In a strange example of the duality of the world, I found myself sitting in a doctor's waiting room, overhearing a man and a woman (looked like a father in his 60's and his 30-something daughter) talking about this and that.
Part of the conversation revolved around the importance of "focusing on what's REAL."
As a testament to just how far "we" have come, one of the topics that came up was "cryptocurrencies." It's nice to see that it's a topic that would come up in a regular conversation between people in a random setting. Awareness is definitely spreading!
They next bit represented more of a "slam my head on the keyboard" moment:
The daughter said "Cryptocurrencies? That stuff isn't REAL!"
What is "real," anyway?
What does "Real" Even MEAN?
I wanted to step in and point out that the $15,000-odd I made from cryptocurrencies in 2017 was definitely very "real," but it was not my conversation... so I just sat on my hands.
The conversation made me pause to consider the many perceptions people hold, with respect to exactly what constitutes "real," and what does not.
In the end, I could appreciate the daughter's perspective.
After all "we" have spent many years complaining about the way governments "print money out of thin air" with no accountability... and how cryptocurrencies are a response to that.
On the other hand, what do we do? We also create value out of thin air... difference is that we are accountable for that thin air... but when you get down to the nitty-gritty of it, we're still dealing with a variant of thin air.
Red autumn leaf
The Nature of Money and Currency
Of course, the bottom line truth here is that most people never think about the fact that money — in pretty much any format — is not "real," in the tangible understanding of the word.
Money is not "a thing."
Money is just the representation of "a thing." Money is just an agreement that we have a common unit of measure to help us trade house painting for apples, and eye glasses for lawn mowing. Money is just a representative temporary store of value.
Sure, we have some pieces of paper with the number "100" written on them, or some numbers in a computer to somehow make our agreements "tangible."
My guess is that the young woman in the waiting room perceived cryptocurrencies as "not being real" because there were no pieces of paper, and no government (or "official body") to say "we printed this!"
Oak leaf in the sun
"Not real," Part II — The Trouble With Cryptos
My own personal "trouble" with cryptocurrencies... and what make them "not real" to me, in a completely different sense... is that they failed to set themselves up to become what they originally claimed to become: currencies.
Instead of becoming viable alternatives to use to buy apples, coffee and carpet cleaning services, they took the route of instead becoming these exceptionally speculative and volatile exotic investment vehicles.
Don't think I'm right?
Ask yourself how many people (for example) think of Bitcoin as something you use to pay for your groceries with (a true currency) and how many people think of Bitcoin purely as "a way to possibly make lots of money."
I have no idea how long it will take for us all to extract ourselves from that particular perception... nor whether we ever will, nor whether people even want to.
In the meantime, the "is it real?" debate will continue, I'm sure...
Thanks for reading!
(Another #creativecoin creative non-fiction post)
What do YOU think? What is "real," and what is NOT "real?" Can we even make that distinction? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 191105 12:30 PST
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