The Challenge of Building a Scalable Postcapitalist Commons: The Limits of FairCoin as a Commons-Based Cryptocurrency

Dallyn, Sam; Frenzel, Fabian

Abstract

Postcapitalist commons are a growing area of interest in the efforts to generate alternatives to capitalism in the present. Commons are understood as self-organised collectives based around shared resources; yet postcapitalist commons have an additional element, in operating within while projecting an 'after' capitalism. This can give rise to tensions since commons striving for postcapitalism also require a certain amount of capital to survive and function within capitalism. FairCoop is a radical postcapitalist commons that adopted the cryptocurrency FairCoin in 2014. FairCoop, through FairCoin, was able to generate some trans-local connections through its use of peer2peer technologies and was thus able to scale-up. Its design, however, was ultimately unsustainable due to insufficiently clear boundaries from capital. After highlighting the lack of commons boundaries around FairCoop, we identify some additional commons-capital boundary design principles which could contribute to the sustainability of future postcapitalist commons experiments that are seeking to scale.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 5, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Dec 19, 2020
• Publication Date: 2021-05
• Deposit Date: Jul 24, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 25, 2023
• Print ISSN: 0066-4812
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-8330
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 859-883
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12705v
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/23455395
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/anti.12705