Do You Sincerely Want To Be Rich?

Two men  (let's call them Del and Rodney) survived a boating accident and ended up on a desert island. They reconciled themselves to surviving there, knowing that their chances of being rescued were slim. They had some fishing gear and were pleased to find one coconut palm under which they could shelter.

After a couple of days, during which each had caught a few fish and found it hard work, a coconut fell at the feet of one (Del, as it happens). He was delighted and was on the point of opening it when he had a thought. "This nut will be good to eat" he mused "But in the long run fish is better for survival. I could trade this to my colleague for some of his fish and enjoy a rest from fishing."

He offered the coconut and was pleased that Rodney was interested in it.
"I'll give you two fish for it" said Rodney.
"Three would be better" countered Del.
"OK, three, you drive a hard bargain".
The coconut changed hands. That night Del was happy to have three extra fish and Rodney turned the coconut over in his hands.
"This is great" he thought "I've a got a coconut worth three fish. What a fine investment".

The next day was hot and Del was thirsty. "Wish I hadn't sold that coconut" he thought "Maybe I can buy it back." But Rodney wasn't keen to sell until the price was upped to five fish. Del had to spend a few hours catching them but in the evening he was once more the proud possessor of a coconut. He was just about to crack it open when he stopped.

"Hang on, this nut is now worth five fish. That's a 66% increase in value since this morning. What a fabulous investment. I'm going to hang on to this, I could be rich in a week". Rodney was thinking "Five fish, what a brilliant result on my investment, I could be rich in a week".  The next day Del traded the coconut for nine fish and bought it back later for fourteen. He had to make it a deal in virtual fish, or fish futures, as they called it but he didn't care because he assumed he would sell the coconut back for even more fish futures in the future.

After two weeks the coconut was worth 150 million fish futures and each man was so rich he ceased to fish altogether (why work in the hot sun when you are a millionaire?). They lazed about, occasionally trading the nut and fish futures for ever more ridiculous amounts, were discussing setting up a payments system based on the coconut (or on individual hairs, priced at a very reasonable 40,000 fish each), utterly failed to notice a ship on the horizon that sailed on by and eventually died of starvation. But they died rich, that's the point.

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No resemblance with any real crypto-currency is intended. This column is not making any specific investment recommendations and if you lose money buying coconuts or fish futures, that is your lookout. As indeed it is if you buy any artificial "currency" knocked up by some wideboy in his shed and marketed to you as "The next big thing, everybody's buying it, don't miss the train".