Crowd-Sourcing private RoadTrips via Cryptocurrency

**Mark Sedenquist** · 12-24-2021, 09:01 AM

I am wondering if anyone is utilizing Cryptocurrencies to fund their road trip adventures?

At RTA, we always like to keep current (to the extent that is possible) with changes in technology.

Earlier this week, I read about a virtual business that was a auto servicing shop for virtual cars and the owner was selling NFT's for the various kinds of auto service.

The novelty of purchasing auto work for virtual cars apparently has some monetary values -- he's made a couple hundred thousand dollars (USD) for his investment.

Investing in cryptocurrencies is an interesting form of day trading. What is more interesting is thinking how such a cryptocurrency might have a direct impact on our public and private lives.

I especially like that there is no currency exchange needed when traveling in places/countries/worlds beyond our home region. -- The value of ETH is the same in China, UK and USA at any given moment.

I actually think we are only weeks/months away from using cryptocurrency to fund road trips and other endeavors in our lives. This whole world of using cryptocurrency feels a bit like it did in 1995 when we were building RoadTripAmerica.com at the dawn of the World Wide Web.

I would be very interested in knowing what you know about this new way of approaching money.

We are using Coinbase as the platform to learn about this stuff. It's a bit of learning curve, but certainly interesting.

Mark

**AZBuck** · 12-24-2021, 11:06 AM

I may be becoming part of a fossilized minority, but I don't think I'll ever have, or want to have, one single bit of a cryptocurrency. I spent most of my working life programming and using computers. In some respects I am, literally, a rocket scientist. Last summer, at my niece's wedding, I asked a few of the more informed members of the next generation what cryptocurrency was and how it worked. They could not explain it except by using jargon such as 'blockchain', 'DeFi' and 'hash rate', or in words that had lost all physical meaning in this context such as 'mining', 'minting' and 'wallet'. None of them could explain in a relatively concrete and understandable way how the whole thing was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme.

Now it's also true that actual currency no longer has any intrinsic value. The US dollar used to be redeemable in actual physical gold, then in silver, but now it only backed by "the full faith and credit of the United States." But given the choice between trusting a bunch of bit-heads who can't explain their scheme or the US government, I will always come down on the side of a known and trusted entity - and that ain't cryptocurrency as of yet, and I doubt it ever will be.

AZBuck

**Mark Sedenquist** · 12-24-2021, 11:25 AM

I currently have some minor holdings in ETH, AVAX, ATOM, BTC, ALGO and GODS and I purchased a NFT last night (Non-Fungible Token).

I am still "unwashed" as far as understanding how all this work, as well. But I don't think it is required that we really need to understand tools in order to use them. We started publishing web sites in 1996 long before I had a working knowledge of how the Web actually worked. I now produce and manage about 25 different web sites. Truth-be-told --even borrowing from my college physics courses I am not sure I totally understand A/C electrical current -- but I use it every moment of every day.

How it works is not that important to me. That is does work is something I am 100% convinced of. What it is today is a shadow of what is coming.

Real life example: 1000 people from around the world could send $10 nearly instantly to relief workers dealing with a EF-5 tornado to assist with recovery. No need for bank transfers -- Purchase water, (or other supplies) for instance with ETH in minutes and deliver to workers on the ground right now.

Just like the Web has transcended governments in some ways, I think this could be revolutionary.

Here is a interesting video about the possible impact of Metaverses on business. It is a bit silly visually...

Mark