Göttliche Protokolle, Bitcoin-Jünger und schattenhafte Herrscher: Über die religiösen Anwandlungen und ideologischen Verstrickungen der Blockchain-Technologie

Starting with an overview of the functioning and applications of blockchain, the paper sheds light on the core promise of this technology, namely, to overcome of the need for institutionally legitimized intermediaries and to provide the subject with new possibilities for self-determined management of its own and communal lives. With reference to the philosopher Pierre Legendre, the paper first analyses the worldview underlying this promise in terms of cultural theory. Then the focus is directed towards the ideological entanglements as well as the religious elements that one encounters in the discursive environment of the technology. In view of this, it will be critically questioned to what extent one can really speak of decentralization and the abolition of middlemen. The paper thus aims to show why blockchain technology and its fields of applications require a critical discussion.