Making Sense of Digital Currency: Exploratory Insights on the Accounting,Perceptions and Practices of Money Across Diverse User Groups

Abstract

This study explores how individuals make sense of digital currencies and how their use reshapes perceptions and practices of money. Drawing on in-depth interviews with diverse users, the analysis reveals that digital currency operates as a socio-technical apparatus that embeds new forms of control, accountability and legitimacy into everyday financial life. Using reflexive thematic analysis, the findings identify four interconnected mechanisms through which users experience and interpret digital currency: control, inclusion, legitimacy and coping. Digital currency was perceived as enabling greater financial control, visibility and self-monitoring, while also fostering inclusion for women, informal-sector workers and low-literate users by enhancing legitimacy through access, confidence and participation in financial exchanges. At the same time, digital currency generated new pressures and vulnerabilities, prompting users to develop coping strategies to manage overspending, surveillance anxiety and social expectations. The study contributes a holistic model illustrating the iterative and cyclical nature of these mechanisms, advancing understanding of digital currency as more than a financial instrument—rather, as a symbolic and social artefact that reconfigures accounting and accountability of money. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, along with limitations and directions for future research.