Is Blockchain the End of Banking?: The Meaning of Debt and Banks in Capitalist Societies

Abstract

Blockchain promises to make all kinds of intermediaries redundant and replace them with decentralized peer-to-peer networks. My paper examines the credibility of this claim and questions its societal implications. I argue that the creation of credit money by banks is an existential mechanism in capitalist societies because it sustains the power relations within the society. The fiction of the variability of money relies on trustworthy intermediaries that can temporally and spatially perform monetary stability. Drawing on explorative interviews with actors in the financial sector as well as content analyses of relevant blogs, white papers, and publications of the business press, I conclude that blockchain does not eliminate intermediaries. On the contrary, it proves advantageous for those who are able to shape the technology to their needs.