Cryptoganda: The Newest Bottle for Very Old Brandy

An updated form of the buying power myth has emerged targeting specifically Black investors in cryptocurrency. This “cryptoganda” has itself found a welcome home in an existing commercial media environment convincing many of its potential to solve existing, persistent, and worsening material inequality and specifically to give Black people a chance at developing a new relationship to the economy and society. Cryptoganda is simply what I have called the application of buying power mythology to the promotion of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. This chapter summarizes that process while intentionally avoiding the arguments surrounding cryptocurrency and blockchain technology’s ability to solve the inequality Black people face. In other words, the focus of this chapter is the messaging. Arguments over defining the technology, the currencies themselves, or the validity of their claims are beyond the scope of this book.