ABSTRACT

‘First, it was just tech people. Now, literally everyone is interested in bitcoin’, said CNN News while reporting on the bitcoin mania that haunted South Korean society in the winter of 2017–2018. This study takes that speculative frenzy as an entry point for exploring lay bitcoin investors’ experiences and the ‘magical’ features of contemporary financial capitalism. It first situates the bitcoin investment boom in the contexts of South Korea’s post-developmental transition and the rise of mass investment culture. Drawing upon participant observation of online communities for South Korea’s bitcoin investors, this study then demonstrates how lay bitcoin investors’ daily beliefs and practices are distinguished from more traditional economic subjectivities – namely, disciplined workers and rational investors. Lay bitcoin investors present themselves not simply as calculative investors but also as enchanted gamblers who often rely upon magical formulas and rituals that express their hopes and despairs in the face of an uncertain future. Instead of dismissing their beliefs and rituals as ‘irrational exuberance’, this study argues that their cultural practices should be understood as a reflexive response to the ‘magical’ mechanisms of the financial market based on self-referential valuation and self-fulfilling performativity. In examining how the logics of uncertainty and magic are returned at the heart of contemporary capitalism, this study consequently seeks to situate the lay investors’ struggles in dealing with the ambiguous future within the broader transformation of the human condition during the triumphant rise of financial capitalism.

摘要

'首先，这只是技术人员。现在，几乎每个人都对比特币感兴趣”，CNN 新闻说同时报道了 2017 年至 2018 年冬天困扰韩国社会的比特币狂热。本研究以投机狂潮为切入点，探索非专业比特币投资者的经历和当代金融资本主义的“神奇”特征。它首先将比特币投资热潮置于韩国后发展转型和大众投资文化兴起的背景下。通过对韩国比特币投资者在线社区的参与观察，本研究展示了比特币投资者的日常信仰和实践与更传统的经济主体（即纪律严明的工人和理性的投资者）有何不同。非专业比特币投资者不仅将自己表现为精明的投资者，而且还表现为着迷的赌徒，他们经常依靠神奇的公式和仪式来表达他们在面对不确定的未来时的希望和绝望。本研究没有将他们的信仰和仪式视为“非理性繁荣”，而是认为他们的文化实践应该被理解为对基于自我参照估值和自我实现的金融市场“神奇”机制的反射性反应。在检验不确定性和魔法的逻辑如何在当代资本主义的核心中回归时，本研究因此寻求将非专业投资者在应对金融资本主义胜利兴起期间人类状况更广泛转变中处理模糊未来的斗争。 .