Coin Of The Realm

 I would ask for someone to explain Bitcoin to me, but I am honestly not sure that I want to know any more than I already do. Currently it is my understanding that it is an alternative to reality. The reality to which I am accustomed, anyway. 

As I write this, one is worth more than thirty thousand dollars. This value fluctuates greatly, depending on how much business is being conducted on any given digital day. Transactions take place through "computers" and we never really see any of this "money." 

Wait a second. That sounds an awful lot like the bank account I currently maintain that has regular old money in it. The potentially amusing portion of this experience is that while I tend not to carry cash anywhere at any time, I continue to stoop over and pick up the odd penny, nickel or dime I see when I am walking down the street or across a parking lot. These "coins" get collected in a jar on my wife's desk and are eventually rolled into counted denominations that make them easier to move about. 

The fluctuation in value of these "coins" is (checks notes) nothing. Fifty pennies is worth just about exactly fifty cents. A roll of fifty dimes is, well, ten times that so approximately five dollars. Sometimes if I'm in a rush and count the roll wrong, that value is decreased by the amount of the missing coin or coins. 

That makes sense. The Bank of Singapore has suggested that Bitcoin should replace gold as its store of value. That doesn't make as much sense to me. The gold standard hasn't been used very consistently since the Great Depression, and the idea that the United States has enough gold in vaults somewhere to cover the dollars and those nickels and dimes that I keep holding onto is kind of a foolish one. 

So is the idea that there are competing digital currencies. Bitcoin is just one of them. There are more than ten thousand publicly traded "cryptocurrencies." Folks who trade "cryptocurrencies" insist that they are the "future." I refer to this as "science fiction" or "hokum," mostly because I am old. 

And I pick loose change up off the sidewalk. Don't interrupt me with all this Bitcoin nonsense, I'm counting.