July 23, 2019
by Sharon Moran
What is Native American Cryptocurrency?
In order to fully understand and appreciate Native American Cryptocurrency, it’s helpful to understand the Native American approach to mathematics. After all, cryptocurrency relies on cryptography to secure transactions, and cryptography requires the combined application of computer science, physics, and, of course, mathematics!
The Invention of Zero
Author and physicist F. David Peat wrote the following in Blackfoot Physics, “When it comes to the ability to represent large numbers, the Mayans appear to have been centuries in advance of others. This is because the Mayans invented the number zero, or, to put it more accurately: They had developed a metaphysics and a way of living within the world that was of such subtlety that is enabled them to incorporate that most mystical of processes-the emptiness that is total plenitude, the perfect movement that is stillness, the nothingness out of which everything unfolds, the identity of birth and death, the motivating essence of all transformation-the void, the zero.”
Without the invention or discovery of zero, would computers even exist in their current form? Computers rely on binary code; machine code is a series of 1s and 0s.
Sacred Mathematics
The Native American treatment of mathematics as sacred also informs are understanding. Again, from Blackfoot Physics, “Within Native America, number is seen in a profoundly different way; not as dry, abstract, and dehumanizing, but as alive, real, and immediate. Mathematics is a sacred practice related to the dynamics of the whole cosmos.”
Native American Cryptocurrencies
In the U.S., we already know our current interstate system is based on the Native American trails. But what is the Native American legacy on cryptocurrency?
Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009, two Native American cryptocurrencies have emerged: MazaCoin and NativeCoin.
MazaCoin was launched in 2014 by Payu Harris. It was derived from ZetaCoin. Harris hoped it could be the official currency of the Oglala Lakota tribe, and as of press time, the price is hovering around $0.000323 USD.
NativeCoin was founded by Andrew Ebona and it was designed for use in Tribal Casinos and other Tribal enterprises. From their website, NativeCoin affords the Tribes the opportunity to use and support their currency which makes financial freedom a long-awaited reality. While it has low volume on exchanges, it’s seen a high of $0.67 USD last month, up from $0.03 in early January.
