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Cryptocurrency and the Kafkaesque | Opinion
Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views and opinions of the crypto.news editorial.
In this week’s #hearsay column, Dorian Batycka celebrates the centenary of the death of the Bohemian writer Franz Kafka on June 3, 1924, taking you on a literary journey through the most “Kafkaesque” moments of all cryptocurrencies.
Imagine a world where you are trapped in a web of baffling and illogical situations, helpless against faceless bureaucracies that wield omnipotent and indifferent authority. This nightmarish distortion of reality is the essence of the term “Kafkaesque,” derived from the German-speaking Bohemian writer Franz Kafka. Through seminal works such as The Trial (1914), The Castle (1922), and The Metamorphosis (1912), Kafka’s narratives have become foundational texts in modern literature, depicting protagonists trapped in existential anxiety and futility. Surprisingly, these Kafkaesque themes find resonance in the chaotic and often dystopian world of cryptocurrencies, where the promise of financial liberation is often fortuitously overshadowed by paradox and disillusionment.
Wojak, cryptocurrency and Kafkaesque
Franz Kafka wrote A Hunger Artist in 1922 and published it in 1924, the same year he died from a brutal condition that left him starving due to complications related to the disease. laryngeal tuberculosis. Kafka’s final story centers on a professional hunger artist who fasts for long periods as an art form, drawing audiences captivated by his self-imposed suffering. Despite this dedication, the Hunger Artist becomes increasingly marginalized and forgotten as public interest wanes, leading to his death.
It’s a situation that mirrors the experience of the most titular figure in the crypto sector: the wojak. The proverbial McDonald’s night manager, whose relentless pursuit of quick riches becomes an unhealthy, gambling-like obsession. With wojak consumed by the volatile and often isolating and paralyzing failure of cryptocurrency trading and investing, he constantly finds himself in deep loss and disillusionment. What hunger was to Kafka’s artist, cheap packets of ramen are to the plodding wage earner who hopes to get rich with a Solana meme coin. What could be more totally Kafkaesque?
Satoshi Nakamoto as Josef K.
Self-revelations aside, let’s switch gears to invoke the term “Kafkaesque” not with the wojak loser, but with the OG of cryptocurrencies himself, Satoshi Nakamoto. In Kafka’s The Castle (1922), the protagonist K. struggles against an opaque and inaccessible bureaucratic authority; similar to Satoshi himself, Kafka speculates on the often ambiguous nature of governments, remarking, “You must not believe everything the officials say,” adding, “I have my rights and I will do them.” Darkly surreal, K.’s story in the story centers on a “legal right to live in the village” which the authorities claim “was not valid, however, taking into account some auxiliary circumstances, he was allowed to live and work there. “Through an endless feedback loop of misunderstandings and bureaucratic nightmares, Kafka finished the book mid-sentence, stating in a letter to his publisher and friend Max Brod that the work would remain unfinished.
In The Trial Kafka describes the arrest of the protagonist, Josef K., a respectable bank employee who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against an accusation about which he is unable to obtain any information. “Someone must have lied about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested.”
Once again, we are confronted with the brutal reality of a system that brings consequences to those who were born to change it, namely Satoshi, or even CZ, for that matter. You need look no further than the current lack of regulatory clarity on cryptocurrencies, from proposed legislation in the EU, Not, which has only created widespread confusion on the continent, right down to the confusing legislative situation in the United States, where things haven’t gotten much better, with Joe Biden and Donald Trump recently making a U-turn on the cryptocurrency bandwagon. It seems that, all things considered, the current regulatory climate around cryptocurrencies is Kafkaesque to the core.
KafkaCrypto: Towards a new theory of technology and disaster
Finally, let’s think about the very idea of paradox, perhaps the pinnacle of all Kafkaesque situations. It is based on the assumption that two seemingly different realities can be true at the same time. While cryptocurrency was designed to bypass traditional financial systems and related regulatory frameworks, as the market has grown, so has the demand for regulation to prevent fraud, protect consumers and ensure market stability, often under the guise of anti-money laundering (AML). ) initiatives that exist in stark contrast to privacy-focused tools like Monero or Tornado Cash.
However, beyond this reality, a paradoxical situation has emerged: the ethics of the decentralized crypto world have increasingly clashed with the centralized systems that cryptocurrencies claimed to disrupt. Look no further than what China or Russia recently said would embrace central bank digital currencies (CBDC). Coupled with omnipresent state surveillance and control, the paradoxical reality of having cryptocurrencies in the hands of a tyrannical government, while simultaneously enabling encrypted financial freedom, is truly Kafkaesque.
“It is only because of their stupidity that they manage to be so sure of themselves,” Kafka concludes in The Trial, perhaps his most fundamental work on the illusory nature of justice. Perhaps it is somehow related to the notion of effective altruism prevalent in modern levels of cryptocurrency theory, and famously central to the worldview of convinced conman Sam Bankman Fried, i.e. the scam for the common good of cryptocapitalism theory.
Fundamentally, cryptocurrency supports financial autonomy and individual control over one’s economic identity. However, as we celebrate the centenary of Kafka’s death, it is clear that the cryptocurrency industry has taken on many Kafkaesque qualities. From the mysterious figure of Satoshi Nakamoto to the humble wojak, to the disturbing reality of crypto scams and the paradox of decentralization and regulation, the illusory sense of autonomy is a notable indicator of how deeply problematic cryptocurrencies are and continue to be. As Kafka once wrote:
“Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.”