A little better

For several months I followed different cryptocurrency trading and development instant messaging platforms, actively participating in their discussions and even generating debates on specific topics such as trust, value, risk, the meaning of money, the role of central banks, national sovereignty, etc.

At the same time, I particularly followed the visual language created for said discussions; all of which carried a particular narrative, permeated with exuberance, irrationality, speculation and greed, but also with true hopes of better and more open and transparent financial future.

As I gathered textual and visual material was clear to me that traders and developers, as they attempted to consolidate financial digital protocols legitimized by cryptographic algorithms, were also intentionally or unintentionally establishing value resistant to the oversight of any sovereign state.

The obvious  departure point for this project is  launch of bitcoin network in 2009, which had as background the Financial Global Crisis of 2007-8. But I decided to back track my research to 1971, when Richard Nixon announced the end of the gold standard thus terminating the postwar Bretton Woods system.

Weeks before Nixon terminated the gold standard, he was secretly recorded talking about the economy: “We are just running the chaos a little better”. Almost half a century later, delusional thinking and hope may fuel the rise of cryptocurrencies. It makes sense to ask if it's sustainable, even rational. Perhaps not, but one could argue that as today neither is world economy.

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This work was exhibited at AirSpace Projects, Sydney, Australia (2018); 9th Cairo Video Festival , Cairo, Egypt (2019).

Installation view at AirSpace Projects, Sydney, 2018.