Colm O'Regan: What does cryptocurrency have to do with the Kilkenny hurlers?
Antalya, Turkey - May 21, 2021: Close up shot of Bitcoin and alt coins cryptocurrency
My mother had it right. She was talking about the Internet one day about fifteen years ago. By then, the Internet was just becoming ubiquitous, seeping into nearly all conversations. Not because people were necessarily talking about the Internet at that moment but it was in the background of almost every subject. A bit like the weather. Now it’s more like oxygen. We’re not even aware we’re using it.
After some chat between us about Some Online Thing, my mother sighed: “I have a better hope of understanding the Mystery of the Trinity than understanding the Internet”. I was all set to jump in with: “No Mama, you see it’s quite simple. It’s just a computer network, and when you type an address into the web browser it makes a request for the page and then the information is routed through a messaging protocol…” I ran out of steam but I believed I sort of knew how it worked. Back then I couldn’t understand why someone wouldn’t make an effort to figure out what was going on.
