Abstract

This paper inquires into the dynamic imaginaries of the Ethereum project. We present Ethereum as animated by three such imaginaries: the world computer (technical), productive money (economic) and public goods (political). We examine how these imaginaries are materialized, carried forward and evolve through the Ethereum ecosystem, focusing on how Ethereum’s prefigurative logic underpins this dynamism. In our analysis, we pay particular attention to how the imaginaries overlap and often generate contradictions that nonetheless do not seem to undermine the cohesion of the project. We introduce the concept of ‘prefigurative imaginaries’ to describe how prefiguration works to create multiple, mutually entangled but distinct imaginaries.

摘要

本文探讨了以太坊项目的动态想象。我们将以太坊呈现为由三个这样的想象所激发：世界计算机（技术）、生产性货币（经济）和公共物品（政治）。我们研究了这些想象是如何通过以太坊生态系统实现、发扬和发展的，重点关注以太坊的比喻逻辑如何支撑这种活力。在我们的分析中，我们特别注意想象如何重叠并经常产生矛盾，但似乎并没有破坏项目的凝聚力。我们引入“比喻想象”的概念来描述比喻如何创造多重、相互纠缠但又截然不同的想象。