The Blockchain Chronicles: A Social History of Ideology, Code, and Law
Primavera De Filippi · Joel Dietz · Morshed Mannan · Kelsie Nabben
May 2027 · MIT Press
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About this ebook
A foundational social history of blockchain technology, tracing how cypherpunk ideology, cryptographic code, legal imagination, and financial experimentation gave rise to cryptocurrencies and Web3.
The Blockchain Chronicles tells the story of blockchain’s emergence from a fringe crypto-anarchist experiment into a contested infrastructure reshaping money, finance, governance, and society. Primavera De Filippi, Joel Dietz, Morshed Mannan, and Kelsie Nabben chart the journey from early cypherpunk manifestos and cryptographic experiments to the emergence of Bitcoin, Ethereum, decentralized finance, DAOs, and network states.
Combining primary sources with historical, legal, and social analysis, the authors critically examine the ideas and debates that shaped blockchain’s development. The book situates foundational texts, including Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper and Vitalik Buterin’s early writings on Ethereum, within the broader intellectual traditions of libertarianism, crypto-anarchism, extropian futurism, open-source culture, and decentralized governance.
The book also examines real-world governance crises like the FTX bankruptcy, the Terra/Luna collapse, the DAO hack, and Bitcoin’s scaling wars, providing insight into the many challenges of governing decentralized communities. In doing so, it shows that blockchain is not only a technical architecture, but also a political and legal project: an attempt to redesign trust, authority, ownership, and collective decision-making through code.
The Blockchain Chronicles tells the story of blockchain’s emergence from a fringe crypto-anarchist experiment into a contested infrastructure reshaping money, finance, governance, and society. Primavera De Filippi, Joel Dietz, Morshed Mannan, and Kelsie Nabben chart the journey from early cypherpunk manifestos and cryptographic experiments to the emergence of Bitcoin, Ethereum, decentralized finance, DAOs, and network states.
Combining primary sources with historical, legal, and social analysis, the authors critically examine the ideas and debates that shaped blockchain’s development. The book situates foundational texts, including Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper and Vitalik Buterin’s early writings on Ethereum, within the broader intellectual traditions of libertarianism, crypto-anarchism, extropian futurism, open-source culture, and decentralized governance.
The book also examines real-world governance crises like the FTX bankruptcy, the Terra/Luna collapse, the DAO hack, and Bitcoin’s scaling wars, providing insight into the many challenges of governing decentralized communities. In doing so, it shows that blockchain is not only a technical architecture, but also a political and legal project: an attempt to redesign trust, authority, ownership, and collective decision-making through code.
A foundational social history of blockchain technology, tracing how cypherpunk ideology, cryptographic code, legal imagination, and financial experimentation gave rise to cryptocurrencies and Web3.
The Blockchain Chronicles tells the story of blockchain’s emergence from a fringe crypto-anarchist...
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About the author
Primavera De Filippi is Research Director at the National Center of Scientific Research in Paris and Faculty Associate at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard. She is the coauthor of the book Blockchain and the Law and Blockchain Governance (MIT Press). She is the founder and coordinator of the UN Internet Governance Forum’s dynamic coalitions on Blockchain Technology (COALA) and founding member of the Global Future Council on Blockchain Technology at the World Economic Forum.
Joel Dietz is a serial entrepreneur and intellectual historian serving as a Connection Science Fellow at MIT. He authored the first academic work on cryptoeconomics, launched EtherCasts (the earliest smart-contract learning channel), and continues to lecture at leading research institutions globally.
Morshed Mannan is Lecturer in Global Law and Digital Technology at Edinburgh Law School, University of Edinburgh. He conducts research on the participatory governance of digital technologies, with a particular interest in blockchain-based systems and digital labor platforms. He is the coauthor of Blockchain Governance (MIT Press).
Kelsie Nabben is an ethnographic researcher specializing in the social outcomes of emerging technologies. She is a research fellow at the Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making & Society, RMIT University and author of Decentralised Digital Security.
Joel Dietz is a serial entrepreneur and intellectual historian serving as a Connection Science Fellow at MIT. He authored the first academic work on cryptoeconomics, launched EtherCasts (the earliest smart-contract learning channel), and continues to lecture at leading research institutions globally.
Morshed Mannan is Lecturer in Global Law and Digital Technology at Edinburgh Law School, University of Edinburgh. He conducts research on the participatory governance of digital technologies, with a particular interest in blockchain-based systems and digital labor platforms. He is the coauthor of Blockchain Governance (MIT Press).
Kelsie Nabben is an ethnographic researcher specializing in the social outcomes of emerging technologies. She is a research fellow at the Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making & Society, RMIT University and author of Decentralised Digital Security.
Primavera De Filippi is Research Director at the National Center of Scientific Research in Paris and Faculty Associate at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard. She is the coauthor of the book Blockchain and the Law and Blockchain Governance (MIT Press). She is the founder an...
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