# Digital scarcity

By [The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman](https://nickgrossman.xyz) · 2018-03-27

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As readers of this blog can tell, I've been spending a lot of my time recently focused on cryptonetworks and blockchains, and in particular, working through the complex legal and regulatory issues involved. Explaining what cryptocurrencies, cryptonetworks and blockchains are is hard to do.  As Naval recently said on twitter:

> It is the mark of a genius to explain a complex topic in a simple way. [https://t.co/17vfhQB9uK](https://t.co/17vfhQB9uK)
> 
> — Naval (@naval) [March 12, 2017](https://twitter.com/naval/status/840799984014376960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

One person who is able to describe this complex topic remarkably simply is [Peter van Valkenburgh](https://twitter.com/valkenburgh) from [Coin Center](http://coincenter.org).  A few weeks ago Peter testified in the House on a committee exploring cryptocurrencies and so-called ICOs.  His 5-minute description of the "true innovation" here is crystal clear and worth watching:

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*Originally published on [The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman](https://nickgrossman.xyz/digital-scarcity)*