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Yes, this is a very old aphorism. I've read one about fishing poles to fisherwomen/men. But do we still find value in tools today? Also, do you think wealthy people are “careful”? Let's unpack this sage advice using the top 25 wealthiest people in the world. (1) Jeff Bezos–sells tools, provides a virtual and real location for tools and storage for information. (2) Bill Gates – makes and sells tools (3) Warren Buffet buys companies that sell tools, transportation and shelter & tools protection (4) Bernard Arnault sells luxury tools and goods (5) Mark Zuckerberg’s product is people and sells their attention Mark Zuckerberg provides the tools, but his company, Facebook’s product is people and he sells their attention. Allegedly, he doesn't even sell personal information, he sells access to those who’d like to get in front of specific eyes. In this case, is attention the shovel/fishing pole? I'm not sure. Also, MZ allows those who want access to determine the value of those eyes. Although this tends to be my blind spot, most of these people on the list "sell shovels/fishing poles", some sell "fish” but there are a few gold-miners /fisherwomen/men here too. But all those businesses have one thing in common – they earn and require currency. Now bitcoin is cryptocurrency, and its value is in the exchange. I don’t know if the goal is to get rich quick from using bitcoin but rather allowing those who use it, determine its value. It’s practically an egalitarian currency that’s in use nearly worldwide. So, I guess the key to predict who will profit from the proverbial gold rush is the one provides the platform for trading. Currently, heavily regulated financial institutions are the ones who profit. But now we have the Winklevoss Twins who were awarded a patent for ETP (exchange-traded products (ETPs) using cryptocurrencies) –(See Vanguard ETF) Then on a smaller scale we have Anari Sengbe's website OWO where gaming and purchasing products at a discount using cryptocurrency gives the platform its value. We still have bitcoin miners (With Bitcoin, miners use special software to solve math problems and are issued a certain number of bitcoins in exchange) AND cryptocurrency platforms just might be the new “shovels or fishing poles" in this digital economy. Edit: to change but to AND. According to Anari Sengbe in this talk, the internet of things (IoT) allows the devices to mine bitcoins for others and earn a fee for the transaction. In short your refrigerator, thermostat or any device in your home can become a virtual "Check Cashing Place" except its mining bitcoins or any other cryptocurrencies. I don't think the Black community can afford to be ignorant of cryptocurrencies. We're already 10 years behind.

Stephanie Baskek wrote, 05/04/2018: "When there’s a gold rush on, the thing to do is not to dig. Instead, sell shovels to all the suckers who think they’ll get rich digging for gold. This is one of the lessons that investigative reporter Corey Pein learned when he moved to San Francisco at the height of the Silicon Valley start-up boom. In his analogy, the gold rush is the tech boom, and the suckers are all the start-up wannabes who flock to the Bay Area for a slice of the venture-capital pie. And all of us, the consumers, who fell for the excitement of the gig economy and the lure of a free social network that promised to never sell our data? We’re suckers, too." Cryptocurrencies are the modern-day 'Gold Rush,' this could be gold mine for Blacks with a few dollars to invest, but leveraging the benefits is going to take some 'creative' financial/economic smarts. CAREFUL!