Disclaimers:
This article is not advice on investment or political party affiliation. This article is solely meant as one students’ opinion about finance, politics, and technology. The main characters are fictional, yet, non-fictional political figures are present players in our reality, names changed with “Z”, mostly for humor.
Other connected articles:
This narrative is connected to three other stand alone articles.(#1 June 2023, #2 October 2023 (p10-11), #3 December 2023) The aim of the series is to inform the truth about crypto with a MacGuffin of a donut.
Gender Treatment:
This piece also challenges the mind to consider how gender neutral Literature mechanics are presently living within limitations of the English language.
[A chartreuse green ticker scrolls across the auditorium ceiling, Defiant style:] “Bitcoin traded above $93,000 for the first time”… (11/16/24)
The conference ended an hour ago. The floor to ceiling headlining photo of Zhitney Zebb is flickering off as the A/V engineer switches to the main advertising screen for the Oregon Convention Center, scrolling various cute zoo photos.
In the chartreuse flicker of the stadium marquee the mass of plastic white chairs reflects emerald in Pipers’ eyes as they read the Zork Times. ” ‘Liberal America simmers into a more sobering green tea for brainstorming survival of the next 4 years after what seemed like the death of hope last month.’ Who writes this crap? Seemed like? They forgot to mention Zump could truly be the death of hope for a multicultural nation of choice makers, aka let freedom ring,” Piper slams their body on a front row chair, their black lace socks snagging on some part of the cheap design.
“The last 15 years have been saviorless in this country in the blockchain space too, now Zump is our Savior? We need democrats to invest in blockchain!” Jinx snags the last sugar donut as the caterers grab serving plates.
Piper jumps up and grabs the sugar donut and waves it in Jinx’ face.
“No, we need them to develop—and investing is optional. The mark of an honest politician is whether they tell the citizens this or not.”
Jinx juts forward and bites the donut Piper stole, sugar rimming their mouth and one sole granule sticking to their nose ring.
Both stare at each other as Jinx swallows.
Piper flirt-sneers, handing Jinx another bite after tearing off one for themselves and then licking their fingers. “At the least, we need them to massively deep dive their brains on the truth of blockchain. No citizen who actually thinks after they deep dive will allow centralization
without a fight. But we need seats in these chairs so they can begin thinking about why it’s important to be vigilant.”
Jinx meows as they grab the bite, “Yeah, but with Zump’s ‘adoption’, isn’t democratic America going to keep thinking blockchain is some kind of nationalist militant wanna-be tea party Jesus moment scam pill to distract from the conservative poison that citizens just drank to prohibit building a choice-based, multicultural society! I mean, decentralized blockchain IS the evolution of democratic choice!” Jinx wipes the lonely sugar granule from their nose ring.
“Hey, don’t forget, he is just using rhetoric, and yeah, likely as a misdirection but ‘US Stockpiling’ does not mean the network and ecosystem would lose decentralization capability or somehow stop once Bitcoins’ scarcity is reached, no matter who owns it! Citizens stop caring when they see the astronomical price of Bitcoin, thinking: 1. How can they afford that (as if supporting blockchain ever has to have anything to do with buying a single SAT); and 2: That one can’t buy fractions of any coin, including Bitcoin (SAT’s). The separation of the tech of blockchain needs to be more distinguished from Bitcoin. Nothing can stop the network from operating. Look at your T-shirt, babe!”
Jinx does a tada motion emphasizing their T-shirt in acknowledgment.
“Relax Jinx, we are doing the class to water the right seeds. Let’s go to the store and get ready before they lock us in!” Piper grabs their laptop as they thumbs up to Vin, the security guard, across the geometric wannabe 80’s carpet. Vin is gesturing a slitting throat motion that Piper knows has got to mean, ‘it’s time to empty the auditorium.’
Jinx grabs their laptop, too.
art by r31nv3nty0ur$3lf
Outside in the shimmer of the city, Piper looks into the dark sky.”We can be assured that if Zump ‘s administration does not adhere to Nakamoto’s ethos as it adopts blockchain, it is only playing everyone’s FOMO for some other reason… Remember Zhitney’s talk? Even though Zump wants to “stop control”, when has he ever actually NOT wanted control –in his life? How
often has he been a liar? So under the guise of championing the goal and original intention of blockchain, for us to become sustainable executive custody holders, and our children and their
children, we need to fight for decentralization together, and be very skeptical of Zump’s hot topic rhetoric borrowing.”
Jinx stops halfway down the metal stairs ahead of Piper, turning 180. “Zhitney made another point that I fear no one will remember tomorrow though, babe, ‘We need to direct resources for how to make it work for the people.‘ But, I mean like, what if American nodes were brought down in the future by Ziz Zarren-like fear-mongering legislation? This would be a betrayal of all we hold dear with decentralization! The ZBI could press Zump into a new state sponsored surveillance era by using blockchain for centralized means and not adhering to Nakamoto’s ethos?”
Piper eases down the stairway past Jinx, kisses them in a brush on the cheek, eyes glimmering and smirks widely.
“That’s where we gain inspiration from Dr. Zood, Jinx! We are finding a way to get a 10,000% return for democratic citizens’ hard work and inspire developers, just like Dr. Wood is doing.”
Piper opens the car and they both climb in.
“Do you want to grab some ramen?” Piper pipes.
“No, I want another donut. With lots of sugar. I need to get some energy for class.”
“Ok, let’s grab both. We have 49 minutes ’til the students show up. “
30 minutes later, a mechanical lock releases and lets Piper and Jinx into a storefront bookstore in Portland. The donut bag crumples against the doorframe. “Here”, Piper hands Jinx the bag. They start digging in. Piper walks around to turn on the lights. “15 minutes until class starts … Let’s start with the headlines we read in the car! What do you think?”
“Can I read them?”
“Yes.” Piper gives another peck on the cheek to Jinx then scurries to set up their computer. People start trickling in.
Piper grabs the dry erase sandwich board and marker and sets it up front.
TALK TODAY:
WTF is crypto
&
How do I use it safely?
with Piper Snap
It’s 7:00 pm.
“Welcome. Before we start, Jinx will read the headlines.”
Jinx stands up, avoiding knocking the donut bag onto the floor. “19 hours ago, the Defiant posted this: ‘The A16Z firm noted that Zump’s pro-crypto stance, coupled with bipartisan progress from previous Congress sessions, lays a solid foundation for legislative advancements favoring the web3 industry.”The good news is that there is now a pathway for constructive engagement with regulatory agencies and legislation that can bring regulatory clarity,” a16z stated. However, the firm urged crypto founders to remain vigilant and strive to achieve decentralization wherever possible. “Where there is trust, there is regulation“, the post said. “You should continue to focus on removing centralized aspects or dependencies on trust within your projects…” ‘
Piper stood up, “Thanks Jinx. We need to watch these politicians and lawmakers as we tred in the blockchain space and hold them accountable for pushing for centralization. Some officials want to transform them from decentralized to centralized, which can happen so very easily by turning networks from public to private, requiring auth layers, adding dependencies, and sometimes this requires citizens to hand over their keys, which equates to requiring the government to be your financial custodian FOR YOU, deciding what you can and cannot make or spend. As we see with Zump, there’s at least an acknowledged art by r31nv3nty0ur$3lf
conflict between the potential of innovation as yet unrealized in the United States, and the yet unclear new governance path that he will forge. Acknowledgement is good, but….
We, most of us democrats and democracy defenders, all hope that this new administration’s plans will actually align with the ethos of decentralization, as it claims. A struggle to understand blockchain is largely due to our dependence upon the media informing us what we should think and dissolving our interest in the heavy focus on rug pulls (ZTX) or ‘supposedly’ under-registered projects (Zether). We need to renew our investigative skills, and use and share the global information on decentralization, its origin, ethos, and safe path. As well, we need to get into the opposition levels to understand them to fight them and support developers. One big issue researchers are trying to solve is how to create a decentralized space where malicious actors do not take foothold without acquiescing to centralization. Everyone can play a huge historical part right now in learning and educating those around you on what blockchain is and how crucial it is to understand it so that we are not EVER forced by poorly debated or misunderstood support for legislation into: 1. giving away our keys, and 2. not defending democracy on a bi-partisan level when it comes to the issue of our constitutional right to property.”
Piper winked to Jinx who set down a sugar donut and winked back.
“Everyone has been invited here today to begin their web3 journey so that we can begin ensuring fair and safe adoption of blockchain in governance using democracy..and make America Safe Again! Since there has been very little organized and/or media covered debate, this starts at the community level and we must insist on transparency at the city, state, and national level as a democracy. So, Lets’ begin…
Let’s start with answering the question:
What do you know about blockchain?”
(Dear reader: help decide what big questions to tackle in Crypto & Donuts #5 in Jan 2025. Answers are private and anonymous on your part!)
Series Mission:
The purpose of this light-hearted creative nonfiction articles on crypto are to attempt to elucidate the real and present importance of all United States citizens, especially democrats, to seriously consider the reality that the most powerful innovation in history should not be dominated by Conservatives, so please adopt so we can make America Safe Again.
Lil Ken’s Further Reading Recommendations
Hope This Helps!