ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

“To understand cryptocurrency, you have to first understand what normal currencies are,” said Tom Leary to his partner-of-sixteen-years, Daphne Wallace.

“Before currencies existed, you had individuals trading and bartering their services with other individuals. Do you follow?”

Daphne wasn’t following.

They were driving to Sunday brunch at Carmichael Brock’s Betoota Grove home in their leased-but-late-model Volkswagon Golf with the airconditioning on and the windows down.

She cast her mind back to mid-July, when Tom would try to talk to her about the football and who was looking like a ‘September team’ and who wasn’t. For the 3 am alarms Tom set so he could get up early to watch the cricket abroad.

All of those seemingly vapid and self-absorbed sports-based rantings that Tom did back then – she’d die to hear them now.

Because all that Tom and his close friends are capable of talking about now are blockchains, hash rates, public/private keys and smart contracts.

“You probably wouldn’t understand, it takes a lot to get into,” said Tom despite Daphne’s job which involves auditing businesses and collecting and interpreting financial data.

“I’ll try to teach you as much as I can but you’ll have to really do some reading.”

Arriving at the brunch, Tom retrieved his stylish sun hat from the Volkswagen’s practical rear parcel shelf and placed it on his head, checking the fit in the rear vision mirror while Daphne stared blankly ahead.

Walking into the flowing six-bedder overlooking town to the west, Tom and Daphne quickly said hello to their hosts, Alex and Carmichael, before separating off to opposite sides of the room.

“Has Tom stopped talking about cryptocurrency yet?” asked Alex.

Daphne smiled and cracked her bottle of warm clean skin riesling and sat down.

“No. Not yet. Has Carmichael?” she said.

“No. Not yet.”