In this article, I discuss the role of crypto‐coins (CCs) as an explicit response to the 2008 economic crisis. Drawing on networked social movement theory, I outline the tension between blockchain based currencies promoted as horizontal markets of technological innovation and the persistence of hierarchical authority within these networks. By examining the assumptions about authority and regulation that underpin the creation of CCs I argue that the cryptographic responses to the financial crisis understate the persistence of hierarchies in their claims to upset traditional monetary authority. As global networks, blockchain technology faces political challenges from regulators, hegemonic market actors and adherents devoted to particular CCs. Consequently, I draw parallels between CCs and networked social movements to argue that the emergence and proliferation of ‘altcoins’ presents a series of political challenges to the framing of CCs as disruptive technology. The innovative character of CCs relies on tacit and explicit assumptions about politics that social movement theory can help to explain. By examining the altcoins through the concepts of resource mobilization, framing and identity formation, I argue that the dynamics of offline social hierarchies persist and are magnified in the world of CCs.

中文翻译：

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加密货币层次结构：区块链网络中的社交竞赛

在本文中，我将讨论加密货币（CC）的作用，作为对2008年经济危机的明确回应。借助网络社会运动理论，我概述了作为技术创新的横向市场而推广的基于区块链的货币与这些网络中等级权威的持久性之间的张力。通过研究支撑CC的基础上的权威和监管假设，我认为对金融危机的密码反应低估了等级制度在其破坏传统货币权威的主张中的持久性。作为全球网络，区块链技术面临监管者，霸权市场参与者和致力于特定CC的拥护者的政治挑战。所以，我在CC和网络社会运动之间进行了比较，认为“山寨币”的出现和扩散对将CC作为破坏性技术的框架提出了一系列政治挑战。CC的创新性依赖于对社会运动理论可以解释的对政治的默示和明确假设。通过通过资源动员，框架和身份形成的概念检查山寨币，我认为离线社交等级制度的动态在CC世界中持续存在并被放大。