Electronic cash that changes hands directly from person to person, under the control of no financial institution.
Last year my focus has been about stability in family life, work, health, fitness and focus. 12 months prior I was working on a startup called Sugar. This was an Invisible Building project but the idea was to spin it out into it’s own company. Sugar Financial Technology was a startup with a focus on Fintech mixed with social. My research lead me to gain an great interest and a fascination about building with Bitcoin from a design perspective.
I have had an interest in Bitcoin for some time and like many in my culture bubble, I had landed myself into a room within the app Clubhouse. Within my first few weeks there I’d learnt about these new things called NFTs and I’m not gonna lie I was very excited about the prospect the new crypto economy and everything Web 3.
Sitting here in 2024. After the collapse of FTX and everything that went with it. Crypto is most certainly looking dead in the water and the only time I really think of cryptocurrency or blockchain these days is when I watch Man United train in their sponsored training kits.
What makes Bitcoin different to Tezos or any other cryptocurrency in existence is that Bitcoin has been open source from the day Satoshi mined the first block. This first block is known as the genesis block.
The first thing I actually see in the code above is the word banksy. What you should be looking at though is the phrase: The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.
This was put there by Satoshi for a few reasons.
Timestamp Proof. Including a headline from a well-known newspaper served as a timestamp to prove that the block was created on or after January 3, 2009. This helped prevent pre-mining, a practice where creators generate blocks for a blockchain before its public release, thus potentially gaining an unfair advantage.
Political Statement: The message can be interpreted as a critique of the traditional banking system. In 2009, the world was still reeling from the 2008 financial crisis, which led to massive bailouts of banks by governments. By referencing a news headline about a second financial bailout, Satoshi might have been commenting on the instability and moral hazard of the traditional financial system, while proposing Bitcoin as an alternative system that doesn’t rely on central banks or government interventions.
Historical Marker and Identity Concealment: This message in Bitcoin's genesis block not only serves as a historical marker by permanently anchoring Bitcoin's creation in a specific moment of financial crisis and uncertainty but also aids in Satoshi Nakamoto's identity concealment, as using a newspaper headline avoided revealing personal information, maintaining anonymity and keeping the focus on the technology's purpose rather than the creator's identity.
Looking at the front page of that newspaper, I can’t help but notice many similarities to the world today in 2024. The world is outraged about the war in Gaza, yet we’re not doing anything about it. The symmetry between the word 'Chancellor' and the pink banner that says ‘Eat Out from £5’ reminds me of life during the pandemic, when our current Prime Minister, who was then our Chancellor, ran the very popular ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme. The entire page echoes the cost of living crisis that the UK is going through at the moment.
The future of finance starting with small change
The rising cost of living crisis most definitely inspired me to proceed with my idea for Sugar. I wanted to launch a digital tip jar incorporating a savings technology and build a social network into it. I thought there was no better way to do this than with Bitcoin. I envisioned creating a tipping network where electronic cash could change hands directly from person to person, free from the control of any financial institution. Obviously inspired by that direct quote from Satoshi Nakamoto. I believed the best way to create a brand new market utilising this electronic cash was to concentrate on small change. The tagline for Sugar was 'The future of finance starting with small change,' and this vision led me to the Catalyst Co-Founders programme, where I sought a team to build this project with.
Co-Founders is an excellent programme based here in Northern Ireland and i’m really delighted that our team got to the final and we were in the top 10 through the process. Unfortunately on the last night we did not make the cut and lost out in the opportunity of a 10k seed grant.
I’m going to do another blog post on my journey with Sugar, Co-Founders and Bitcoin design soon. I’ll talk about where it’s at, where it could go and it’s future. Let me know what you think about this post, the idea and if you’d like to learn more about anything mentioned.
