Digital Transmutation Alchemy Napkins

An important financial technology has been added to our historical basket of assets and currencies. This is the realm of blockchain based cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether and others. Crypto is often described as digital gold. The idea is that computer based transactions without banking services can be instant and borderless with stored value when dormant. In a way, creating value from numbers mirrors the ancient alchemists dream of converting something worthless, like lead, into a precious metal like gold. They called this process transmutation. The modern process might be called digital transmutation.