What are cryptocurrencies and why should we care?

Darrell Cronk, the president of Wells Fargo Investment Institute, a registered investment adviser and wholly owned subsidiary of Wells Fargo Bank, revealed his team’s crypto plans to the Insider in an interview published Wednesday.

He said that his firm is in the final stages of adding an actively managed cryptocurrency investment strategy to its platform for qualified clients. The crypto research and due diligence effort are being led by Greg Maddox, head of Global Manager Research, a division of Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Emphasizing that the firm has been searching for “a professionally managed solution” for months, Cronk expects the strategy to be added to the platform around mid-June.

Greg Maddux becoming the head of global research for Wells Fargo is almost as surprising as Jeff “Skunk” Baxter becoming a steely-eyed missile man.

Anyway, in order to write this post I first read the Wikipedia entry on cryptocurrencies. I can say now with great confidence that I still have no real idea what these things are or how they work, let alone any sense of what sort of potential economic, political, and social significance they have or may come to have.

I note that with the exception of a post Erik wrote exactly three years ago, pointing out the apparently horrible environmental effect of these things — which seems to have gotten a lot worse since — we’ve had basically no discussion on LGM regarding this topic, which I find is coming to increasingly dominate all casual conversation among many people that isn’t focused on the weather or real estate prices.

So have at it if you’re so inclined.