Bitcoin and Stone Money: Anglophone Use of Yapese Economic Cultures 1910-2020

Recently parallels have been drawn between Bitcoin and Yapese stone money. The analogy between Bitcoin and Yapese stone money is based on proposed commonalities that are inaccurate, ill-defined, and/or trivial. However, this does not signal a need to refine the comparison, but rather a need to reconsider the rationale for attempting it in the first place. Recent attempts to redescribe Yapese stone money using the vocabulary and concepts from the field of cryptocurrency participate in a longer textual history, whereby Anglophone writers have misrepresented Yap for pedagogic or polemic convenience. This history features frequent colonialist troping of Yap and the erasure of histories of colonial violence and power. This paper uses desk research to provide an overview of this textual history. It celebrates broad scholarly exploration of more-than-capitalist practices, but recommends greater caution in the study and pedagogic representation of Yapese economies.