Crypto-currency has exploded into the mainstream and I have theory on where it began. I was researching the topic to prepare myself for an interview with Zachary Bauer of "An American Homestead" regarding Crypto (A fellow Steemian) and I was struck with a nostalgic thought which brought me back to my gamer days.
Years ago I had invested enormous amounts of time into a massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) called Runescape. It was the coolest thing among my pre-pubescent friends and the fun of the game continued through middle school into high school. The game revolved around "Skilling" (Grinding particular actions in-game to acquire wealth and levels) and also interaction with other players around the world.
It fostered a sense of pride when you had a rarer item than someone else, or a higher level which demonstrated more play time and experience. The ability to brag about your character was incredibly addictive and for a player with little patience, the traditional grind just wouldn't work. This opened the door to real world trading, and the exchange of currency for in-game pixels. Which in my opinion is where the idea for Crypto was birthed.
The above image is of a "Party Hat" which was an extremely rare and valuable aesthetic item in Runescape. There was a limited number in existence (Sound familiar?) and at one point you could sell them online for over $1,000 dollars.
Players would flock around a character wearing one of these bad boys and beg to be friend. Ah memories...
Those who had stockpiled them early in the game could discreetly sell them to their friends at school, trading them for a pocket full of cash.
As soon as someone placed value on something rare and hard to obtain in-game, people started to play for a new reason, to make money. By giving value to something which was intrinsically worthless in the outside world, the equation for making money out of thin air became a reality.
However.. As soon as interest in the game dwindled, the opportunity to make money came to an end.
Does anyone else see a similarity to Crypo-Currencies? We assign value as a community to what could be considered "Pixels". There are a limited number of ""Equations" to be solved, similar to the rare items in a game. The market rises and falls as interest and security in this new currency market changes. In games, people can grind skills to increase the value of their account. Today, mining Crypto is totally a thing, just like skilling was, perhaps without the fun of "Playing a game", however if you where to boil it down, games are just equations being solved as well.
Just mulling over this concept and wanted to see if anyone else out there had considered this.
If you would like to check out my interview with Zach of 
