The Currency

"What is currency? What gives a currency its value?", he asks his students. "Why do we let others determine the course of our lives by controlling the money that we need to survive?"

"Money derives its value, in a sense, from the importance that society places on it. In the United States as well as many other countries, it has become less democratic and more based on how the Fed sets rates and how strong quantitative easing is at any given time......."

He continues to drone on, speaking subconsciously. He has given this lecture a few times since he was hired as an Adjunct Professor. His students always seem almost less interested in the topic than he is. His mind wanders to his troubles at home. His mortgage rate just went up significantly and he was already scraping the bottom of the barrel before it changed. His salary hasn't increased in the 5 years since he was hired, despite the inflation seen worldwide. How is he to continue to live?

Brian dismisses his students for the afternoon, wiping the board and packing his backpack. He has to run to his bus, which he has been taking since he sold his car to save money. He sees Jenny, a student from the Econ class which he was just teaching, waiting ahead at the bus stop.

"Hey!" Jenny calls to him as he approaches. "I have a question about the lecture."

Knowing that they are going to be on the same bus for a while anyway, Brian responds with internal reluctance, "I would love to answer it".

"If currency has become less democratic, what is stopping someone from creating their own currency? Is it illegal? Are we all just lazy?"

"Well, in some countries it is illegal, but as I said, money derives its value from society. It is difficult, even if a currency is created, for a society to accept it." He explains as they get on the bus. "Basically, people just don't like change so we use whatever money our government sets as the standard."

"Well, that's dumb. You taking the train?"

"Yes, I am," Brian responds. And I have to pretend to be able to accommodate conversation the whole damn way, he thinks to himself.

Luckily, the conversation doesn't go much further. They have some small talk, and he puts a podcast in his ears, staring out the train window. The thought keeps going through his mind. Could someone actually create alternative currencies successfully?

He walks from the train station home, which is not far away. He gets ready for bed. He is no longer focused on his financial stress, but instead focuses on the same thought, and those thoughts become ideas.

He goes throughout his week in a similar fashion. Friday, though, is a focus on supply and demand.

"The value of an asset is directly related to its supply and the demand for it in the market," He explains to his students as his mind wanders again. He gives this lecture with much more enthusiasm.

After class, he rushes to call his friend Landen, who works for an investment firm. He wants some advice to get an idea started. Landen, however, explains that the idea will not garner much support and is unlikely to get investors.

He decides, after much deliberation, to create an asset class like the world has never seen. A digital asset class. He will create a coin, coded by a restricted number of bits and encrypted in such a way that it could not be faked. The only way to get investment, it seems, is to kill two birds with one stone. If it is valued by society, the investment will come.

He creates a server system to created and certify each coin. He has to purchase the system with a credit card, but once created, many of his friends and students buy into it. They participated with small amounts. Given that the housing crash and most recent recession was about a year ago, he sets the algorithm to value the coins at .10 USD and sets the system to require people to solve for them.

Some of his students have dedicated GPU computers, as they play PC games. These prove to be the only effective way to solve for any of the 21 million created coins, now named Bitcoins.

Seven years later, he notices many countries, including Venezuela, use Bitcoin as an alternative to their native currency due to hyperinflation. Investors and risk taking traders trade the coins to try to make high profits. Prices approach $20,000.

During the next four years, he finally gets his tenure as a professor. No one knows his contribution to the world, but he follows it with great anticipation daily. His creation has made him his retirement nest egg, but he keeps it to himself.

As 2021 approaches and turmoil reaches an odd point, his creation reaches $40,000 per coin. He sells all of the Bitcoins which he has mined, and lets go of his financial worries forever. He pays off his mortgage, his car loan, the loan on his solar panels, and all of his credit card debt. He no longer has any worries. Peace, at last.