Ignorance in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Bitcoin as a case study.

The cryptocurrency ecosystem has growingly attracted the attention of sociologists, especially those interested in the sociology of finance and in its critical and interdisciplinary research programme. This essay focuses on the multiple roles of ignorance in the financial sector of cryptocurrencies, considering Bitcoin as a case study. Ignorance is analyzed in four different meanings: 1) in terms of anonymity, or rather, pseudonymity; 2) in terms of information asymmetry and low financial literacy; 3) as unsound confidence in the stereotype of egalitarian networks; 4) as wrong belief in the existence of a trustless form of money. These meanings are explored theoretically and on the basis of empirical evidence in order to assess the practical effects that ignorance entails at the macro level of the cryptosystem, as well as at the micro level of individual investment decisions.