Ten years ago on twitter, I kept getting messages from a guy called Preston Byrne about marmots. Marmots are basically the biggest squirrel in the world. Americans also call them woodchucks, although a woodchuck is a specific type of marmot, meaning all woodchucks are marmots, but not all marmots are woodchucks.

They are most populous in North America, Europe and Asia.

Preston was constantly posting pictures of marmots related to cryptocurrencies.

Yes, marmots.

Why?

Because back in the early days of blockchain mania, when every conference had someone explaining how putting something “on the blockchain” would revolutionise everything from bananas to banking, Preston developed the marmot metaphor to be an antidote to all the things…