Bitcoins are the ephemeral currency of the internet, created
by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008.
A review in the Times Literary Supplement of a book about the “currency,” Cryptocurrency:
How Bitcoin and digital money are challenging the global economic order by
Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey (Wall Street Journalist reporters) gives a précis of the “money.”
The review is by David Throsby [TLS, 7/31/15, Trust funds,
Page 28].
What ties the currency to UFOs are the nuances of its
evanescent state, its promoters, and gatekeepers, but mostly the mystique about
its existence.
This from the review…”In essence, the operations of the
system depend on the work of the bitcoin community – in particular on people
known as ‘miners’ who compete for the coins that are released into the system
at regular intervals.”…strikes me a similar to the workings of UFO enthusiasts
and is the template for ufology.
Then there is this….”The development of bitcoin is described
as the story of a counter-culture, a strange community of ‘libertarians,
anticorporatists, crypto-anarchists, utopians, entrepreneurs, and VCs [venture
capitalists] … there is a quasi-religious element to the bitcoin phenomenon…”
Sounds like ufology, right?
Near the review’s end, Throsby writes, “Bitcoin’s use as a
vehicle fro transactions may expand, but it seems most unlikely that it will
become an alternative or replacement for sovereign currency.”
This is the state of ufology: not an alternative or
replacement for scientific methodologies and UFOs not a replacement for
aeronautics or extraterrestrial research.
RR
