Quinn DuPont studies human and social dimensions of cybersecurity, cryptography, and code. He is currently a postdoctoral Research Associate at the School of Information, University of Washington. He has a PhD in Information Science (Toronto), and is an ALA-accredited librarian (Western), with a decade of industry experience as a Senior Information Specialist at IBM, an IT consultant, and a usability and experience designer. His current research focuses on ethical practices of computer security researchers, and cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. He is a member of the Standards Council of Canada and ISO blockchain standardization committees, Chair of the IEEE Blockchain Initiative, and Chief Governance Officer at Qubit Protocol.

His book, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains (2018, Polity), is a scholarly survey of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies in society.

Current Appointments

  • Research Associate, School of Information, University of Washington

Past Appointments

  • Center For Digital Cultures Fellow, Leuphana University (Summer, 2017)
  • Electronic Textual Cultures Lab Visiting Scholar, University of Victoria (Spring, 2017)
  • Digital Studies Fellow, Rutgers University (2016-2017)

Current Service & Activities

  • Member: Blockchain & DLT (TC307), Standards Council of Canada (SCC) (2016-)
  • Member: Study Group on Blockchain & DLT: Security and Privacy (TC307), International Standards Organization (ISO) (2017-)
  • Member: Study Group on Blockchain & DLT: Smart Contracts (TC307), International Standards Organization (ISO) (2017-)
  • Member: Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (2017-)
  • Education Chair: Blockchain Initiative (BCI) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (2018-)

Recent & Upcoming Lectures

  • University of British Columbia, iSchool “Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains” (Seattle, March 16, 2018)
  • University of Washington, ISACA, “Developing a Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains Research Agenda” (Seattle, April 3, 2018)
  • University of Chicago; History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science Workshop, “Origins of the Encrypted Information Society (1945-2013)” (Chicago, May 18, 2018)
  • International Communications Association, “Hacking Culture and the Emergence of Responsible Computer Security Research” (Prague, May 24-28, 2018)

Publications

Monographs (1)

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles (10)

Book Chapters (4)

  • DuPont, Quinn. “Cryptographic Media.” In Second International Handbook of Internet Research edited by Hunsinger, Jeremy, Klastrup, Lisbeth, Allen, Matthew M. Springer: Netherlands, 2018.
  • DuPont, Quinn. “The Printing Press and Cryptography: Alberti and the Dawn of a Notational Epoch.” In A Material History of Medieval and Early Modern Ciphers: Cryptography and the History of Literacy edited by Katherine Ellison and Susan Kim. Material Readings in Early Modern Culture. New York: Routledge, 2017. https://www.routledge.com
  • DuPont, Quinn. “Experiments in Algorithmic Governance: An ethnography of “The DAO,” a failed Decentralized Autonomous Organization.” In Bitcoin and Beyond: The Challenges and Opportunities of Blockchains for Global Governance, edited by Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn. Routledge 2017 (Google Books; preprint).
  • DuPont, Quinn. “Otherness and Order.” In Andrés Ramírez Gaviria: A Line, However Short, Has An Infinite Number Of Points. Barcelona: Triton, 2016. http://www.andresramirezgaviria.info/dupont.

Journal Special Issues (1)

Book Reviews (4)

Other Articles (6)

Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Information Science

University of Toronto (2010—2016), “An Archeology of Cryptography: Rewriting Plaintext, Encryption, and Ciphertext.” Supervised by Brian Cantwell Smith and Patrick Keilty.

Master of Arts, Philosophy

University of Toronto (2006—2007).

Master of Library and Information Science

University of Western Ontario (2006—2007)

Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy

University of Victoria (2002—2005)

Digital Projects (5)

  • Alice & Bob: A History of The World’s Most Famous Cryptographic Couple (2017). [cryptocouple.com]
    History and archive of Alice and Bob in academic literature and digital culture. With Alana Cattapan.
  • Cracking the Agrippa Code (2012). [http://crackingagrippa.net]
    Digital humanities investigation of Gibson’s Agrippa e-poem. Commentary and additional analysis by Alan Liu.
  • Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Academic Bibliography and Archive (2017) [forthcoming]
    Comprehensive bibliography and archive of cryptocurrency and blockchain academic literature.
  • Cryptographic Identities (2016) Fabric of Digital Life. [fabricofdigitallife.com]
    Curator of collection of cryptographic wearables for digital humanities archive.
  • DAO of Whales (2016). [Now defunct; http://daoofwhales.com]
    Participant-observation research of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations. The DAO was shuttered in 2016; see my “Experiments in Algorithmic Governance.“