Making Money: Alternative Currency Use in Canada

Drawing on national-level online news sources covering Bitcoin from 2012 until September 23, 2014, this thesis analyzes the ways in which the Canadian government has sought to socially construct Bitcoin, an electronic peer-to-peer value transfer system and currency, within the Canadian legal framework. This thesis analyzes theoretical propositions about alternative currencies made by Geoffrey Ingham, Peter North and Edward Castronova by applying the contributions of these theorists to the present Canadian social context. 166 National Post, CBC News and Globe and Mail articles were analyzed through the use of a Thematic Analysis and Factor Analysis. This study determined that the state has constructed Bitcoin as a de facto currency in Canada for the accumulation of taxes while retaining de jure currency status for the Canadian Dollar. In doing so, the state has allowed Bitcoin to proliferate as an avenue with which to advance the state’s monitoring of Canadian financial activity.