Bitcoin Bonanza

Sammie followed the boy into the underpass. He did not spot her tailing him. Nor did he notice the women by the far exit leaning against a wall covered with roughly chalked symbols, letter Bs with lines running through them. For someone on the run Sammie thought, he was oblivious to his surroundings. But the shouting started he realised he was in danger.

“Give us your money!” shouted one of the women, “Give us your money!”

The entire group lurched forward, tightly packed. The women smiled menacingly. Jethro froze then swivelled around to face Sammie who stood between him and the stairs leading to the street.. She saw terror in his eyes set in a face that was strangely familiar because she had watched it online for the past month. In a split second she lunged forward and grabbed his hand.

“Run!” she shouted, pulling him back and towards the street. As they hit the stairs the women chased them until they saw a policeman and melted back into the underpass.

Dusk was falling. Sammie steered the young man into a nearby café. Had she not known he was over 18 from his intro segment on Bitcoin Bonanza she would have guessed him to be 14 at most. Jethro Jones, a customer associate from Uxbridge who got lucky and surpassed thousands of applicants to be cast on autumn’s hottest web reality show, for a chance to win £2 million donated by Satoshi Nakamoto and be featured as the official face of an international Bitcoin launch.

Strange to think Nakamoto had been unknown a year ago. He now ranked as an international celebrity yet no one had laid eyes on him. The world’s only tangible link to Nakamoto was the thin young man sitting opposite Sammie in the café by the underpass, shovelling greasy toast into his mouth washed down with tea.

In front of her sat the key to the Genesis block, Nakamoto’s fabled code, which allowed Bitcoin to proliferate as an independent currency just as the symbols had foretold.

“You had a lucky escape there”, said Sammie, sipping a Coke. “Don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t been behind you”.

By the way Jethro was scarfing toast she guessed he had not eaten much since escaping the Bitcoin Bonanza island. He seemed famished and disorientated, unaware she had been following him for hours.

“So how did you find it?”

Jethro’s haunted eyes shot up from his plate.

“I just….found it. One night. Thought I’d won the lottery, and be on TV” he whispered, “and now it’s turned into a fucking nightmare. I need to head off soon. Got to keep moving or I’m screwed. I can’t go back there”.

It was exactly as the symbols had predicted. About a year before Bitcoin Bonanza, letter B symbols with lines scratched through them appeared in the city like mushrooms sprouting between cracks. Chalked by some ghostly hand onto graffiti covered walls, spread rapidly alongside rumours of a new, stateless currency called Bitcoin. This rumour was perpetuated by a Blogger site run by the mysterious Nakamoto.

Within months local MySpace influencers including Sammie uploaded videos of themselves dancing and posing in front of these symbols, throughout the city. Then Bitcoin.com, Nakamoto’s blog, published a kind of treasure map called The White Paper. At centre of the map lay a piece of code called The Genesis Block, which held the key to generating Bitcoin in limitless quantities.

Sammie wasted time between call centre shifts reading up on the rumours surrounding Bitcoin.com, The Genesis Block and the £2 million Nakamoto promised to to anyone who located it. When the open audition call for Bitcoin Bonanza appeared she unsuccessfully auditioned. Like millions she watched the successful cast including Jethro Jones get flown out to the artificial island on the outskirts of the city to compete in a filmed search for the Genesis Block. And she watched, open mouthed, as contestants met horrifying booby traps each week, and disappeared or – when they tried to leave – were met by armed guards who herded them back to their shared house. This was superb publicity for what would follow: the official launch of Bitcoin through activation of the Genesis Block. Until Jethro escaped. With the Block.

“We need to leave” Sammie hissed.

Curious faces were turning in their direction: “Wait a minute, isn’t that…”

Not taking no for an answer Sammie hauled Jethro up by his jacket sleeve, threw some change on the table and steered him towards the café door. A singular stroke of luck, the kind Sammie with her humdrum existence was unaccustomed to, had fallen into her lap when, miraculously, she had spotted this overnight celebrity being hunted by the entire city. A celebrity with a bounty on his head in the form of Satoshi Nakamoto’s blog post promising £100,000 to the individual who successfully apprehended Jethro and the Genesis Block and returned them to the island. Sammie kept a firm grip on his arm.

“Are you going to help me or what?”

Sammie pondered Jethro’s rather pitiful face. From the moment she had spotted him by a bus stop after work and begun trailing him she knew he was way over his head.

“I could do with £100,000”

Then why did you get me out of the underpass?

“So those bloody hags didn’t beat you up before I could get my £100,000”.

Jethro shrugged. It had started to drizzle. They stood opposite each other on the busy street, drops of rain spitting on their faces.

He pulled a small wallet out of his jacket pocket and thrust it at Sammie. Instinctively she grabbed it knowing it held the key to countless millions, billions even. It was inconceivable to her that it was in her hand.

“Take it” Jethro shouted, “it’s all yours. The Genesis Block! I don’t fucking want it!”

Then he turned to a gathering crown and screamed, “it’s her you want! She’s got the Genesis Block! You get £100,000 if you can catch her!”

He ran, as fast as he could, into the night. Around Sammie, the crowd began to circle closer.