Just to confirm that the world we live in is well and truly mental, today came the stupid/cleverly post-modern (depending on whether you’re an art student or not) news that a new ‘crypto-currency’ based on Kanye West has been created – called Coinye West.
A crypto-currency is an online form of money that can be used to make digital transactions, a concept that went mainstream last year with the emergence of Bitcoin. Since then, the meme-loving corners of the internet (ahem, Reddit) have been having some fun with the idea of crypto-currencies – creating the short-lived ‘Dogecoin‘ last month.
Now someone has had the great idea of basing a crypto-currency on the persona of Kanye West, for some strange reason.
The new ‘Coinye’ currency is due to launch on 11 January (check out the website to keep up to date with the countdown). But what does it actually do?
Talking to Noisey, the currently anonymous Coinye West creators explained the point of their currency:
I can picture a future where Coinye is used to buy concert tickets, with cryptographically verified virtual tickets, and other ideas I can’t give away just yet.
Like Bitcoin’s, Coinye’s will need to be ‘mined’ before they can be used. Here’s how they explain that process:
Basically, people’s computers try and figure out math problems. Hundreds of them work together and when there’s a payout, about half a million coins get released from a block, and they get shared between everyone who helped open them. They then get paid out to a wallet, which is a software that people will keep on their computer. They can send or receive coins from there, sorta like Paypal.
Apparently Kanye West has had nothing to do with all of this, and has not made a statement about it yet either. Which leaves me with a few different suspicions – is Coinye West:
a) an elaborate promo campaign or new business vertical for Kanye West himself
b) a clever new business idea by entrepreneurs looking to create and then dominate a music-based crypto-currency market
c) the result of a couple of bored and unemployed programmers looking for attention
At the minute I’m leaning towards C – but I’m willing to keep an eye on the ‘Coinye West movement’ and see what develops. What do you guys think of it all?
