Imagine something nice. Anything.
Waiting…
What did you imagine?
Now imagine a sequence of 24 short english words. Like: better, really, hope, horse, machine, future (and 18 more)…
Was anyone able to see what you were thinking?
Not likely and hopefully impossible for some time!
Maybe you didn’t realize, but the second thought — your sequence of 24 random words could be worth millions. Or billions.
Or just ½ of any fiat token F, where F ⊂ {€, $, ¥, ₽}.
It doesn’t matter.
Really. That’s how private keys in virtual currencies work.
What matters is this: because the money is virtual, nobody, but nobody can take it from you. This is the first virtual thing that cannot be copied and thus “taken away”. Any other common digital asset, like photo, music track or digital book could be copied (and will be copied once on the Internet). This time it really means that nobody can make a copy of a virtual thing (money, access, voting rights etc.) that you own. Pretty crazy.
Next funny thing to think about: is there something else that is material and of real monetary value that cannot be taken away from you no matter how hard anyone tries? Nope, only some virtual things can hold such property (and all of these live on some blockchain).
Summary: virtual tokens backed by good systems are the only thing of real monetary value that cannot be misappropriated if you take the correct measures. This implies beautiful things. Also it hopes for more responsibility, towards yourself and towards others.
Virtual currencies are not about getting rich ultraquick. They are about a vision of the future where everyone knows a little more, is more educated, more responsible and takes a minute to stop and think more often. It is about progress, pure and simple. We can all hope for a better future, right? Virtual currencies are, in rising number of opinions, a better future. They are of course not the only component of better future visions. Real things still matter more at the end, virtual currencies and unstoppable DApps with or without Smart Contracts are just an obviously better way of organization of world resources, not something radically different. The core idea or multiple core ideas of crypto mathematics, economics and computer science are indeed very recent but we won’t suddenly beam ourselves into cryptospace and stop existing on the material plane. It is not that radical, just a better way of doing some of the same things and some new things later.
Back to Earth from the Clouds: learn what are private keys, how to control them safely and be your own master with the help of your trusted circle for help and knowledge. While everything else became abundant or will be soon, trust is still a scarce commodity. Don’t let other small or big institutions and companies endanger you by illusion of security, meaning the concrete example of holding your private keys (= virtual money and more). Even if they mean well, this is not the complete vision of crypto, you still trust some random middleman to not screw you completely one day sooner or later and with little thought. Take the time to do things right this time.
Learn to control your future. Maybe even stop thinking just about direct monetary gains in the old sense of investing, namely I invest X today (did I understand what I’m investing in?) and expect 2X tomorrow. That is an extremely narrow view and unfair to the science and engineering behind innovative blockchains and other related distributed systems. Also it is more and more wrong each day with growing number of people involved.
Think different! Understand things. Don’t believe in any promises, just hopes, then find good hopes and stand behind them!
