Every year, I look forward to watching the Super Bowl for the halftime show and the commercials - and if it’s a good game, for football, too.

This year specifically, the commercials were noticeably geared toward the younger generation. There were a few for electric cars and even cryptocurrency.

What? Cryptocurrency?

The commercial that left everyone talking was simply a floating QR code changing colors and bouncing across the screen - mimicking the nostalgic DVD screen saver we all remember. According to NBC, the ad reportedly cost $7 million for only 30 seconds of airtime. If you didn’t scan the QR code during the commercial, you had no idea what the ad was for.

The clever commercial was created by Coinbase, an online platform for buying and selling digital currency. The QR code directed viewers to the Coinbase website, and the site actually crashed due to the massive influx of viewer traffic.

More confused than ever about cryptocurrency, I called my 24-year-old tech-savvy son.

“Do you have cryptocurrency?” I ask.

“Yes!” he replied.

“Why?” I ask.

“Why not?” he replied.

I suppose I needed to ask better questions. After all, I am a reporter.

“What have you used it for?” I ask.

“Nothing yet,” he said.

Tough interview. Next tactic.

“What will you use it for?” I ask.

“Nothing yet,” he said. “But it’s going to become more common, especially in Web3.”

“What the heck is Web3?” I ask.

That interview went no further. It is as if my child was speaking a foreign language I was not familiar with.

According to Coinbase, cryptocurrency is digital currency used over the Internet. Currently, some of the most popular currencies are Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Coinbase says to think of cryptocurrency as a “new kind of cash that is native to the Internet, which gives it the potential to be the fastest, easiest, cheapest, safest and most universal way to exchange value. It can be bought and sold not only through Coinbase, but also digital apps such as Robinhood and other digital wallets. You can use it the same way as a U.S. dollar - for shopping across global merchants, donating to causes, gifting, tipping or traveling.

Now we all consider banks to be a secure method for handling financial transactions, but Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are challenging this concept and continue to grow in popularity due to the fact they are decentralized. This means anyone can send bitcoin “without the involvement of a bank, government or other institution.” Transactions are near instant and can be transmitted globally.

It is said crypto transactions are secure, as they’re vetted by a technology called blockchain. If you’re curious as to who controls the blockchain, “no company, country or third party is in control of it and anyone can become part of that network.”

But here we go again. What exactly is a blockchain?

The concept of a decentralized blockchain is not new - the idea was originally created in 2008. Coinbase compares the blockchain to a balance sheet or bank ledger. Transaction information is stored digitally in “blocks,” which naturally form a chain of data that can depict a timeline of events with timestamps for every addition.

Using cryptocurrency for everyday payments may not be all that common right now, but it’s continuing to increase in popularity as we start to explore Web3.

And again … what the heck is Web3?

Tony Scherba is the CEO and a founding partner of Yeti LLC, a San Francisco-based tech company. He explains Web1 as the first generation of the Internet. The information economy where online content was read-only and dominated by newspaper sites such as Yahoo.

Web2 was the second generation of the Internet, a platform economy where you can read and write content. This is dominated by social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

This brings us to the Web3, a next-generation concept of the Internet where you can read, write and own content. For example, in Web2, if you put a photo on Instagram, they own the photo. In Web3, you own the photo.

We’re already starting to see the ownership of digital content today. You may have heard the acronym “NFTs” or non-fungible tokens, which is any type of digital asset, most commonly illustrations, tied to the blockchain and bought and sold using cryptocurrency. Due to its recent boom in popularity, some NFTs have been sold for the crypto-equivalent of millions in U.S. dollars. Movie tickets for a specific movie and day/time is an example of NFTs.

In November 2021, AMC and Sony gave away 86,000 NFTs to members who pre-ordered tickets for “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” As of December 2021, those NFTs are valued at between $40 to $400.

“Web3 introduces a real ownership model to the Internet that combines economics, art, technology, game theory and technology in an incredibly interesting way,” Scherba said. “This is just starting, but the trajectory is up and momentum is moving it rapidly. The changes for business owners will likely be larger than the magnitude of how mobile or the Internet itself changed the way businesses worked. It’s certainly a space worth paying attention to and fun to experiment in.”

I can’t even begin to describe the pain in my head at this point. Ibuprofen doesn’t help.

John M. Hayes, executive vice president and chief lending officer of New Tripoli Bank, talked with me about the bank’s perspective on cryptocurrency.

“We do not accept cryptocurrency at this time,” Hayes said. “We do have customers who invest in cryptocurrency though.”

He said, at this point, banks are taking a look at their role in the ever-evolving cryptocurrency market and trying to understand the risks and potential for fraud and money laundering.

I’m old school. I take the checks to the bank for cashing. I can go online to see my account and see the purchases I’ve made or the payments taken from my account.

I’m so glad I was able to clear up the confusion of cryptocurrency for everyone. Please excuse me while I go lie down to try to get rid of the pain in my head.

Debbie Galbraith

editor

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press