Short Circuits: Decoding the Crypto Market: Kobe De Keere at ZIBR

Drawing on several years of ethnographic research, Short Circuits unpacks the cultural and technological logics that underpin the crypto world. It shows how crypto is about making unlikely connections, circumventing existing powers, and disrupting the status quo.

In his presentation, Kobe focused on two chapters that illuminate contrasting cultural logics within crypto. “Crypto for crypto’s sake” examines communities in which financial gain is treated as secondary to cypherpunk ideals, infrastructural autonomy, and collaborative experimentation. “Crypto casino,” by contrast, explores the speculative side of crypto, where finance becomes entangled with play, hype, gamification, and collective excitement. Together, the two chapters show how crypto is shaped by competing ideas of what it is for and what gives it value.

The presentation sparked a lively discussion about the cultural dynamics of crypto markets and the broader societal transformations they both reflect and seek to bring about.