What is Crypto currency?

#1: What is it and why should I care?

► Crypto currency on Wikipedia

#2: What is the blockchain? If you don't know, you should; if you do, chances are you still need some clarification on how it actually works. Don Tapscott is here to help, demystifying this world-changing, trust-building technology which, he says, represents nothing less than the second generation of the internet and holds the potential to transform money, business, government and society.

► More on this on TED talk

#3: Currency -- the bills and coins you carry in your wallet and in your bank account -- is founded on marketing, on the belief that banks and governments are trustworthy. Now, Paul Kemp-Robertson walks us through a new generation of currency, supported by that same marketing ... but on behalf of a private brand. From Nike Sweat Points to bottles of Tide (which are finding an unexpected use in illegal markets), meet the non-bank future of currencies.

► More info from Paul on TED talk

#4: What happens when the way we buy, sell and pay for things changes, perhaps even removing the need for banks or #currency exchange bureaus? That's the radical promise of a world powered by #cryptocurrencies like #Bitcoin and #Ethereum. We're not there yet, but in this sparky talk, digital currency researcher Neha Narula describes the collective fiction of money -- and paints a picture of a very different looking future.

► More on this subject on TED talk

#5: Say hello to the decentralized economy -- the #blockchain is about to change everything. In this lucid explainer of the complex (and confusing) technology, Bettina Warburg describes how the #blockchain will eliminate the need for centralized institutions like banks or governments to facilitate trade, evolving age-old models of commerce and finance into something far more interesting: a distributed, transparent, autonomous system for exchanging value.

► TED talk about how the block chain will transform the economy