Blockchain Narratives : Cyber-Romanticism and the Digital Enlightenment

There is a growing recognition that the stories surrounding technology; so called ‘narratives’, have a strong influence on our inception of reality, for example, on how societies imagine the future, or how organisations position themselves in relation to technological change. Technologies do not simply emerge and diffuse, claims the narrative literature, but are made meaningful through stories, symbols, and contested ideas about what they are, have been, or could become. While blockchain is often described in technical terms through promises of its disruptive potential, less attention has been paid to the stories themselves; how they shape its technological trajectory, and how stories about blockchain’s capabilities orient and guide our thinking in certain contexts. Current literature tends to treat blockchain either as a neutral infrastructure or as a disruptive force within established paradigms, with much of it positioning blockchain uncritically as a utopian solution to contemporary challenges. Consequently, this thesis aims to explore how different narratives shape the way blockchain is understood, and how these narratives reciprocally shape our experiences with this amorphous technology. Drawing on the philosophy of technology, sociomateriality, and narrative theories, a qualitative, interpretive methodology is used to conceptualise and explore the implications of two dominant narratives; that of Cyber-Romanticism, and the Digital Enlightenment. As critical lenses, these narratives are subsequently applied to the papers that are included within this thesis, in order to help understand the implications of blockchain use across the dimensions of Autonomy of Money, Corruption, Sustainability, and Digital Asset Ownership. Findings suggest that blockchain is not one technology, but many competing visions wrapped into a single term. Rather than settling into a stable trajectory, it remains a site of ongoing negotiation and meaning-making, with important implications for how technological change is understood; not as a linear process driven solely by technical features or market forces, but as a contested and imaginative social practice. Consequently, this thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of how emerging technologies such as blockchain are indirectly narrated into being, and it invites scholars and practitioners alike to reflect on the power of stories, not only to describe the, past, present, and future, but also to actively shape it.