Crypto bondage
The world of cryptocurrencies has taken the world by storm — Whether you understand it or do not, it is equally enchanting — a financial world free from any bias or barriers.
But as one of my friends keeps reminding me,
everything bad comes from something that was intended to be good
Our immediate attention goes to criminals and drug traffickers which would surely be thrilled by the prospects, but that is probably just the tip of the iceberg. The forces that be and have been are not sitting around watching this unfold without taking the cake and only leaving a piece behind and who knows if they baked the cake itself.
Moving on, there are various ways to use this new blockchain technology and the money it runs. I can quickly think of two examples how some businesses are trying to change the narrative and providing a potentially lucrative option for users using different coins.
There is the BAT (Basic Attention Token) which is based on the Brave browser and helps the end users get the most benefits out of the advertisements that are in fact intended for them. Users get 70% of the revenue of the advertisers as the BAT token. The value of the token itself is subject to innumerable factors but it does have value (currently at ~$1.5) — You can just earn your $1.5 by clicking on various ads and browsing through the ads. Yes, you make money without selling your soul. (more on this)
Then, there is Storj token — Consider it the blockchain equivalent of google drive except people can now host your data in high encryption in a decentralized way and be paid in the same token currency. Users pay in FIAT, Storj itself or another crypto currency. (more on this)
That was as quick as possible to give an idea of the good. Now, let us see a very imminent bad and ugly — as usual it presented itself as a good idea at first.
I would not call myself a fitness freak, but I have lately been very conscious of my in takes and burn outs. On my run workouts, the hardest part is the last mile and one of the ways I figured out to complete it is to sing nursery rhymes to myself (Wheels on the bus can give you 300 meters while a simple ABCD can get you 200 meters — done twice as per the original that is) which are all I have learned dealing with my kid’s toddler years.
For those who want another more productive and less fun way out is to engage your mind in some brainstorming and it does not only get you through without noticing the meters, but you can end up finding a direction to solving your man made problems.
With so much crypto around, on my recent runs, I was thinking of starting a currency based on health — something on the lines of the healthier you got, the richer you got and part of that automatically went to a charity or a global initiative dealing with health and nutrition especially in impoverished areas and countries.
Ofcourse when I say rich, we are talking cryptocoin rich — just making sure we are all on the same page.
I couldnt wait to put it all on paper as soon as I got home and created what is called an elevator pitch in the startup world — With all those templates floating around these days, it was not difficult and guess what, here we will share the entire pitch:
This is Kate
She lives a healthy lifestyle
She exercises regularly, actually bikes to her office to save on carbon footprint. Getting 8 hours of sleep is her mandate and keeping herself hydrated is a top priority.
She also consciously selects restaurants which have been validated for their environmental impact and organic ingredients.
Unfortunately this lifestyle is not possible for everyone
821 million people — one in nine still go to bed on an empty stomach each night. One in three suffer from malnutrition.
What if we could connect the two worlds in a mutually beneficial way
Change the game
What if the next time you closed a ring on your watch,
it notified you that 1 calcoin (calorie coin — smart name right?) was credited to an International NGO
which would provide meals to a child in Africa’s severely drought hit sahel region for a whole month!
You are asking how is that possible?
It takes a unique crypto currency which connects three parties for a win-all
A user who strives to lead a healthy lifestyle
A lot of people investing in the calcoin as purely an investment
Finally, a portion of every transaction going to a humanitarian organization which utilizes those funds.
The higher the value of the calcoin, the more investors make, the more gets to the humanitarian world.
Close that ring of happiness
Get rewarded with coins and a system which believes in your healthy lifestyle choices and environmental impact activities.
This paints a very beautiful picture so far.
Let us take a step back now.
How many of us know how these coins are actually produced in the first place? Remember the coins are a store of value (something like gold) and therefore the process is called mining and involves rigs. In simplest terms, it involves burning up electricity to run some machines continuously to solve some complex math equations. Over time, the miner produces bits and pieces of the coin and depending on the configuration of the coin, the associated value from all its users, it is FIAT (government back currency: USD etc.) exchangeable.
everything bad comes from something that was intended to be good
Our whole project just changed production mechanism from burning up electricity in machines to burning up calories in humans.
Connecting the dots on all of this sent shivers down my spine.
In short, imagine how many Iqbals might be rounded up across the world to wear bands and watches and run on treadmills endlessly to make a currency which would make investors rich. Just the thought of this is a slippery slope into the depths of sadness and madness.
I write this article in the hope that such a venture never takes place because in this, we have everything to lose: the very humanity we are trying to save.
Iqbal was murdered on 16 April 1995 — exactly 26 years ago when he was about my age .
May no other soul have to endure this ever.
