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Cheap energy, absence of regulations on mining, low taxes, free industrial zones made Georgia an attractive place for Bitcoin mining and home to such big companies as Bitfury and Binance. This paper asks how and why Georgia become a crypto mining hub and examines crypto mining in relation to the neoliberal state and its economic development mode. This study frames crypto currency mining as a state facilitated development project, which is embedded in Washington Consensus (WC) liberalization and deregulation policies and is enabled by Wall Street Consensus (WSC) derisking policies. The paper argues that crypto currencies - once emerged on allegedly nonpolitical economic grounds to challenge the state and existing financial order - need the state and its sovereign space. The study also unfolds continuities between WC and WSC and demonstrates the destructive character of crypto mining. The paper thus challenges the claims of the crypto industry of being against the state and traditional financial system, provides insights into the political economy of Bitcoin from a peripheral country perspective and enriches ongoing debates on neoliberal derisking states.
Ia Eradze (Wed,) studied this question.