When GPU shortages finally abated back in 2018, I thought I was done trawling the web for the latest happenings in the world of cryptocurrency. Little did I know, come 2021, I'd be once again forced into caring about crypto.
These digital coins are back in fashion, more valuable than ever, and again causing grief for gamers hoping to snag a new graphics card. It's not entirely crypto's fault, I'll admit, but it's all come at a bit of a bad time for global technology supply—demand is through the roof, no matter what you intend to do with your new GPU.
But there is one silver lining in all of this: We get to use the increasingly bizarre and strange stock images available for free across the web in our stories. And since we have to experience this, so too do you.
There's truly nothing quite like the mix of Matrix-style, testosterone-pumping, digi-gold rush imagery available to you free-of-charge on the web to help illustrate the inner workings of blockchain technology.
Here are my favourites from free image library Pixabay, in descending order of weirdness.
I'm assuming this signifies the sprouting of a cryptocurrency as a sort-of digital nest egg.
This image comes from a series covering the escapades of these two grey figures as they hope to mine Bitcoin the ol' fashioned way.
Spoiler alert: They manage to snag themselves two bitcoin. Now worth over $100,000.
This is classic old-school Bitcoin, if you ask me. Real dark web vibes. Three out of five stars.
Imagine if there was a physical bitcoin and it was the size of those commemorative £5 coins you got as a kid (for those of us in the UK).
At £35,000 a pop, a Bitcoin would be an absolute nightmare for cashiers, too.
What's the connection between Bitcoin and the novel coronavirus?
No, that's a genuine question. Please, somebody tell me.
If there's one thing that springs to mind when I think Bitcoin, it's alternative medicine.
Sentient Bitcoin no love, only flex.
Very poignant piece, this.
Bitcoin: The only currency trusted by clowns.
Elon Musk eat your heart out.
