Abstract Although blockchain is often posed as a revolutionary and disruptive technology, its politics and socio-technical configurations often align with aims to maintain the status quo, and/or aims to concentrate wealth and to make existing powers more efficient. I empirically describe how colonial-contingent, neoliberal economic policies in Puerto Rico have incentivized the techno-capitalist industries of cryptocurrency and blockchain. Portions of the archipelago are being re-made into a so-called “crypto-utopia” to satisfy the desires of new settlers in a new form of crypto-colonialism. Puerto Rican government organizations, institutions, and businesses are also engaging blockchain technology with differing intents, all using rhetoric as a covert design tool. In this paper I will focus on blockchain and cryptocurrency as neoliberal and libertarian technologies adopted by governmental agencies, businesses, organizations, and individuals, as well as efforts of resistance through alternative, decolonial design.

中文翻译：

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区块链和“帝国链”：波多黎各的区块链、加密货币和新自由主义的语境化

摘要 尽管区块链通常被认为是一种革命性和破坏性的技术，但其政治和社会技术配置往往与维持现状和/或集中财富和使现有权力更有效率的目标保持一致。我凭经验描述了波多黎各的殖民政策、新自由主义经济政策如何激励加密货币和区块链等技术资本主义产业。群岛的部分地区正在被改造成所谓的“加密乌托邦”，以满足新形式的加密殖民主义新移民的愿望。波多黎各政府组织、机构和企业也以不同的意图使用区块链技术，都将修辞作为一种隐蔽的设计工具。