Why I spent the afternoon mining a crypto you can't buy

I'm pretty tired of the usual crypto talk sometimes, the charts, the hype, and the scams. It feels like the actual tech got lost under a mountain of speculation.

But I just read a great article by a writer named Patrick about a project called BrowserCoin and it's a breath of fresh air.

Link to his write-up: https://complexsimplicity.substack.com/p/you-cannot-buy-this-no-matter-how

TLDR:

• No Money: You literally cannot buy or sell this coin. There is no price, no exchange, and no presale. It exists just to show you how a blockchain works.
• Anyone Can Do It: You don't need a massive mining rig. You just open a web browser tab and your computer starts mining blocks.
• Learn the Mechanics: Patrick writes that once you watch the machine run with your own hands, nobody can fool you with a crypto scam again. You get to see what decentralization actually means without someone trying to sell you something.

If you want to remember what made this tech interesting before the money ruined it, give his piece a read or take a run at mining some on your browser. It won't make you a dime, but it's a neat experiment. The feeling of hitting a block felt pretty darn cool.