Those of us who keep up with financial news will recall the Gamestop catastrophe in early 2021. During that time, a group of Reddit users planned to deliberately boost the price of GameStop stock in order to strike against hedge funds that had been undercutting the stock for years. Because of this, the stock of Gamestop soared and many shorted firms went bankrupt. It was a milestone moment in history, illustrating the strength of internet communities teaming together to take on the financial world. While this was a groundbreaking event, it wasn’t the first time online communities have pooled their resources to support a worthy cause. It’s true that the cryptocurrency industry has been doing this for years, and it has done so by utilizing relatively new technology rather than decades-old stock exchanges. Even while there are still web forums dedicated to stock purchasing, the cryptocurrency community has grown to be known as one of the most vocal and united in its goal in recent months. But, why is it the case exactly? Why has cryptocurrency inspired and garnered such a committed following in such a short period of time when compared to stocks that have been around for a longer amount of time? The Anatomy of Internet Spaces Since the Internet’s inception, people have united to form communities around anything and everything. Everyone from sports to music to food to entertainment to finance has been a part of this story. Due to ...
