If you haven't heard about blockchain technology, you're living under a rock. By now, most of us have adverts popping up on our newsfeed that tell us had we bought just $10 worth of Bitcoin 5 years ago, today we would be millionaires. Countless people are kicking themselves for not having paid attention when their nerdy cousin told them about the imaginary internet money at that Christmas party back in 2011.
From trading at just $900 per coin in January 2017 to inching closer to the $20,000 mark in December, the past 12 months have seen an explosion in the number of people trading in cryptocurrencies. The price of Ethereum increased more than 8,000% in 2017. A British company addedd the word "Blockchain" to its name and watched its shares jump up as much as 394% in just one day.
But amidst all the hype, very few people understand the technology that is driving this industry, much less so its implications for the future of how we transact and interact.
One of the privileges of living in a city like San Francisco is that you are privy to the inner circles of technologists and entrepreneurs who are pioneers in the industry. I have found that most media hype centres around price and technology, with very little attention given to the culture and community that is emerging alongside it, so I decided to start a series detailing my own experiences in this space. I want to create an easy-to-digest account of the new, the quirky, and the downright fascinating of the San Francisco crypto world. Welcome to The Crypto Diaries.