HALLIE EPHRON: Most of the time, I feel as if I’m keeping up, technology-wise. I worked in high tech starting in the 1980s and used early versions of email and browsers before most of us knew what the Internet was. I wrote about “groupware” for IBM and Lotus, and also about "middleware" for a short-lived tech start up (middleware allows programmers to access old ("legacy") databases with new user interfaces).
These days I manage my computer and cell phone reasonably well and update my own web site. But I find myself hitting a wall with terms like:
Cryptocurrency
Blockchain
Non-Fungible
Look up those terms and here we go, down the rabbit hole with explanations like:
Non-fungible tokens are, in a way, a lot like cryptocurrency. The record of NFTs’ existence lives on blockchains, they can be bought and sold using cryptocurrency, and there isn't necessarily a physical asset that ties them to the real world.
Individually I (sort of) understand (most of) the words. But… overall, my brain feels as if this is a huge pile of gobbledygook.
So maybe this is not something I need to understand? But it must matter, because a few days ago China banned cryptocurrency trading and mining. Leading to this headline in Forbes:
So, can I just tune out $150 Billion? After all, bitcoins aren’t tangible. I’m never going to physically encounter one.
And yet... and yet… come to find to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are “mined,” and that requires powerful, expensive hardware and lots of electricity which is contributing to climate change. How much? The answer seems to be “a lot,” but I invite you to go venture down that rabbit hole yourself and try to figure out what that means.
Plus cryptocurrencies are apparently used as a tool for facilitating criminal money laundering. See China’s ban.
I thought I was keeping up, but clearly I am not.
Now can someone help me figure out how to use that coin sorting machine in my supermarket? I've got jars and jars of pennies which, though tangible and fungible, have nearly no value.
How about you? Bitcoins, anyone, or are you sticking with cold hard cash and Krugerrands?
