Cryptocurrency is getting a lot more popular lately. I’ve gotten into it and realized that there are a lot of dangers involved with them. So I’ve decided to starts making PSAs to warn people about these dangers.
First is a warning about scammers that will try to steal your cryptocurrency:
I read that some social media influencers are posting comments about fake cryptos and people believe they are real…just give me good ole green-backs 
Paper money - promises pretending to be gold. The original cryptocurrency.
Yes, paper money and cryptocurrency are equally “fake”. Both are not backed by any physical goods, and governments just keep printing more money to keep consumer spending up and interest rates down.
Well, I guess I better get some beads ready for trading
http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/anthro/beads/beads_trade.html
I hear there are some Dutch guys in Manhattan interested in a real estate deal.
The weird thing is, as soon as banks and loaning for interest was invented, not even gold was gold anymore, even though the coins they loaned were made out of it. There was still more money in the economy than actually existed, even back when… 
Even more curious, for most of human history, gold has been pretty much useless. It’s rare, It looks nice, and it doesn’t corrode - but it’s too soft for tools, weapons, or armour. You can’t do anything practical with it.
It’s always been valuable, and the value has always been symbolic.
Indeed. It’s never been more obvious than in that little episode where conquistadores brought boatloads of platinum back from the colonies. The spanish didn’t really find a use for it, it had much the properties of gold, but wasn’t gold, so nobody would trust it enough to make it part of the currency.
It did find a use in counterfeit gold coins, and the thing got so out of hand that the spanish started to throw all the platinum they found in spain into the sea… 
Gold is now used in electronics, many people seem to overlook this. It is poetic then, I suppose, that some gold is used to create Bitcoin (known as digital gold). @Polyphemus @jedidia
That’s why I said “for most of human history”. In the last 300 years, it’s found niche uses in areas like watch cases and dental work, and now, as you say, in electronics. But it was the first metal to be exploited by ancient humans - its known history goes back at least 10,000 years - and for the great majority of that time it was useless. Nevertheless, it has always been highly valued.
It is a perverse fact of economics that one of our least useful resources should always have been one of the most expensive. It seems to overturn Abraham Maslow’s theory of heirarchy of needs.
The answer, of course, lies in the rarity, beauty, and incorruptibility of gold. It looks good - it always looks good - and it’s very hard to obtain. Only powerful, successful, people can have it - so it becomes a symbol of power.
But gold is great for tooth crowns. It doesn’t break as easily as the alternatives. I have one on a molar. The dentist recommend it for back teeth that don’t show when you smile
OK. Now that’s extreme! LOL.
I do understand that the current best cap white material is actually made from Zirconium. It’s stronger, apparently.
We’ve somehow wandered from cryptocurrency to teeth. I suppose it explains the “Bit” in “Bitcoin”.
Don’t let Bitcoin bite you!
There is a Bytecoin, like so many other copycats
My pet hypothesis is that due to these properties it might have been considered magical, and might have seen its original use in religious/animistic relics, wards and talismans. In other words, I suspect there might have been a very real (if only perceived) need for it somewhere at the dawn of humanity that lead to its initial value.
Aha. A truly golden hypothesis!
(desperately trying to get the thread back on topic) And thus why cryptocurrency is sometimes referred to as “magical internet money”!
