{"id":10397,"date":"2018-10-21T20:39:01","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T20:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=10397"},"modified":"2018-10-22T23:17:26","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T23:17:26","slug":"vincent-chen-and-wallok-99-bitcoins-and-an-elephant-warn-your-children-about-the-cyberpunk-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/10\/21\/vincent-chen-and-wallok-99-bitcoins-and-an-elephant-warn-your-children-about-the-cyberpunk-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Vincent Chen and Wallok: 99 Bitcoins and an Elephant \u2014 warn your children about the grim cyberpunk future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/10\/21\/vincent-chen-and-wallok-99-bitcoins-and-an-elephant-warn-your-children-about-the-cyberpunk-future\/99-bitcoins-and-an-elephant\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10438\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/99-bitcoins-and-an-elephant-229x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"229\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-10438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/99-bitcoins-and-an-elephant-229x300.jpg 229w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/99-bitcoins-and-an-elephant-768x1007.jpg 768w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/99-bitcoins-and-an-elephant-781x1024.jpg 781w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/99-bitcoins-and-an-elephant.jpg 1037w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 229px) 100vw, 229px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Vincent Chen and Wallok: <i>99 Bitcoins and an Elephant<\/i> (self-published, August 2018 \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2EyAmzN\">UK<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2CWfl0i\">US<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i>99 Bitcoins and an Elephant<\/i> is a book for children\u00a0\u2014 all about the world in the year 2028, a land of augmented-reality glasses and bitcoins for all!<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not intended as a satire of the present in the form of a children&#8217;s book \u2014 the author is completely sincere, and means well. He wrote it for his own kids. He&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/1292380624\/99-bitcoins-and-an-elephant-welcome-to-a-whole-new\">convinced<\/a> this book will tell children \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prdistribution.com\/news\/will-this-book-make-the-new-generation-adopt-cryptocurrency-faster.html\">ages five and up<\/a> \u2014 about the wonderful world of the future, just a decade away!<\/p>\n<p><br clear=all><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-10397-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/ksr-video.imgix.net\/projects\/3327104\/video-876128-h264_high.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/ksr-video.imgix.net\/projects\/3327104\/video-876128-h264_high.mp4\">https:\/\/ksr-video.imgix.net\/projects\/3327104\/video-876128-h264_high.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lisa is seven. In 2028, nobody uses paper money or coins\u00a0\u2014 everyone has a digital wallet, that uses QR codes.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone wears augmented-reality glasses from early childhood, everywhere, all the time \u2014 instead of a phone or a computer. These make the world much shinier!<\/p>\n<p>Then Lisa&#8217;s glasses break, and you see the non-augmented world of terrible, broken trash that all these shiny augmented people are really living in\u00a0\u2014 as if from <i>My First William Gibson<\/i>:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/10\/21\/vincent-chen-and-wallok-99-bitcoins-and-an-elephant-warn-your-children-about-the-cyberpunk-future\/99-elephant\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10398\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10398\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/99-elephant.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"625\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/99-elephant.jpg 800w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/99-elephant-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/99-elephant-768x960.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The squalid repair shop, behind the garbage heap, repairs Lisa&#8217;s glasses \u2014 and accidentally puts 99 bitcoins on them!<\/p>\n<p>She uses some of the bitcoin to buy a toy elephant. She takes a picture of it, and it comes to life as an animation!<\/p>\n<p>The first thing the elephant does is to get her to buy it a necklace \u2014 a Monero logo on a chain. Then it disappears.<\/p>\n<p>The elephant is straight out of Charles Stross&#8217;s <i>Accelerando<\/i> (<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2CXucYm\">UK<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2JdadFK\">US<\/a>). I was honestly wondering if it was an <i>Accelerando<\/i>-style automated 419 scam program, there to show the horrible things that can happen if you let yourself get social-engineered. &#8220;I&#8217;m from the darknets, and I&#8217;m here to skin you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><i>99 Bitcoins and an Elephant<\/i> is a fully-worked example of Silicon Valley tunnel vision\u00a0\u2014 in which a well-off techie paints a picture of an astounding new world, and completely fails to register that his favourite bits are going to be varying degrees of hell for everyone who isn&#8217;t just like him.<\/p>\n<p>The author came from a poor background, and still doesn&#8217;t seem to realise what he&#8217;s created here. I&#8217;m wondering if the illustrator did, though.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re still curious, the book&#8217;s on Kindle Unlimited. It is very well illustrated.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not the book it thinks it is. High-quality children&#8217;s cartoons of a dark cyberpunk world, where bitcoiners&#8217; dreams of the grim meathook post-apocalyptic Mad Max petrolpunk future have come true.<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A fully-worked example of Silicon Valley tunnel vision, where bitcoiners&#8217; dreams of the grim meathook post-apocalyptic Mad Max petrolpunk future have come true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[960,21,152,958,959],"class_list":["post-10397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-99-bitcoins-and-an-elephant","tag-bitcoin","tag-book","tag-vincent-chen","tag-wallok"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10397"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10459,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10397\/revisions\/10459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}