BOOKS & OTHER WRITINGS

Here is a selection of my research-based writings on the economic, technological and institutional systems that shape how we live, exchange and organize society. My creative and more political texts can be found under Art.

MONEY PATTERNS

Money is probably the only “thing” that people use every day, yet almost no one truly understands. Even though we spend our lives earning money, saving money, borrowing money, investing money, paying taxes with money, and endlessly worrying about money, ask ten experts from different disciplines what money actually is, and you will probably get ten different answers. So if money shapes almost every social and economic interaction in our lives, why is it so difficult to say what it actually is? Why do even experts fail to agree on a single definition, and how are we supposed to make informed financial decisions, let alone question the systems we live by, if we don't understand how money works in the first place?

MONEY PATTERNS [BOOK]

Alongside the Money Patterns the book which will be published early 2027, I am also developing Money Patterns as a large-scale immersive multimedia installation for museums and other art spaces. Both the book and the installation explore money not as a neutral medium of exchange, but as one of humanity's most powerful social technologies—a system that shapes how we value nature, labor, time, and one another. By revealing the historical patterns behind our current economic assumptions, Money Patterns argues that our financial systems are neither natural nor inevitable—they are human inventions, and therefore open to redesign.

CRYPTO

My research into money is not new. It started back in 2009, and first led me into the world of crypto. In 2015, I founded BlockchainHub Berlin, one of the first educational think tanks dedicated to exploring the social, economic, and governance implications of Bitcoin and other blockchain networks. At a time when most discussions focused almost exclusively on the technology itself, BlockchainHub sought to make these emerging systems understandable to policymakers, businesses, researchers, and the broader public. The initiative later expanded through satellite organizations in Brussels, Sofia, and Graz.

In 2016, I became one of the curators of TheDAO , one of the earliest decentralized organizations. Two years later, I co-founded and became the inaugural director of the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics. During this period, I wrote the three editions of Token Economy, which became an international bestseller, in particular its 2nd Edition. Throughout this work, my goal was to make this complex socio-technical infrastrcture and its applications accessible to people without technical backgrounds because I believe that those who live within technological systems, should also be able to participate in shaping and governing them.

THE BITCOIN BOOK

RESEARCH PAPER, REPORTS & BOOK CHAPTERS

RESEARCH PAPER: Foundations of Cryptoeconomic Systems, 2020

INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs, 2020

BOOK CHAPTER: Business Purpose Design, 2019

BOOK CHAPTER: Rechtshandbuch Smart Contracts, 2018

RESEARCH PAPER: Disrupting Governance with Blockchains and Smart Contracts, 2017

GOVERNMENT REPORT: Technologiestiftung Berlin, 2016

BLOGS

I also published articles on various platforms, including my personal blog, Token Kitchen, and the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics in Vienna.

https://sherminvoshmgir.medium.com/

https://medium.com/token-kitchen

https://medium.com/crypto3conomics

OTHER

Over the years, my research into cryptocurrencies, cryptoeconomics, and the nature of money has taken me to international conferences, including two TEDx talks, and led to numerous interviews, articles, podcasts, and public discussions. I also engaged in selective consulting and workshops, which helped fund my independent work. The following is a selection of talks, publications, interviews, and professional engagements from that period.