Walking, visiting in the Andes Mountains, to be more specific in Machu-Pichu, last summer-While here in the States it is winter time, Peru it is in summer- surrounded by a mystic and unquestionable beauty of this stone city, closed my eyes, and I was able to transport myself into the Inca’s time.

I actually, envisioned myself walking through the streets of Machu- Pichu going to the market for vegetables and fruits, and stop by for a coffee at my favorite spot attended by my close friend Atahualpa.
We started a good chatting vibe, discussing how the Inca’s central bank dropped the interest rates in order to promote spending, and how interesting was the last visit from our extraterrestrial neighbors, who by the fact previously visited the Aztecs in Mexico, and said the NAFTA agreement was not a good deal at all, adding that last three corn harvests were seriously affected by continuous droughts, and they were afraid that could lead to serious consequences for the population, even the extinction.
The time came for me to leave back to my chalet, and then I extended him a digital payment, a crypto currency, the Incacoin.
I opened my eyes, and got back to reality, the time came for us to start walking down to Cuzco. The analogy for my talk today Cryptocurrency, comes from the fact that Inca Empire did not use money. At least not real, tangible, physical money. Just like digital money.

Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency. There is no physical bitcoin, only balances kept on a public ledger that everyone has transparent access to
A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange wherein individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger existing in a form of a computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records, to control the creation of additional coins, and to verify the transfer of coin ownership. Cryptocurrency does not exist in physical form (like paper money) and is typically not issued by a central authority.
Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to a central bank digital currency (CBDC).When a cryptocurrency is minted or created prior to issuance or issued by a single issuer, it is generally considered centralized. When implemented with decentralized control, each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain that serves as a public financial transaction database. (Wikipedia).
Cryptocurrency is supported by blockchain technology. Yes, like a chain of blocks united by specific messages between them.
Elon Musk as an avid bitcoin supporter with 1.5 billion dollar investment into the cryptocurrency announced the acceptance of bitcoin for its products and services.
A blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks that are linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree). The timestamp proves that the transaction data existed when the block was published in order to get into its hash. As blocks each contain information about the block previous to it, they form a chain, with each additional block reinforcing the ones before it. Therefore, blockchains are resistant to modification of their data because once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without altering all subsequent blocks.(Wikipedia)
Cryptocurrencies have become so popular that almost everybody with the right hardware can become a “crypto” bank.
Nowadays you can buy many things with bitcoin for example, which is the most well-known one. You can buy Seasons tickets for the Golden State Warriors, watches, etc. And Tesla, Elon Musk as an avid bitcoin supporter with 1.5 billion dollar investment into the cryptocurrency announced the acceptance of bitcoin for its products and services.
Just like any other emerging technologies, and ideas. Blockchain will require many ups and downs, government approvals, customers’ acceptance and why not big failures to consolidate its presence in the market. But we all know from close experiences, that technology has become a new common term in our daily language, and we should not disregard the opportunity to invest few dollars in one of the thousands cryptocurrencies available in the market today.
Read about the experience of the guy who paid few hundred dollars in pizzas celebrating with friends in san Francisco CA few years ago, falling short in cash he asked the restaurant owner if he would accept Bitcoins(as a joke), the owner said yes receiving full payment in digital currency. Today those few hundreds Bitcoins multiplied by a lot, he definitely publicly regretted it!
Generating (mining) cryptocurrencies requires a lot of power.
The numbers around the creation of a Bitcoin for example, are stratospheric, ridiculous big, is it worth?
Cryptocurrency mining consumes significant quantities of electricity and has a large associated carbon footprint. In 2017, bitcoin mining was estimated to consume 948MW, equivalent to countries the scale of Angola or Panama, respectively ranked 102nd and 103rd in the world. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero were estimated to have added 3 to 15 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere in the period from 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2017. By November 2018, Bitcoin was estimated to have an annual energy consumption of 45.8TWh, generating 22.0 to 22.9 million tons of carbon dioxide, rivalling nations like Jordan and Sri Lanka.(Wikipedia)
There are so many unanswered questions around this new technology, but the potential for different applications are amazing.
I would definitely dig deeper into the Blockchain technology, and Cryptocurrencies.
Would you?
I challenge you to find out more, and share your thoughts with us, drop a word or two, have a great mining day!