By: Sher Zada

Haste and race for earning more and more is ascribed characteristic of human species; however the main qualities that are the tricks of speedy earning and smart hunting vary from person to person and society to society. From hunting and gathering society to today’s digitally dependent society the race for collecting valuables had has been prevailed everywhere with a slight difference that in previous times the race was for survival by collecting food items, hunting pastures, water reservoirs etc., while from the era of industrial revolution till now is for powers controls through massive productions, extending and excessing trade and boasting businesses. That modified and molded ways of transactions from barter system (exchange of items both food and none food items, including services) to the transactions based on cash money system (coins and paper notes). However, since 20th century to 21^st things get changing with higher acceleration due the revolution brought by internet and virtual ways of communication. The year 2008 considered the birth of digital or crypto currency. However, the idea of digital or crypto currency is knotted with David Chaum an American computer scientist and cryptographer who pitched theidea in1983, that was an electronically run currency called e-cash. Chaum waited for nearly thirteen years and finally launched his project of cryptocurrency in 1995 with the name of Digi-cash. With passage of time another cryptographer Wei Dai a Chinese computer engineer modified the system by developing cryptographic library. Further going in the complex technical details  of cryptocurrency would be boring here and will distracting from the core importance of this peer to peer digitally dependent  form of transaction for the none technical costumers like me. Nevertheless what matters more is the revolution expected ahead with crypto currency, why the digitally addicted customers and investors are jumping in this profit oriented transaction system? Why governments and states so worried about the proliferation of business market with cryptocurrencies? How could it affect the traditional economic system so far? These are the whisper and cup of tea of everyone everywhere nowadays. From the consumer point of view, First the medium of digitally but physically invisible money is easy and not involved  hectic legal procedures as physically visiting a bank and depositing amount in one’s own account or transferring in account of whom to be the transaction is made. Second, it’s more secured and there is no interference from anybody else such as traditionally banking systems and states that always have a watch dog eyes on the transactions of money. Third, it provides a space of time and jigsaw cutting spare time, eve for both the ends i.e. the depositor and the receiver. Fourth, the mining option gives another edge to the consumers to increase their profits due to cryptographically boasting extension of cryptocurrency. According Luke W. Conway he associate editor of Investopedia (a firm that has close eyes on crypto business and trending), there are more than 4000 cryptocurrencies existing in the crypto market till January 2021 and still boasting day by day , however only 11 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin have stable position in the crypto block chain business and investment markets. However today’s trending currency Bitcoin has been dramatically getting an increase price values since 2017, on December 17, 2017 the worth of one Bitcoin was $19,783.06 which fell down to below $11,000 on 22 December 2017 with a 45% decline from its peak price pool. The reasons could be quoted competitions by other crypto currencies, governments’ reservations against the terms and procedures of digital transactions operationalized through bitcoin block chain system.Similarly bitcoin was jolted once again in January 2018 when news circulated that South Korea that was a key market for crypto investors were going to ban transaction in bitcoins that caused 65% decline in Bitcoins worth in $ that squeezed crypto business down to $100 b record low level, the misery for bitcoin did not end there, in June 2019 once again a hope of resurgence was built when the price of one bitcoin surpassed by $10,000 ,but unexpectedly the price of this digital currency further smashed down to $7,112.73 by December 2019.Nevertheless , 2020 that started with global pandemic corona virus, that not only paralyzed health sector across the world and caused death to 3.52M people but also jammed the economic wheels everywhere ,businesses were shut down, travel was restricted ,offices and schools  were left to ghosts . After a pause of months educational institutions were swapped to online teaching and learning systems, moreover, offices were virtualized and the officials were bounded to work from home. As the year 2020 turned off on human and economic mobility on one side, while proven a token of luck and progressive growth in the worth of bitcoin, that’s the increase in price of a bitcoin reached to $18,353 on November 23, 2020 a jump up of $11,240.27 from last year($7,112.73 ).  Current year 2021 is considered a luckiest year for cryptocurrency where one bitcoin values $36,850.00) since its emergence in 2008 after the world economic collapse. The rise and fall in the price of cryptocurrencies are stringed with a number of factors. Governments’ and sates’ reservations come prior to all other factors. Because cryptocurrencies bypass traditional banking systems, state’s monitoring and observations etc., that not only causes no profit to banks nor allows state entities to peak- in what was sold out and who sold it, what was bought and who bought it. The other speculation is that criminals, smugglers and persons seeking profits through sharing state’s secrets and intelligences via crypto-transactions, that’s why the third world’s states like Pakistan, Iran and North Korea  and many others advanced countries i.e. Russia, China are reluctant and   not fully ready to accept and legalize cryptocurrencies. Yes or No! It is matter of confidentiality that no one talks about these aspects openly. On the other side, Generally investors and traditional businessmen in the third world  seek digital currencies platform as volatile as stock exchange , they believe that these platform have been introduced by masterminds sitting in the first world ,who control the gold markets, oil markets etc. Whereby, these sharp heads try to divert people’s mindfrom everlasting precious element i.e. gold to the unreliable cryptocurrency transaction system, which clouds plump in profits every time.  Whatever, assumptions and speculations are roaming here and there, living in this globally connected no one can escape from the trending protocols starting from one corner of the world to the other, going with the flow people living in poor world have to accept decisions and actions made by the super elites living in the power crowning states.World’s leading Microsoft, BMW, Square, PayPal, Coca-Cola and Pizza Hut like giant companies have shifted their system of transactions from traditional banking systems to cryptocurrencies. A Pakistani private airlines company Sky Wings stationed in Karachi has stepped forward to be a pioneer in the crypto-business; it’s another subject whether the state of Pakistan will allow other sectors and corporations to switch their transaction system over to cryptocurrencies. However the fear of loss due to reservations and restrictions by the states and banks and fast gear to earn uncontrolled profits would remain core questions with cryptocurrency mechanism.

About the Writer:

The writer is an Islamabad based Journalist and Social Analyst

He can be reached at [email protected]

FAHD HUSAIN

THERE’S a strange satisfaction that comes with seeing everyone chastised. Something similar is unfolding across the political landscape as parties shuffle their feet, and their approach, in order to position themselves for the next general elections. These elections are still more than two years away but to most politicians they have started to glimmer across the horizon.

There’s another thing glimmering along with them: the elephant in the room.

This elephant has in fact always been in the room. Perhaps he constructed the room in the first place. Once made, he let others in and let them find the little space left unoccupied. When the space got a bit too cramped, some people tried to push the elephant out of the room. That’s when trouble started in that room. Many years and mishaps later, has the situation with the elephant and the room altered in any sense?

That’s the question which is defining the politics of PTI, PML-N, PPP and others as they wrangle for power in what is clearly a zero-sum game. The establishment as the proverbial elephant was supposed to have been subjected to decreased relevance if the flow of democratic evolution had gone in the desired direction. One can debate how and why this flow changed course — or was made to — and traversed back to the old beaten path, but at this point what is of far more importance is that the next general elections appear to be shaping up in the traditional mould. Yes, that means that the establishment will play a key role.

This elephant has in fact always been in the room. Perhaps he constructed the room in the first place.

But what kind of role? Well, depends who you ask. The PTI would want the establishment to be as supportive of it as it was in 2018; the PML-N would want the establishment to play a neutral role and provide a level playing field to the party; and the PPP would want the establishment to play any role in which the party can somehow find itself a key player in a hung parliament. But all three major political parties, and their leaders, have internalised the reality that — like it or hate it — the elephant will be in the room in 2023 and will determine through its acts and approach what happens in these elections.

This is far different from the ideal situation that all three parties parrot in their official statements. No, the establishment should have no role whatsoever in politics, they say; and yes, the establishment should stay confined to its constitutional role, they proclaim. That is the correct position to take on the record, but the fact is that each one of these three parties is now — two years prior to the scheduled elections — strategising how the establishment can play the role in 2023 that they want it to play. If there is one challenge facing these parties, it is this.

So how do they plan to overcome this challenge? The complexity of the task at hand is evidenced in the confusion and internal strife plaguing the PML-N nowadays. This fault line within the party — the so-called Nawaz and Shehbaz narrative — is nothing more than their differing approaches towards the elephant in the room. That’s it. Nawaz and Maryam believe they can push the elephant out of the room and pressure him to stay neutral in the 2023 elections, while Shehbaz says the elephant must be reasoned with so that he has reason enough to provide a level playing field and not block the PML-N’s return to power in the next term. Like it or not, the elephant is also inside the PML-N room.

The PTI fears the PML-N resolving its elephantine issues. Of course, the PTI will repeat till it turns blue in the face that it won fair and square in the 2018 elections. The fact, however, is that at the very minimum, the elephant facilitated the PTI’s ascent to power. That was when the PTI had everything going for it in terms of hopes, expectations, promises and the idealism that the party was ‘different’ from the rest. Not so this time. Stripped of these advantages, and weighed down by severe governance ailments, the PTI will be vulnerable. Which is why it would look for support for itself. It would also want to ensure that the PML-N stays on the wrong side of the elephant. Like it or not, the elephant is also inside the PTI room.

The PPP has already factored in the establishment as a key determinant of its electoral success in 2023. It knows it doesn’t have enough muscle to strike gold at the centre and reach for the ultimate prize. This it can only achieve under very specific conditions where it can win some crucial seats from south Punjab — as it used to do once upon a time — and bring its total tally in the National Assembly to a number which makes it ideal to lead a coalition. These are very well-defined objectives and they will require some facilitation from the elephant in the room. Like it or not, the elephant is therefore also in the PPP room.

What options does this leave for those people on the chessboard who want the establishment to have a lesser footprint in the next elections — less enough so that it cannot play a decisive role like it did in the 2018 elections? Those who have discussed these options over and over again believe that this can only be achieved by creating so much heat and noise inside the room that the elephant has no choice but to step outside and let the others slug it out on their own. It is a bold option, but a very risky one. Which is why those people who want to win at all cost in 2023 — especially in the PML-N — believe that it is a risk not worth taking.

And so the tale of the elephant pivots back to where it started. All parties are gradually accepting that they have to deal with the elephant. Question is: how does the elephant want to deal with them? Courtesy DAWN