“Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own” — Sidney J. Harris.

Disclaimer: The Harris quoted above is in no way related to VPOTUS.

Yesterday, I went to Crypto Market.

Tokens were there, but Lala Ram Ratan Agarwal S/o  Haldi Ram of Bikaner, who lives in the back lane of Imperial Cinema, Paharganj, was missing.

After gluten free snacks, carb free food, green tea, protein powder, health supplements and organics, companion search on my iPhone, I decided to go to crypto market.

There were 1600 ‘Lala Ram Ratans’ willing, ready, and able to sell me tokens.

They told me some are mineable, others are not.

And more Lalas are coming every day. Their names? All exotic.

The Price varied from 1/10000 of a dollar to 57,000 dollars, a token.

By giving all the information, SSN, DoB, etc., complete and fit to make me vulnerable for identity theft, I could buy tokens by transferring money from my bank account such that they now knew my linked bank information also.

That reminded me of my experience of buying tokens at that sweet shop in my old town in my third world country 60 years back, to help me buy different snacks from different counters set up across the shop but within the eyesight of the cashier, Lala Ram Ratan.

I as a buyer could see cashier, to whom I gave the  money, and the counter boy who will deliver me kulfi, Chole Bhature and Jalebi. Of course, Kulfi guy will not give me Kulfi unless I present green token; chole bhature will insist blue and Jalebi yellow.

And it was perfectly fine, as each different color token represented different amount of money paid to the cashier, that was equal to the price of whichever snack I wanted to buy.

There were humans. There were feelings and emotions. May be a commotion at times, but no loneliness. Communication was instant. Disputes were resolved instantly. Customer feedback instant. Certain hours were overly crowded, but it was Ok.

I could see lots of logic behind those tokens. The counter boy was freed from collecting and counting money. Delivery was faster. Money was paid in advance before hitting the PoD, and no more soiling of currency in the hands of the counter boy in  a hurry to collect, count and deliver syrupy snacks.

So, searching through crypto market and tokens on my iPhone when Wi-Fi was becoming a  challenge time to time, I could see lots of tokens being offered but by whom, for whom and why?

So, you could buy a Tesla car by paying those tokens.

But why not dollars?

Because you want to buy a Tesla car in a whiff, with digital Wallet. You are Gen Alpha.

But I am not in that hurry. I collect $7.25 an hour working in store. Even the lowest priced model 3 will need me  2 and half years work, provided I don’t make any other expenses including eating during that period,  or take a loan from a willing, ready and able lender who will send his collectors, in case I missed out a few payments due to not loss of my will to pay but capacity to pay, as I suddenly lost my job of no making of mine.

That Lala Ram Ratan Agarwal’s system was bad as Sales Tax and Income Tax could be evaded by him.

So, bring in plastic cards. Now Tax guys don’t need to talk to Lala Ram Ratan. Payment to Lala Ram Ratan  through credit cards could be known through banks.

There are enough aggregators. They use a language that machines understand very well.

With Crypto, how will you?

It is a network of a select few individuals connected through Distributed Ledger. It is very transparent among those a few select individuals but as difficult to know sales and income by sales and income tax guys as was Lala Ram Ratan’s Galla (cash box).

But hold on life is good.

The Sales Tax guy need not go to Tesla. They should go to car tire seller, find out how many car tires were supplied to Tesla, divide by four and here is approximate number of cars produced by Tesla. Since there is a wait time, all sold.

Who buys? Who pays? From which source? Sorry, it is end- to- end encrypted.

Secrecy is very important. Privacy is very important. Sales Tax person and Income tax person shouldn’t know including the Crypto traders.

O’ you wanted to get rid of dollars. You want dollars to disappear. Crypto may do that for you, sure.

Look at the price per token, 1/10000 of a dollar of new arrivals, and target project (issue) size in Millions.

Marketing at its height (and greed as clear as sunlight).

I loved tokens for kulfi, chole bhature and jalebi, but not for paying to Tesla and Walmart.

I am happy to pay at the PoS. I like those options. Pay by Cash, Card or Gift Coupons.

I don’t want to be overly secretive.

I live in a place having peoples government and I need to contribute my share to get roads, bridges, public schools and health services, fire services, etc.

If politicians are corrupt. That is a separate issue and must be dealt with separately, not by Crypto.

You poor third world mentality.

No problem. What matters is who had the last laugh!

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.