MacGougan at Large

Notes on My Ineffectual Boycotts - 3

Cryptocurrency

This is my easiest boycott. Currently, boycotting cryptocurrency is a little like boycotting civilian space travel.

Cryptocurrency, crypto for short, has always struck me as a solution in search of a problem. If I want to buy something, there are already a hundred ways I can provide payment - from Apple Pay to Zelle. I can pay with cash, credit card, debit card, check, Venmo, PayPal, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, You-Name-It Pay. I can pay in person or through my phone or computer. Most of these methods work really well, with minimal friction or expense. 

Crypto, on the other hand, is cumbersome and not widely accepted. It’s subject to dramatic market risk, but not regulated like securities. It’s subject to total loss if you lose your electronic wallet. Oh, and it facilitates crime, enables untraceable bribes to public officials, and requires so much computing power that it’s a significant contributor to global warming.

For some reason, crypto seems to appeal to the prep-for-the-apocalypse crowd. I guess in theory crypto could continue to exist beyond the collapse of the world banking system. The problem is that’s assuming that the internet will still work and there’s anybody willing to sell you anything. I’m thinking that counting on crypto to pay your bills after the apocalypse is a bit like hiding under your desk at school in order to survive a nuclear bomb.

So I’m boycotting crypto. And, as you might expect, crypto values are going through the roof. Still, my theory is that it’s an artificially-limited-supply thing like Beanie Babies and that a day of reckoning is bound to come.

When the valuation bubble burst for Beanie Babies, at least people had some cute toys to play with.