Coins for speculation is a real-time interactive mirror connected to the internet.

The mirror uses online data to determine the price for bitcoin exactly 7 years ago, to the nearest second. It then purchases a theoretical $100 worth of bitcoins. It then finds the current price of bitcoin in real-time and sells it’s theoretical $100 bitcoins to show you how much money you would have made had you invested $100 dollars, 7 years ago. It runs this calculation every second.

Every day, since it’s creation the ROI has decreased. It also displays the same algorithm for the stocks of Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Google for contrast.

The piece is inspired by the bitcoin bubble and mainly the misunderstanding of blockchain technology. Bitcoin was initially used as a currency for anonymous transactions on the silk road. After it was shut down, the coin was used for applications that exceeded its source code. I have explained the blockchain at various keynote addresses around the world and am still shocked when I hear top-level executives stutter as they explain their ‘crypto’ idea. Very few people really understand blockchain and I wanted to put their greed and misunderstanding of what is a simple technology into an uncontrollable commentary, powered by nothing but statistical data.