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.

I particularly followed the visual language created for said discussions, because it carried a narrative permeated with exuberance, irrationality, speculation and greed, but also with true hopes of a somehow unattainable financial future.

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

The obvious  departure point for this project would be the 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 post-war 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); ISEA 2020, Montreal, Canada (May 2020 - upcoming).

Installation view at AirSpace Projects, Sydney, 2018.