Do it yourself

 The work on developing as crypto currency started in early 1980s. The idea was to create a medium of exchange that is independent of any central authority, is based on trust and is accepted by distributed consensus. The process was formally commercialized in 2009 with release of Bitcoin, the first decentralized crypto currency. May be uncertainty over future of fiat currencies post global financial crisis (which led to printing of unprecedented amount of new money) prompted adoption of an independent currency as medium of exchange. Since then, the crypto currencies based on block chain technology have been gaining popularity. Presently, besides Bitcoin, over 6000 variants of crypto currencies are in vogue. The present value of all bitcoin in circulation is over US$250bn and the average daily trading value of bitcoins id over US$23bn. It is clear that Bitcoin is emerging as a serious challenger to Gold as an alternative currency or medium for exchange of value. In India, RBI issu...

Continuing from Wednesday ( see here ) Not long back in the global history, aluminum was thought to be more precious than gold. Most powerful kings were served food in aluminum utensils while the lesser knights had to do with gold flatware. The sudden change in the value of aluminum took place when much cheaper means of refining the ore became available. Suddenly, it was disposable – as in aluminum foil or cola cans. In no time it transformed from most expensive thing in the world to garbage. Similarly, in African continent for long common salt remained a more prominent store of value and medium of exchange than gold. For past two centuries though gold has been globally preferred as a store of value over another commodity, primarily for its limited supply and physical traits that make it indestructible. However, in past four decades, the demand of gold for storage of value, vanity, social & financial security, and religiously important object shall has diminished. In my ...