operations in Georgia, a South-Caucasian country where its presence is significant. We adapt Haberly et al.’s analytical framework to explore Bitfury’s geographical dimensions. We highlight how cheap electricity, regulatory and taxation regimes, personal encounters and personalities, and the materialities of hardware and energy-saving technology define these geographies and illuminate how Bitfury actively curates advantageous regulatory spaces. We encourage future work exploring Blockchain and Bitcoin technologies to understand the companies involved as simultaneously material and virtual, and as centrepieces in global networks interweaving production and finance.
Bitcoin trading offers security, ownership verifications, easy transactions, and traceability in almost every sector and industry. The base of Bitcoin is blockchain technology, which uses a mining process to secure and validate Bitcoin transactions. With promising positive returns, Bitcoin mining demands large energy and material resources and contributes to environmental degradation. The study uses behavioral reasoning theory to understand intentions to practice Bitcoin mining. We present a relative view of personal, technological, psychological, and environmental factors that attract or repel miners to perform bitcoin mining, where the institutional environment moderates the relationship between attitude and intention by analyzing the cross-sectional data from 308 bitcoin miners. The study indicates that attracting factors positively and significantly explain miners’ attitudes, which leads to positive intentions toward Bitcoin mining. The regulatory environment weakens the positive relationship between attitude and intentions. The study provides a comparative view of facilitating and inhibiting factors with significant implications for academicians and policymakers.
Venezuela has historically been one of the world’s largest oil producers and has the largest crude reserves. However, the country has experienced a dramatic political and economic crisis over the past decade that has decimated its oil industry. Venezuela’s production shrunk sharply in the past six years, oil exports have declined and the country is now a marginal producer in global markets. This crisis has taken place amid a process of autocratic political consolidation and the establishment of a predatory political economy. This article focuses on this crisis and interrogates to what extent it can pave the way to a sustainable move away from oil dependence in dialogue with recent debates on sustainable transition processes. Building on the intersections of Global Political Economy and environmental politics, we highlight the importance of interconnecting links across state, society and international actors in viable sustainability transitions, such as proposals for Green New Deal(s) in different national contexts. Our analysis of the Venezuelan case subsequently highlights the absence of these capacities. We argue that contemporary Venezuela underscores the risks and costs of post-oil energy transitions in rentier states. Contemporary Venezuela is thus a cautionary tale for resource-dependent economies that may also undergo post-oil transitions in the future due to shifting global conditions but likewise lack the necessary state capacity to respond and adapt.
As the social sciences undergo an infrastructural turn, geographers have taken steps to broaden, disrupt, and reconceptualise understandings of infrastructure and its relationship to social, political, economic, and ecological processes. We contribute to this discussion by highlighting the emergence of a comparatively understudied yet crucial aspect within infrastructural geographies-infrastructural labour. We identify key theoretical anchors that guide contemporary analyses of infrastructural labour, which we query by focusing on five key areas of scholarly discussion. Building on these, we offer a working definition of infrastructural labour to help guide further engagement and point to questions meriting additional investigation.
Online trading of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and online gaming have recently been integrated as NFT-based games. We conducted a comparative study of online discussions of two prominent NFT-based games: CryptoKitties and Axie Infinity. Topic modeling is employed to analyze the large collected data. Key findings are: 1) The games carry functions of education and gamification for blockchain technology adoption. 2) Motivations are mixed between fun and earning money. 3) Players reflect their playful experiences in the community. 4) We discuss connections between the Axie Infinity scholarship program, players with poor financial status, and issues of modern crypto-colonialism. We outline future research directions for NFT games based on our findings.KeywordsNFT GamesCryptoKittiesAxie InfinityTopic Model
This paper examines the economic mechanism of cryptocurrency mining. By presenting a profit function, a maximization equilibrium is obtained. The model provides a formal approach to the demand for hashing power as a function of revenues, mining costs and the number of miners. We consider how the equilibrium is affected by passive miners. We use these results to introduce a formulation of the price elasticity of the demand for hashing power with respect to the cost of energy. The model is simulated using Reinforcement Learning algorithms that arrive to similar equilibrium results. The article concludes with implications of the model for policymaking.
Since 2008, cryptocurrencies, or digital peer-to-peer currencies/assets, have amassed interest and proven unique in their ability to circumvent traditional financial institutions (disintermediation). The system can supersede the nation-state, while also garnering the attention of nation-states and marginalized groups. Indigenous individuals and Nations are among those interested in cryptocurrency, experimenting with it to express resistance to economic imposition beginning in the colonial era. Utilizing an Indigenous storytelling method, this article unveils the technological life and afterlife of an altcoin, MazaCoin, as a ghost of empire, insofar as it links the technological present of financial capital and the past (and ongoing present) of US settler colonialism. Throughout its various complicated reanimations, it expresses a relentless remembering of settler colonial injustices, performing productive haunting work within the twenty-first century cryptocurrency ecosystem. This article offers a reminder that there is much to learn about Indigenous alternative currencies in the cultural economy as the strings of racism, settler colonialism, poverty, financialization, and empire continue to tangle.
Este libro presenta un análisis crítico del proceso bolivariano liderado por Hugo Chávez, desde una perspectiva decolonial y haciendo un recorrido histórico-geográfico en la configuración del extractivismo y la Venezuela petrolera contemporánea. Se propone una lectura crítica del consensuado ideal del "desarrollo", la construcción de 'soberanía nacional' y la dominación de la Naturaleza como ejes centrales, y la forma cómo se expresó en la llamada 'Revolución Bolivariana'. Se evalúan las continuidades y rupturas en el devenir del Petro-Estado venezolano, en un proceso político que anunciaba cambios radicales. La idea de Chávez de la 'Venezuela Potencia Energética Mundial', orientada hacia la continua búsqueda de un nuevo Dorado, esta vez en la Faja Petrolífera del Orinoco, recreaba el viejo fantasma de la 'Gran Venezuela'. El libro se distancia de una lectura polarizada, que ha sido dominante en el país, y propone una lectura multidisciplinaria, articulando la economía política, la geografía crítica y la ecología política, en busca de una interpretación integral del problema extractivismo, el rentismo petrolero, el Petro-Estado y la colonialidad.
This article studies the effects of sanctions on different economic sectors in Venezuela, framed as a rentier capitalist state. We analyse four sectors: hydrocarbons, agriculture, manufacturing , and what we call "emerging sectors" (mining and cryptocurrency activities). We argue that sanctions and counter-strategies employed by the state have produced multiple transformations, such as the informalization and criminalization of the economy, which undercut the recovery of Venezuelan economic development and democracy. These effects manifest themselves in an increase in the barter-economy, de facto dollarization, the expansion of activities such as mining and cryptocurrency use, and the spread of illegal actors and military intervention in critical sectors. This study is inscribed in comparative and international politics traditions, related to the interactions of international constraints with domestic political economy actors and structures. Through a qualitative approach, we fill an important gap both in the literature on Venezuelan sanctions, and on sanctions more broadly. Keywords: sanctions, rentier capitalism, oil, regime change, Venezuela, gold mining, Nicolás Maduro. Resumen: Hacia las sombras: Sanciones, rentismo e informalización económica en Venezuela El artículo estudia los efectos de las sanciones en diferentes sectores económicos en Vene-zuela, visto como un estado rentista. Analizamos cuatro sectores: hidrocarburos, agricultura, manufacturas y lo que denominadmos "sectores emergentes" (actividades mineras y de crip-tomonedas). Sostenemos que las sanciones y contra-estrategias empleadas por el Estado han producido múltiples transformaciones, como la informalización y criminalización de la eco-nomía, que socavan la recuperación del desarrollo económico y la democracia venezolana. Estos efectos se manifiestan en un aumento de la economía de trueque, dolarización de fac-to, la expansión de actividades como la minería y las criptomonedas, y la propagación de actores ilegales e intervención militar en sectores críticos. Este estudio se inscribe en tradi-ciones políticas comparativas e internacionales, relacionadas con las interacciones de las restricciones internacionales con los actores y estructuras de la economía política nacional. 108 | ERLACS No. 109 (2020): January-June A través de un enfoque cualitativo, llenamos un importante vacío tanto en la literatura sobre sanciones venezolanas, como sobre sanciones en general. Palabras clave: Sanciones, capita-lismo rentista, petróleo, cambio de régimen, Venezuela, minería de oro, Nicolás Maduro.
After the oil price collapsed in 2014, debates in oil-producing nations emerged around the importance of doing away with commodity dependence. Modernization plans and developmental projects sprung up among large and small producers alike. Nevertheless, some countries remain dramatically committed to rentier practices, and many in Latin America and Africa have engaged in new forms of resource dependence by expanding their mining frontiers. Further, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, new forms of online payments entered the global political economy and generated discussion among policymakers about the legality and implications of these payment mechanisms. In this article, I explain the linkages of two apparently disconnected forms of mining. Drawing on the case of Venezuela, I argue that the spread of small-scale, irregular and artisanal gold extraction and cryptocurrency mining is the result of the decaying rentier state in crisis. These originally decentralized and irregular activities were later endorsed and transformed by the state with the Orinoco Mining Arc project and the launching of the commodity-backed cryptocurrency, the ‘petro’. The state’s endorsement of these forms of mining translate into the collateralization of primary commodities and the emergence of new forms of authority in a radicalized form of rentierism connected with global financial circuits.
Bitcoin is a power-hungry cryptocurrency that is increasingly used as an investment and payment system. Here we show that projected Bitcoin usage, should it follow the rate of adoption of other broadly adopted technologies, could alone produce enough CO2 emissions to push warming above 2 °C within less than three decades.
A series of weaknesses in creativity, research design, and quality of writing continue to handicap energy social science. Many studies ask uninteresting research questions, make only marginal contributions, and lack innovative methods or application to theory. Many studies also have no explicit research design, lack rigor, or suffer from mangled structure and poor quality of writing. To help remedy these shortcomings, this Review offers suggestions for how to construct research questions; thoughtfully engage with concepts; state objectives; and appropriately select research methods. Then, the Review offers suggestions for enhancing theoretical, methodological, and empirical novelty. In terms of rigor, codes of practice are presented across seven method categories: experiments, literature reviews, data collection, data analysis, quantitative energy modeling, qualitative analysis, and case studies. We also recommend that researchers beware of hierarchies of evidence utilized in some disciplines, and that researchers place more emphasis on balance and appropriateness in research design. In terms of style, we offer tips regarding macro and microstructure and analysis, as well as coherent writing. Our hope is that this Review will inspire more interesting, robust, multi-method, comparative, interdisciplinary and impactful research that will accelerate the contribution that energy social science can make to both theory and practice.
Scholarship in international political economy (IPE) has noted the rise of resource nationalism in since the early 2000s. Despite the increased presence of state regulation in the resource sector, resource nationalism has not been incompatible with foreign investment. This article contributes to better understand resource nationalist policies that emerged in recent years and offers new theoretical insights to explain state-IOC relations by integrating obsolescing bargaining theories and constructivist approaches. Drawing on the case of Venezuela, this article explains how the Chávez regime pursued a hybrid model of control and welcoming of investments in the oil sector. The article argues that both bargaining insights and ideational considerations are important in explaining this model. In the context of high oil prices and sunk investments, it is unsurprising that a leftist government would seek to renegotiate contracts to seek better deals from extractive companies. Yet, focusing exclusively on those incentives misses important ideational drivers for the government to keep investors in the country. For Chávez's government, effecting changes in the oil policy was possible after waging an intense battle with its NOC, PDVSA, over control. Association with foreign investment became crucial to build its socialist model and to control its own company.
For much of the twentieth century, Venezuela was regarded as one of the developing nations destined to take its place among the affluent societies of the world. The spectacular infrastructure projects sponsored by the Venezuelan government and funded with revenue from the petroleum industry were taken as evidence of progress and the impending arrival of modernity. Showcasing the technical prowess of the Venezuelan state, these projects captured the national imagination and won consent for elites by calling forth aspirations for total societal transformation. In this article, I explore the re-construction of hegemonic consent as part of one such project—a hydroelectric dam in the state of Barinas—and the survival of a vision of progress through the built environment, even after the social-economic crisis of the late twentieth century. Drawing on fieldwork in areas near the formerly incomplete project site, I account for what, at first glance, seem to be drastic shifts in local political allegiances and incongruous support for the military dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez (1948-1958) and the Bolivarian Government of Hugo Chávez. Suggesting that a high modernist vision of development is a pivot for hegemonic consent, I argue that the completion of this dam after a long hiatus has won the support of a caste of state workers and that the backing of these workers is crucial to the preservation of organized political power.
This paper explores the contradictions and limits to agrarian transformation under 21st-century socialism in Venezuela. Given the historical destruction wrought by the oil-based accumulation process upon Venezuela's agricultural sector, the symbolic and social importance of an “agrarian revolution” could be seen as a yardstick with which to measure the progress of the Bolivarian Revolution in “sowing the oil”. Eschewing a policy focus on the role of “food sovereignty” and “food security”, the paper analyses how the dynamics of rentier-capital accumulation have played out in the agricultural sector. The paper argues that the macroeconomic framework of the Bolivarian Revolution has diminished the possibility of expanded domestic food production and instead reduced agrarian transformation to contradictory processes of ground rent appropriation.
La crisis actual del sector eléctrico venezolano es estructural. Durante varios años los
especialistas alertaron a las autoridades sobre la necesidad de realizar las inversiones in-
dispensables para el crecimiento del sector eléctrico, conocido y planificado por entes
públicos y privados de gran prestigio y competencia. Cuando la desinversión se une a
una política de centralización y estatización del sector, sin resolver los graves problemas
en las áreas claves de generación, transmisión y distribución, el pronóstico es reservado
en lo que se refiere a la productividad y bienestar de la sociedad venezolana. La crisis
que se visualizó durante el 2008 se continuará profundizando durante los próximos años a
menos que se resuelvan los problemas estructurales de inversión, seguimiento, gerencia,
eficacia y eficiencia, y se lleve a cabo a un proceso educativo de la población pa-
ra realizar un uso racional del recurso energético. En este trabajo se plantean acciones
concretas para resolver la crisis estructural en el corto y mediano plazo. Por otra parte,
es conveniente destacar que este documento cuenta con el aval unánime del Consejo
Asesor del Departamento de Conversión y Transporte de Energía, al cual pertenecen la
mayoría de los profesores especialistas en el área de Conversión de Energía Eléctrica y
Mecánica de la Universidad Simón Bolívar.
Venezuela is an example of a neo-extractivist country that pursues a developmental model based on wealth redistribution sustained by oil rents. The Venezuelan government has sought support from Chinese state-owned enterprises and lending institutions. This article argues that the political elite of the Bolivarian project has turned to China not just as a strategic ally but also as a source of development cooperation, a lender-of-last-resort, a major investor and a reliable market for its oil. As Venezuela’s domestic political economy has become entrenched in an extractivist and rentier model of development, it has also become dependent on China’s financial support.
RÉSUMÉ
Le Venezuela est un exemple d’un pays néo-extractiviste poursuivant un modèle de développement fondé sur la redistribution des richesses soutenue par la rente pétrolière. Le gouvernement vénézuélien a sollicité l’appui des sociétés publiques et des établissements de crédit chinois. Cet article soutient que l’élite politique du projet bolivarien s’est tournée vers la Chine non seulement comme allié stratégique, mais en outre comme source de coopération au développement, prêteur en dernier recours, investisseur majeur et marché fiable pour son pétrole. Alors que l’économie politique nationale du Venezuela est désormais enracinée dans un modèle de développement extractiviste et rentier, elle est également devenue dépendante du soutien financier de la Chine.
Current discussions of energy policy seldom acknowledge the problem of energy poverty, a situation in which a household cannot afford to adequately heat or cool the home. In this article, we examine the concept of energy poverty and describe some of its contours in a rural part of North Carolina. Energy poverty, we suggest, is best viewed as a geographical assemblage of networked materialities and socioeconomic relations. To illustrate this approach, we focus on the geographical patterns of three key determinants of energy poverty in eastern North Carolina: the socioeconomic characteristics of rural households, the networked infrastructures of energy provision, and the material conditions of the home. Throughout, we highlight the lived effects of energy poverty, drawing on transcripts from interviews conducted with recipients of weatherization assistance in the region. The challenges of the energy poor, we suggest, deserve greater attention in public policy and as part of a broader understanding of welfare and care.
En este trabajo se estudia la relación entre el desarrollo eléctrico y la industria eléctrica de Venezuela, su dependencia y las políticas energéticas de los gobiernos del período de Democracia Representativa (1958-1998) y de Democracia Participativa (2004-2014). La metodología utilizada consistió en un análisis histórico comparativo de los datos de la capacidad eléctrica instalada y de la energía eléctrica consumida per cápita recopilado por la Comisión de Integración Energética Regional para América Latina, con especial atención en los siete países más poblados de la región, incluida Venezuela. Se comparan estos datos con los precios y producción petrolera de la British Petroleum y de la Organización de Países Exportadores de Petróleo. Los resultados obtenidos revelan que los ingresos petroleros y la disponibilidad de combustibles nacionales para la expansión termoeléctrica de la capacidad de generación provocaron dependencia en la industria eléctrica, iniciada con la democracia representativa y agravada en el período de democracia participativa. La comparación de ambos períodos evidencia que el sector eléctrico venezolano se encuentra en su crisis más grave debido a que las perspectivas de corto y mediano plazos indican que el Estado no podrá continuar con el subsidio de los combustibles. Se concluye que, en el contexto institucional actual, el uso de energías renovables para la generación eléctrica, más que un asunto medioambiental, es un tema relacionado con la sostenibilidad económica del sistema eléctrico venezolano.
Digital data — including technologically-mediated data generated by blockchain-enabled traceability — is performing an increasingly integral role in extractive operations, but scarce attention has been paid to the structuring effect of these digital technologies or the socio-economic spatiality of data-driven mining operations. Drawing on extensive qualitative research (interviews, participant observation, and two sets of survey data among actors relevant to these mineral supply chains), this article advances the notion of “digital extraction” to describe the collection, analysis, and instrumentalization of digital data generated under the banner of blockchain-based due diligence, chain of custody certifications, and various transparency mechanisms, situated alongside and in support of mineral extraction. The article mobilizes concepts from political geography and political ecology to argue that digital technologies of traceability in extractive processes potentially create new forms of control and exclusion or exacerbate existing social, political, and territorial dispossession through asymmetric relations of power and knowledge in mineral supply chains. Despite industry efforts to make mineral supply chains more sustainable by resorting to digital certification and traceability, the strategic uses of uncertainty, ignorance, and ambiguity undergirding blockchain-enabled traceability systems fail to challenge existing inequalities in resource use and access or fulfill the promise of transparency and accountability.
Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and blockchains have become buzzwords in the media and are attracting increasing academic interest, mainly from the fields of computer science and financial economics. In this essay, I argue that cryptocurrencies and blockchains are important objects of general social science research and thought, but not for their ‘moneyness’ per se. Through a historical sociology of the antecedents and discourse leading up to Bitcoin, I show that it was never meant to be ‘money’ in the economic sense, but rather a solution to a technical puzzle for preventing opportunistic actors from double-spending digital ‘coins,’ as well as a fervent ideology surrounding online privacy and infringement of individual rights in the digital age. Drawing from themes in science and technology studies, I suggest that Bitcoin and other ‘cryptoassets’ are properly socio-technological assemblages that constitute new and important objects of social inquiry that must be understood beyond the myopic context of crypto-money. I conclude by proposing three alternative ontologies for blockchains relevant to economic, political, and social life: as systems of accounting, as organizational forms, and as institutions in their own right.
Current generations of cryptocurrencies are not money, but future ones may be. While Bitcoin performs poorly as a store of value, it is actually on par with the Venezuelan bolívar over the last decade, and the Argentinian peso over the decade from 1986. I evaluate arguments in favour of central banks issuing digital fiat currency—intended to replace cash—and digital fiat money—intended to replace money more broadly. Digital fiat currency appears a natural step forward, but digital fiat money would be a bad idea as it makes the central bank responsible for the entire money supply.
Since new distributed ledger technologies hold out a promise to restructure cross‐border flows of people and material resources, they affect globalization and alter transnational spaces. Their capacity to facilitate secure and disintermediated value transfer through crypto‐code and smart contracts enables novel forms of remittance transfer, resource management and digital identity verification – and may also generate new vulnerabilities. In this article, we examine the use of emerging blockchain applications in various migration and diaspora related initiatives in the emerging economies of Africa, Asia and Europe. By building on existing social networks of mutual obligation and quasi‐ethnic affinities, blockchain technologies may facilitate the ability to enlarge the scope of diasporas and change the nature of belonging, sovereignty, migration and statehood. Through exploring the selective foregrounding of mutuality and materiality in such alternative value transfer systems, we seek to explain the dynamics of trust and agency that these networks generate to extend commitments and loyalties in the transnational space.
This article examines the labor power of digital miners. Though an obscure and still incipient facet of the digital economy, crypto‐mining powers and secures transactions across blockchains, or public distributed digital ledgers. Drawing from interviews with cryptocurrency enthusiasts, blockchain advocates, and developers; participation in online and offline discussions; and a survey with small‐scale crypto‐miners, this article takes on the material and technoscientific valuation of crypto‐mining to understand how a future of open, decentralized accountability implicates human labor alongside automated processes. The work of digital mining, performed in the work of inscribing, registering, and politically organizing mining operations, enables the formation of democratic communities in the digital economy and remains inevitably embedded in social relations as a mode of productive, meaningful action.
Blockchains combine digital encryption and time stamping technologies to enable digital exchange to occur in manners celebrated by proponents as ‘trust‐free’. Yet, an increasing range of scholars argue that actual applications of the peer‐to‐peer technology shifts, rather than eliminates, trust. In this article, we draw on organizational theory to argue that efforts to remove trust reorganize the action nets that underpin payment systems in manners that extend rather than eliminate longstanding pathologies afflicting financial globalization. Our analysis supports and extends the critiques that blockchain applications are far from ‘trust‐free’. By tracing how efforts to reconfigure the socio‐technical composition of the humans and objects that underpin payment systems, we illustrate how blockchain applications shift the location and character of the technical vulnerabilities that create market instabilities and concentration, as well as elite‐led governance.
The governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro responded to the opposition’s attempts at regime change by implementing pragmatic policies favoring businesspeople who refused to participate in destabilization actions, as well as populist social measures benefiting the nonprivileged. Both sets of policies have to be placed in political context. The characterization of allegedly pro-government businesspeople as a new ruling elite referred to as the boliburguesía fails to take into account the sharp tensions between them and the Chavista leadership. The primary importance of social programs in the Chavista political triumphs over an extended period of time and of the periodic initiatives that sparked life into individual programs implicitly rules out claims regarding the government’s failure to alleviate poverty or achieve other social objectives. The Chavista governments failed to take full advantage of favorable periods and junctures when the opposition was demoralized following defeats in order to correct the negative side effects of pragmatic and populist class policies, such as bureaucratization and crony capitalism.
This paper explores women’s entrepreneurial activities in the Oman and Qatar in light of the state attention given to promoting entrepreneurship in the region over the past decade. In the Gulf Arab countries, like in many rapidly developing economies, neoliberal growth discourse abounds. Along with this, the promotion of entrepreneurship and embrace of individual enterprise is paramount. Despite the dominance of the state in political and economic spaces, Gulf governments have embraced the rhetoric of the market and entrepreneurship. Drawing from semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observation conducted between 2011 and 2015, this paper examines this phenomenon. In a region stereotyped with weak gender development outcomes, female entrepreneurship is largely cast as a positive development aimed at liberating and empowering women through individual enterprise. In contrast, this paper finds that the same forces that are meant to empower women often reproduce or reinforce certain gender norms while introducing new forms of dependency. Gulf female entrepreneurs confront competing tensions within three intersecting political economy logics: the structural logic of the economy, the logic of development narratives, and the logic of socio-economic organisation.
This essay explores the lively debates around notions of extraction and extractivism in Latin America so as to expand these notions and thereby grasp the specificity of contemporary processes of the valorization and accumulation of capital within the region and beyond. Going beyond mining and the extensive agriculture that characterizes the notions of extraction and extractivism used in Latin America today, the essay seeks productive angles for a critical investigation of finance and financialization and also the persistence and mutations of neoliberalism in the region. This attempt to expand the notions of extraction and extractivism connects to a long history of struggles and theoretical elaborations that have expanded the notion of exploitation itself to include topics such as the hegemony of rent, the persistence of primitive accumulation, and accumulation by dispossession, all against the background of contemporary developments of capitalism, social struggles, and “progressive” governments in Latin America.
[forthcoming; exact date not yet determined] One of the most studied issues regarding the role of natural resources in development is the so-called “resource curse,” the paradoxical (and contested) situation in which a state with abundant resources has low rates of economic growth per capita, high levels of inequality, low levels of democracy, and domestic and international conflicts that surround resources. Despite the name, most research by political scientists examines the role of oil and natural gas only, rather than the wide variety of resources, including renewable energy sources. We argue that many of the causal mechanisms behind the curse, when it does manifest, hold for water-abundance sufficient to create large hydroelectric projects. Drawing on brief discussions of hydroelectric projects around the world, we demonstrate sufficient, albeit preliminary, evidence of Dutch disease, enclave economies, rent-seeking, price fluctuations, and conflict, to suggest the resource curse literature should be expanded to include water- abundance. In addition, we add a new factor, variable fuel supply, that should be considered for other resources. We conclude with suggestions for developing the research agenda.
Bitcoin, the digital cryptocurrency, has been celebrated as the future of money on the Internet. Although Bitcoin does present several forward- looking innovations, it also integrates a very old concept into its digital architecture: the mining of precious metals. Even though Bitcoin explicitly invokes mining as a metaphor and gold as an example for understanding the cryptocurrency, there has been little critical work on the connections between Bitcoin and previous metalist currency regimes. The following essay proposes a historical comparison with colonial South American silver mining and the global currency regime based on the New World silver peso it created as a way to interrogate Bitcoin. The comparison with colonial South America, and specifically the silver mining economy around the Cerro Rico de Potosí, will help to develop a historical and political understanding of Bitcoin’s stakes, including questions of resources, labor, energy, and ecology. Mining and the extractive apparatus that accompanies it always imply massive- scale earthworks that reshape the planet itself, a process known as terraforming. The Potosí comparison will reveal Bitcoin to form part of a similar process of digital primitive accumulation we can provisionally name cryptoforming. ©2017 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved.
Since its creation in 2009, the electronic currency Bitcoin has generated volumes of online debate in the business press. While there have been plenty of economic arguments situating it as a financial bubble about to collapse including from Nobel Prize winning economists, its price value has proven to be more durable than many have predicted. To explain this durability, Karpik’s conception of market singularities is used to understand the Bitcoin phenomenon by outlining the beliefs that maintain Bitcoin’s status as a volatile financial asset. Market singularities are markets for particular kinds of goods and services that are of uncertain and incommensurable value. Singularities markets have communities of followers and a distinctive belief system that ascribes value to a particular product, service, or asset. Developing Karpik’s conception, the paper explores the libertarian political belief system that surrounds Bitcoin’s status as a financial asset. I also outline some political tensions within the electronic currency community concerning governance and centralisation.
Understanding the intensification and expansion of extractive industries in contemporary capitalism requires an approach attentive not only to the literal forms of extraction prevalent in mining and agribusiness but also to new fronts of extraction emerging in activities such as data mining and biocapitalism. This article introduces the concept of operations of capital to trace connections between the expansive logic of extraction and capitalist activity in the domains of logistics and finance. Arguing that extractive operations are at large across these domains, we explore their relevance for capital’s relation with its multiple outsides. The resulting analysis provides a basis for mapping struggles against the changing forms of dispossession and exploitation enabled by extraction.
The current crisis in Venezuela is sometimes said to have been provoked by the response of imperialism and the local oligarchy to the fundamental changes in economic and political relations fostered during the administrations of Hugo Chávez. A quantitative study using various statistical sources shows that the significant increase in oil rent during the Chávez presidency did not translate into a qualitative transformation in the form of state intervention and that, although social expenditures increased in that period, most of the income that allowed this was obtained through currency overvaluation by inefficient national and foreign capital. The current crisis is, therefore, evidence of the limits of low-productivity state and private capital reproduction due to the decline in oil prices rather than of a conflict between overcoming and reproducing capitalism in an alleged “economic war.”
A veces se dice que la crisis actual en Venezuela ha sido provocada por la respuesta del imperialismo y la oligarquía local a los cambios profundos en las relaciones económicas y políticas promovidos durante la administración de Hugo Chávez. Un estudio cuantitativo en el que se usaron diferentes fuentes estadísticas demuestra que el aumento significativo en la renta del petróleo durante la presidencia de Chávez no se tradujo en una transformación cualitativa de la intervención estatal y que, aunque los gastos sociales aumentaron en ese período, la mayor parte del ingreso que permitió ese aumento se obtuvo por medio de la sobrevaluación de la moneda por parte del ineficiente capital nacional y extranjero. Por lo tanto, la crisis actual es evidencia de los límites de la baja productividad de la reproducción estatal y privada debido a la caída en el precio del petróleo y no un conflicto entre la eliminación y la reproducción del capitalismo en una supuesta “guerra económica.”
The Bitcoin Market Potential Index (BMPI) is a new composite indicator that conceptualizes and ranks the potential utility of bitcoin across 178 countries to show which countries have the most and least potential to see bitcoin adoption. The index utilizes a data set with 40 variables grouped into the index’s seven equally weighted sub-indices: technology penetration, international remittances, inflation, size of informal economy, financial repression, historical financial crises, and bitcoin penetration. Data across the different BMPI variables were first standardized as follows.
The new, decentralized, anonymous digital currency Bitcoin has in less than three years gone from a proof-of-concept to being traded for about €78 million on a daily basis. Its ascendancy offers up a puzzle for financial regulators and other law-enforcers worldwide, while also promising to fulfill the political visions of a group of market-anarchist cryptographers. While it is still a very small economy in absolute terms, Bitcoin also poses some interesting challenges to traditional economic institutions, and is thus an interesting case for economic sociology. Using the notion of material embeddedness, this paper examines the possible implications of a further propagation of Bitcoin. If the currency proves a success, this will have ramifications for a large number of economic institutions, such as the possibility of taxation of untraceable money, the credit economy and interest rates, and international currency control.
This paper investigates the semiotics of Bitcoin, an electronic cash system that uses decentralized networking to enable irreversible payments. For enthusiasts, Bitcoin provides an alternative to currencies and payment systems that are seen to threaten users' privacy, limit personal liberty, and undermine the value of money through state and corporate oversight. Bitcoin's promise lies in its apparent capacity to resolve these concerns not through regulatory institutions or interpersonal trust, but through its cryptographic protocols. We characterize this semiotics as a “practical materialism” and suggest it replays debates about privacy, labor, and value.
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