Buy the Dip

There were still two days left until his allowance was due to be paid but despite this Anish woke up full of beans. The time was nearing. It has been nearly four months now since the XFD price has been hovering around £14,000 a coin. Back in 2021 he bought the dip. He did not understand too much about Cryptocurrency - but that didn’t matter. A couple of friends and his brother told him it was easy. He downloaded the Creance app and transferred one third of his life savings into an investment account. He followed his family’s investment advice and most importantly he was prepared to lose the money he had invested. That’s what the mainstream media emphasised at the time – only invest what you are prepared to lose! He was not a natural risk taker and followed this advice to the T.

He told himself that it didn’t matter, that he would just check on the price in a couple of years and cash out to use that money to go travelling around South America. Anish, now 38, still sports a handsome face lined by jet-black stubble giving testimony to a life lived free of drug abuse and of his good eating habits.

The Coronavirus Pandemic hit him hard. Pre-2020 Anish had jetted off to four or five destinations a year. He did not like the typical Brit holiday spots and tended towards more exotic locales. An old scratch map on his wall now hung in deadly silence. About half of the countries had been scratched off some years ago but no-one was sure how much longer its enforced dormancy would last.

XFD represented a chance. He knew he would never be able to afford his own flat in London. Living with the extended family in a three-bedroom ground-floor flat below Albanian drug dealers was trying at the best of times. Though, he had finally gotten used to unexpected visitors arriving at any time of the night. Any adversity could be overcome if you focus on the good things in life he told his friends with a glint in his eye.

Anish wiped away the morning crust which had settled around his eyes during the previous night's sleep and walked downstairs to find his dad sat immobile in the living room as always. The sofa had gradually changed shape to mould around his ever present body. The news rumbled on… “The new Russian variant continues to wreak havoc in the North of England, 3400 new deaths announced today”. None of that mattered any more though. Each death had long become abstract, the numbers were simply that, numbers flashing upon the screen. He refused to become a slave to the data and looked away while clutching tightly to the bright gold heart-shaped locket dangling around his neck.

A couple of years had passed since he was made redundant. He was a buyer for a pharmaceutical company, but they laid off one third of their workforce after the automation revolution. It was the same story elsewhere. The government sold it as a way for people to engage in their passions during their free time. But the days rolled into weeks, which rolled into years. Travel was still banned and there is only so many times you can stroll down the local canal.

He walked out into the garden and sat down on his favourite stool to sip his morning brew. Like every morning, he pulled out his phone and checked his government approved bank balance. Everyone was paid in Britcoin these days. CBDC’s, short hand for Central Bank Digital Currencies, had swept the World a few years ago. That was when the XFD price initially spiked. Britcoin seemed like a good idea at the time. In any case, people had to accept it to remain competitive with China. What most people did not anticipate was how it would be used to control their every move. In the past Anish would have simply bought a flight out of the country even if he was breaking the rules. The government, having removed intermediary banks, ensured that that was no longer a possibility. The only way he was now able to spend the measly £1000 he recieved into his bank account once a month was on things such as food, meals out or online shopping. They could track everything.

Most of Anish’s money went on the garden. In the last 10 years it had become an oasis for the whole family. Before Covid it was covered in terracotta coloured crazy paving – a lecacy from the previous owners. During the first lockdown Anish installed a wildlife pond, then, over the following months new plant pots began to arrive every weekend. Part of the paving disappeared in 2023 to make way for a grass lawn which was sewn with wildflowers. Over the years wildlife began to flock to his mini refugia in the North of London. Innumerable Foxes and wagtails had been livestreamed daily. However, not everyone was happy with the new arrangement. His father and the Albanian neighbours preferred the paved garden. The paving stones kept the unpredictability of nature at bay. Despite their disapproval, nothing bought Anish more joy than creating new habitats for all creatures great and small.

There had been chatter in the family that it was time to cash in the XFD on Creance. The market had stabilised and the original investment of £10,000 was now worth £55,000,000.

As Anish looked around, he mentally prepared himself to say goodbye to his beloved garden in the coming months. He had an offer accepted on a three-bedroom house in Hampstead with a much larger garden. His parents would live down the road in a top floor flat with a large paved terrace. It was time to transfer some of the money to the smart contract and secure the deal.

The initial joy of his newfound riches felt bittersweet. A barely detectable sadness was visible in his eyes. How could he enjoy his bounty when so many had been left behind? People were supposed to be happy owning nothing and receiving a universal basic income, but the reality was different. A walk to the local supermarket revealed the harsh reality of this Brave New World. His neighbours were too late in on the game and would never escape poverty. The price of basic food items had gone through the roof. Some families, especially those that never bought any crypto, struggled to eat. Many of his friends had turned to drinking to pass the time. Life had lost its higher meaning. What was the point of owning a house in Hampstead if he couldn’t get out of the country? How could he enjoy his riches when it meant that his neighbours suffered? Still, he could not dwell on these thoughts for too long. It is what it is. After all, he did not make up the rules of the game.

His mom came out and gave him a hug, her beautiful smile beaming in the orange tinted morning light. “Here is your breakfast darling” she whispered. Her soft smile was the only force to have remained the same over these tumultuous years.

Anish glanced at the dragonflies mating on the reeds and then at the pond skater darting across the water's surface. What did they know of coronavirus? He thought. They lived such a simple existence. They lived in the moment. He wondered why humans strive to dominate nature and compete for power. It was all a mystery to him.

Anyway, it was time. He slid his hand to the back of his neck and unclasped the necklace before placing the heart-shaped locket gently onto the palm of his hand. He navigated to the page on the Creance app where he could sell his XFD. “Please enter your X-code password” the app demanded. He opened the locket and removed a small piece of tightly screwed up paper. He unraveled the paper and typed in the password “RICHES4LIFE2021@!"£” and pressed send. His life had been building up to this moment for years.

Unexpectedly, an error message popped up on the screen. “Please call the following number, there is a problem with your transaction”.

“What the f***” he shouted. His hands began to tremble, and a light sweat broke out on his forehead. He ran inside to grab another piece of paper and desperatley wrote down the number to call. He typed out the numbers one by one into his mobile as disastrous thoughts raced through his mind. Had he written down the password incorrectly all those years ago? Surely not. After all, he had double checked it 100 times. In any case, he asked his mom to keep a separate copy of the password in one of her drawers. Surely she still had it – there was no need to panic.

The phone rang and a young lady picked up the other end. “Hello, welcome to the department of finance and fraud , how can I help?”

“Umm, I was just trying to withdraw my XFD on Creance and it told me to call this number” he nervously stuttered out.

“Oh, I’m sorry to inform you of this sir, but XFD bought before 2024 has been deemed to be illegal by a recent high court ruling”.

He immediately felt sick. All those years of holding onto this currency through the highs and the lows. The mental anguish watching it go to £200 to swiftly fall back to £8 in the early days. He had HODL’d through it all. The garden started to spin as his reality fell apart.

“What do you mean?" he said. "I bought this legally on Creance in 2021" he retorted.

“Yes sir, unfortunately the directors have been convicted for illegal activity relating to the initial coin offering which was made around that time. Therefore all earlier purchases of the cryptocurrency have now been deemed as invalid”.

He hung up the phone and threw it towards the pond in disgust. It fell on top of a large waterlily pad. Slowly, due to the weight of the phone the leaf began to let in water, and the phone slid off into the depths of despair. He held his head between his hands and began to sob loudly. Suddenly, he felt something move on his knee. He looked down and saw a ladybird navigating through a dense jungle of hair. He counted the number of spots on its back. There were eight. That is a Fibonacci number he thought. How ironic! It had been exactly 8 years since he bought XFD but now his luck was running out.

He sat up and the ladybird flew off into the morning sun never to be seen again.