Who's the player got the women liiiike...Coindaddy
Who's the player got the blockchain tiiiiie...Coindaddy
Those are the opening lyrics to one of the latest tracks by the rapper CoinDaddy, née Arya Bahmanyar.
A former real estate agent who decided to combine his passion for cryptocurrency with his musical aspirations, Coindaddy is one of the motley crew of individuals in San Francisco's burgeoning, bizarre crypto culture chronicled in a fascinating article by the New York Times' Nellie Bowles.
Among the others in this surreal cast of characters is a mixed martial arts fighter that discovered cryptocurrencies through his passion for "vintage pornography," and a 26-year-old who cradles a cat named Mr. Bigglesworth and claims to be sitting on a crypto fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
With the price of bitcoin now roughly $14,000, and the blockchain technology that underlies bitcoin now in full hype mode, the world is experiencing a case of cryptocurrency fever that could either reshape global economies or crash and burn spectacularly. But while many investors and companies are dipping their toes in the water to see what bitcoin and other blockchain technology is all about, a tribe of true-believers in San Francisco is living and breathing crypto.
Many of these crypto die-hards live or frequent a three-story home known as the Crypto Castle, which was profiled by Business Insider in January 2017. There's also a nearby (and presumably less regal) Crypto Crackhouse, where other members of the clan live, toil and share communal bathrooms.
Members speak in their own patois, with neologisms like "HODL," a play on the word "hold" that's apparently meant to convey a person's commitment to cryptocurrencies. And there's even a clothing company called hodlmoon that sells customized sweaters with bitcoin themes, so devotees can dress the part.
It's worth reading the entire New York Times feature by Bowles here.
And if you want to get a taste of the crypto life, listen to CoinDaddy's latest track below:
