
This article argues that the value of cryptocurrencies does not primarily originate from market speculation but from the existence of a socially recognized and technically stabilized registration regime. Drawing on Registration Regime Theory (RRT), the paper conceptualizes blockchain as a secularized “Book of Deeds” in which ownership, scarcity, and temporal continuity are ontologically fixed through immutable inscription. Speculative price movements operate only on the basis of this pre-existing archival infrastructure and cannot generate value independently. Through an analysis of Bitcoin’s fixed monetary supply, proof-of-work mechanism, the Ethereum DAO fork, and inscription practices such as Ordinals, the study demonstrates how digital value emerges through writing rather than exchange alone. The article situates cryptocurrencies within a historical continuum of divine, bureaucratic, and algorithmic archives, arguing that contemporary finance has entered a new phase of financial ontology, where reality itself is constituted through cryptographic records.
Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Financial Ontology, Registration Regime Theory, Digital Archives, Immutability, Archival Labor
Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Financial Ontology, Registration Regime Theory, Digital Archives, Immutability, Archival Labor
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