crypto bubbles are here
Today afternoon, my cousin from hinterland called me. He was looking for a used laptop. Staying in a village where, as my mother said, only camels could reach a generation back, and where I still have to climb the roof to get phone network, I wondered what could be upto.
But I didn’t want to discourage him in most latest attempt at anything, being aware of his several earlier attempts at things.
“You know Saurabh Jewaria, the man who was responsible for online ticketing, IRCTC?” He asked. “I’m now part of his new venture. Its about bitcoin. Do you know? You must be knowing.” He was struggling to explain the current windmill he was tilting against.
“Like bitcoin, there’s ATC coin. It was trading just a few days back at parity, and now it’s already trading at Rs. 17 a coin. Along with that Saurabh sir is adding lot of things you can buy on the website, with this alternate coin.”
In his rustic way, he had captured the essence of the new promise in just two sentences. I started conjuring images of a mongolian bitcoin minning operation I had read about a few days back, and the role of my humble used laptop in a vast array of racks with silently blinking machines minting new currency. But technically, it was too complex for my brother. I was stuck in how could he, as I protested about the laptop’s specs. I was also worried about this being another ponzi, as my bro has a way of landing into such schemes effortlessly. Often. He anticipated my reaction.
“No, no, no worries. I just need a working laptop. I’m managing a 100 people who’ve signed up for this in our district, so far. All I need to do is open their accounts, managing some routine.”
He had it figured out how the laptop will travel from mumbai to the camel land. Apparently, that morning a 7th degree acquaintance in our network had passed away and my cousin had met another cousin at the funeral. Word was exchanged that this other cousin was coming to my home for a yajnya. He’ll carry it back. Details of logistics been worked out, I turned to Saurabh Jewaria.

A presentation explaining ponzi arithmetic of the scheme
What I find amazing though is the sheer imagination of the artist, bringing the most lucid concept of financial market and converting and committing people to his cause. Countless such videos later, each of which started with a celebrity talking about importance of currency, finance, returns etc the devoted conclusion to be drawn was the great promise of ATC coins.
I did checkout an ATC coin official website that made feeble attempt at proving it was registered in UK, with first page of her majesty’s seal and name of the company incorporated page. Next, since all digital currencies have to be “mined” — and that requires code, ATC had diligently provided a link to it’s github stub.

Apparently, it’s an incomplete source code, which means you can’t make atc coins with this code. My brother is presumably getting prepared to lead a hoard of either a great new currency miners or idiots about to loose their shirt.
I did call him back later in the evening, to warn him about investing any money himself, and more important, not induce people into loosing their money by promising anything.
“Don’t worry bro. This time is different. My good day’s are coming, I’ve been told. Everything comes together at the right time.”
Greed, fear & this time it’s different, the eternal ingredients of financial bubbles is here in crypto currencies too.
