Description
Drawing on Foucault’s concept of counter-conduct, this paper examines Bitcoin as a site of resistance to state monetary governmentality and global financial hegemony. It situates Bitcoin within critical debates on sovereignty and governmentality in International Relations, arguing that its decentralized architecture challenges the state’s biopolitical management of populations through money. Through critical discourse analysis of early discussions on Bitcoin, cypherpunk manifestos, crypto-anarchist texts, and writings of Bitcoin proponents, the paper shows how the philosophy and technology of Bitcoin (decentralization) operate as an anti-statist political praxis. This analysis is extended through emerging Islamic jurisprudential debates that frame Bitcoin as halal (not permissible), contrasting with Islamic critiques of interest-based fiat systems as haram (permissible). These convergent discourses reveal shared contestations over riba (interest/usury), inequality, and Western financial dominance. The paper argues that Bitcoin’s ideological and technical architectures relocate sovereignty, legitimacy, and value from state institutions to decentralized networks of cryptography.
