Hello, you're very welcome to Long Reads, Jacoban podcasts where we look in depth at political

topics and thinkers.

My name's Daniel Finn, and the features editor here at Jacoban, and I'll be presenting

the show.

This is the minor song by Woody Guthrie.

Until very recently, there'd be no danger of confusing people if you started talking about

the role of minors in global capitalism.

But the rise of crypto finance has given the term a whole new meaning.

For its boosters, crypto is a modern-day version of the California Gold Rush, with fortunes

to be made, and it seems to have attracted as many crooks and fraudsters as the original

world west.

Our guest today is Ramavasu Devan.

She's a professor of economics at Colorado State University, and the author of Things

Fall Apart from the crash of 2008 to the great slump.

How do cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin differ from traditional currencies such as the dollar,

the euro, or the end?

All currency or money is based on trust.

Now, this could be a trust in a central authority, state, or a financial institution.

So we use bank deposits to make payments, and we are sure that the bank is going to fulfill

the payment.

And if the bank doesn't have the cash, the bank we know can borrow from other banks, or

go to the central bank in order to clear payments.

...