The 2018 Year of Cryptocurrency Challenge – Week 18

At the beginning of 2018, I wrote an article outlining a New Year’s resolution that I thought could help boost cryptocurrency adoption and awareness in 2018, as long as enough people were doing it. Last week was the seventeenth installment of my challenge. This week’s installment is a bit lighter than usual since last week’s was delayed a bit. Let’s dive in!

TRY TO SPEAK TO AS MANY PEOPLE ABOUT CRYPTOCURRENCY AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN

This week I had the great fortune to be interviewed by The Greek Reporter along with a colleague of mine. During the course of the 25 minute interview, we touched on many topics ranging from a high level view of cryptocurrency, how regulation will affect the future of cryptocurrency, and even what digital anthropology is.

1. The interviewer was very interested in the idea of regulation, how regulation will affect cryptocurrency, and whether or not it flies in the face of what cryptocurrency is meant to be. I really enjoyed answering this question, because so many people have so many different opinions on this, but I explained my position: I think that regulation is inevitable, that it is not necessarily a bad thing, and that it most certainly does not negate the point of cryptocurrency. Put simply, regulation will happen. We can only hope that such regulation will include both soft and hard punishments for bad actors in the space while not stifling innovation. Regulation is always playing catch-up with technology, but that does not mean it won’t happen.
2. I was impressed with how little the interviewer focused on price, though he did not avoid it altogether. He did ask my colleague and I whether or not cryptocurrency was a good investment. I explained I wasn’t giving financial advice, but that I do view cryptocurrency as an entirely new asset class - the first new one in a couple hundred years, it seems. As with all assets, though, it is impossible to know the future or time the market.
3. Our discussion (or at least the questions directed to me) was rounded out by discussing what the heck a digital anthropologist is and why one would even be interested in cryptocurrency. I elaborated on my discipline, and how cryptocurrency communities, these networks of people and data build around a distributed, digital item were so incredibly interesting to me from an anthropological standpoint. Price is cool, technology is better, but the communities that build themselves around these digital artifacts are what excite me the most.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW ABOUT CRYPTO

From my interview this week with the Greek Reporter, I learned that even though Andreas Antonopoulos (a Greek) is well known in the cryptocurrency community, he is not all that well known in Greece. I thought that this was kind of disappointing, as the Greek people have a cryptocurrency superstar and not everyone seems to realize that there. Hopefully, continued education and cryptocurrency evangelism in Greece (and elsewhere) will help the space and those within it receive their rightful recognition.

BE GENEROUS – GIVE AND USE YOUR COINS

This week I paid a friend back for some pizza with some Dogecoin that I had in my mobile wallet. While I underpaid by a little bit (I only had so many Doge on me at the time), my friend seemed very into the idea of being paid in Doge. I realize that Doge may be my favorite cryptocurrency to spend for many reasons, not the least of which has to do with reporting crypto on taxes. Sending in pages upon pages of documents to the federal government with “DOGE” on them makes me smile. What’s your favorite cryptocurrency to spend? If you are Greek, are you helping to spread the word about crypto to your countrymen and women? Tell us in the comments or over Twitter!