Russian Man Prints His Own Cryptocurrency Called The Kolion

If cryptocurrency is doing so well, you would think this man could buy a decent bookcase. But, anyway, this is a complicated subject that requires careful digestion. 54 year old Russian farmer Mikhail Shlyapnikov prints his own money, called the Kolion. It is named for the town he lives in, Kolionovo. The rationale for printing your own money is that, at least as originally intended, it could be exchanged locally, and be free of the blood and corruption inherent in national currency. Printing your own moeny
is not, strictly speaking, counterfeiting money, just as long as the money you print is of your own design, and doesn't try to pass as what the government is printing.

As Mr. Shlyapnikov explains it, 60% corruption is built into the cost of an egg. By paying in a cryptocurrency called Kolions, the local community somehow bypasses all the superfluous expense, and presumably can purchase the egg more cheaply. As Mr. Shlyapnikov explains, “We save rubles so we can trade with Russia, but use Kolions in Kolionovo.” Mr. Shlyapnikov, by the way, is an anarchist, and by definition anarchists don't have faith in the government at large.

What does Mr. Shlyapnikov mean by “emitted, not mined”? Most currencies are backed (they get their worth from) a tangible and stable commodity, which is usually gold, silver, copper, and the like. These are substances that most international partners in trade can agree have value. A penny, for instance, roughly speaking, contains about one penny's worth of copper. For any paper currency backed by gold and silver, that gold and silver is usually stored elsewhere. Here in the United States that would be Fort Knox. But cryptocurrency seems to not be backed by any valuable commodity. It's worth is negotiated between the trading parties, and one guy agrees to take the Kolion from the buyer, and give him an egg in return. The guy buying the egg doesn't say, “And here's a nugget of gold to prove my Kolion is worth as much as your egg.”

There is rightly a lot of mystery surrounding the relatively modern phenomenon of cryptocurrency. Nevertheless, this particular one sure is pretty! Is Mr. Shlyapnikov the artist? He looks eccentric enough to be designing his own money. This video seems to be equal parts an education into the philosophy of cryptocurrency, and a biopic of an interesting character. His house has an organic look, with bulbs germinating in windows, surrounded by a ponderous mound of books. The mound somewhat resembles Mr. Shlyapnikov, himself: opulent, rich in thought, larger than life, and intimately one with its surroundings.

His land is quite beautiful, and one gets the sense he's trying to stay close to the little paradise he's chiseled out of the land for himself. Ironically, as the Kolion gains international appeal, he is being sucked outward into the very global affairs he disdains. At one point Mr Shlyapnikov fondles a new splitting maul with a red fiberglass handle. The action doesn't seem militant or threatening, but rather Mr. Shlyapnikov looks proud of his acquisition. As the salt of the earth, Mr. Shlyapnikov gives credibility to the value of the Kolion as the working man's cryptocurrency.