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Creation and Resilience of Decentralized Brands: Bitcoin & The Creation and Resilience of Decentralized Brands: Bitcoin & the Blockchain Syeda Mariam Humayun A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Administration Schulich School of Business York University Toronto, Ontario March 2019 © Syeda Mariam Humayun 2019 Abstract: This dissertation is based on a longitudinal ethnographic and netnographic study of the Bitcoin and broader Blockchain community. The data is drawn from 38 in-depth interviews and 200+ informal interviews, plus archival news media sources, netnography, and participant observation conducted in multiple cities: Toronto, Amsterdam, Berlin, Miami, New York, Prague, San Francisco, Cancun, Boston/Cambridge, and Tokyo. Participation at Bitcoin/Blockchain conferences included: Consensus Conference New York, North American Bitcoin Conference, Satoshi Roundtable Cancun, MIT Business of Blockchain, and Scaling Bitcoin Tokyo. The research fieldwork was conducted between 2014-2018. The dissertation is structured as three papers: - “Satoshi is Dead. Long Live Satoshi.” The Curious Case of Bitcoin: This paper focuses on the myth of anonymity and how by remaining anonymous, Satoshi Nakamoto, was able to leave his creation open to widespread adoption. - Tracing the United Nodes of Bitcoin: This paper examines the intersection of religiosity, technology, and money in the Bitcoin community. - Our Brand Is Crisis: Creation and Resilience of Decentralized Brands – Bitcoin & the Blockchain: Drawing on ecological resilience framework as a conceptual metaphor this paper maps how various stabilizing and destabilizing forces in the Bitcoin ecosystem helped in the evolution of a decentralized brand and promulgated more mainstreaming of the Bitcoin brand. ii Dedication: To my younger brother, Umer. You were the reason for everything. iii Acknowledgements: I feel fortunate to have been a part of a supportive and exciting environment at Schulich School of Business for the duration of my time as a PhD student. First and foremost, a heartfelt thank you to my supervisor, Russ Belk. Your kindness, patience, and support have been tremendous through these years. It has been a pleasure working with you, learning from you, and to see the generosity with which you treat ideas and others. You have had faith in me at times when I did not. It is hard to describe the gratitude I feel, and I hope in my life I am able to add to others the ways in which you have added to my life. This dissertation would not have been possible without you. I am also deeply grateful to Rob Kozinets and Detlev Zwick for serving on my dissertation committee. Thank you for putting up with so many meetings and for your constructive feedback and support. Thank you to John Schouten and Andrew Maxwell for being on the examination committee and providing new perspectives. Your comments and feedback have been invaluable. I have the deepest respect and admiration for the faculty at Schulich. To Eileen Fischer, thank you for bringing together a wonderful community of PhD students. Also, thank you to Peter Darke, Markus Giesler, Ashwin Joshi, Theo Noseworthy, Christine Oliver, David Rice, Ajay Sisri, Mike Valente, Ela Veresiu, and Mary Waller. To the ones who make everything happen: Sheila Sinclair, Maria Rizzuto, Vilda Palmer, and Viviya Spall, without you, nothing would work. Shoutout to Stephanie Allen and Clara Klan across the hallway. Also, the countless librarians and the student services folks, especially, Meghann Foneca. To my classmates: Luciana, John (and Michael), Kam, Tony, Anna, Claire, Gulay, Shoeb, Mekki, Amy (and baby Jarius & Allen), Mingshuang (and baby Dorie), Leigh-Allen, Angelique, Saeed, Pouyan, Sean, Justin, Aurora, Shazeb, Jerry, Cathia, June, Nukhet, Sabrina, Tatiana, and the greater Schulich family of Andrew, Pierre, Daiane, Marie, Arundhati, Sarah, Aron, Ahir, Andrew (II). The visiting students at Schulich, without whom our experience would never have been the same: Julie, Ahmed, Shirley, Georg, Katha, Marco, Anton, Ronan, Ganesh, Jonas, Renata, Maribel, Sofia, Ana (& Claudio), Alix, Chris, and Rodrigo. To those friends who have been incredible part of the journey, Meriam (Tunisian namesake), Marian (Kiwi namesake), Matja, Matthew, Maraal, Amira, Ankita, Brandon, Robert, Lez, Abigail, Anil, Gabrielle, Maira, Sebastian, Outti, Annetta, Johanna, Jack, Anuja, Mariella, Aditya, Rohit, Hedon, and if I’ve missed your name, forgive me. A big thank you to the wonderful people I’ve come across through Oxford Internet Institute. The Elia Foundation for their support for my research. Scott Young, for that opportune meeting with Edward Snowden (via satellite) and Alexis Ohanian. Special thank you to the folks in the Bitcoin/Blockchain space for being so generous with their time, support, and kindness. To my parents, grandma, and elder brother, Ali, you have been patient in all this. To my younger brother, Umer – not a day goes by when I do not think of you. You are, and always will be with us. Thank you to my cousins, nephews, nieces, and friends who have kept me grounded through these years – and for all the gifs and memes making fun of me. And finally, thank you to Satoshi. You have been there every step of the way. iv Table of Contents: Abstract: ........................................................................................................................................................ ii Dedication: ................................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements: ..................................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables: ............................................................................................................................................. vii List of Figures: ........................................................................................................................................... viii Introduction: .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Context: Bitcoin & the Blockchain ............................................................................................................... 9 Bitcoin Roots: ........................................................................................................................................... 9 Pricing Bitcoin: ....................................................................................................................................... 11 On Mining and the 21 Million Bitcoin Cap: ........................................................................................... 14 Methods: ..................................................................................................................................................... 15 Interviews:............................................................................................................................................... 17 Notes on Fieldwork: ................................................................................................................................ 21 Archival: ................................................................................................................................................. 28 Netnography:........................................................................................................................................... 31 Notes on Reflexivity: .............................................................................................................................. 39 “Satoshi is Dead. Long Live Satoshi”: The Curious Case of Bitcoin’s Creator ......................................... 47 Introduction: ............................................................................................................................................ 47 Theoretical Background: The author is dead. Long live the author? ..................................................... 50 Analysis: ................................................................................................................................................. 52 Discussion: .............................................................................................................................................. 63 Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................................. 65 Tracing the United Nodes of Bitcoin .......................................................................................................... 68 Introduction: ............................................................................................................................................ 68 Related Work: ......................................................................................................................................... 70 Findings: ................................................................................................................................................. 76 Flights of Faith: Moments of Conversion ........................................................................................... 76 Don’t Stop Believing? Weathering the Storms ..................................................................................
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