In the spring of 2013 I unsuccessfully attempted to relocate my life to Long Beach, CA. After a 2 year stride of slaving away at a pizza restaurant in Minneapolis, MN I was begging for a change of scenery and a new adventure to embark on. So, I saved up $7,000, sold the majority of my things, packed three bags, and hastily acquired a one way ticket to the magical land of California.
When I arrived, my long time friend/ Ex-military comrade Garcia picked me up from the airport. What was the first thing that we did? You guessed it, we went to In&Out burger, a double double with some animal style fries is the best initiation to any California experience.
While we were furiously stuffing our faces, Garcia brought up this thing called "bitcoin". He told me it was this magical internet money that was decentralized and could revolutionize the world. He had bought himself 6 of them (they were around $100 at the time) and suggested that I should get some too. Me, being the skeptical person that I am, instantly shrugged the idea out of my head. I just arrived in a new city, I haven't got time or money to be investing in magical internet money! I needed to get a job and a place to live!
Fast forward two months... I still couldn't find a job (Idk if you knew this, but there are a lot of people that want jobs in California), I had injured my knee skateboarding, and I was running low on funds. Things didn't seem to be working out to well to say the least. Then I had a buddy of mine (Josh) who was living in San Fransisco, offer me a job with him at a tent rental company (setting up huge tents for music festivals and junk like that). Since I couldn't find a job in long beach, I decided to double down. I packed my bags once again and hopped on a mega bus headed for San Francisco.
When I arrived, Josh was half asleep waiting for me at the bus stop. Him and his girlfriend had just broken up, so we were hot on the search for a place to stay. After an arduous day long search, we ended up finding a cozy little motel in Walnut Creek. I spent the majority of the remainder of my money on a one week stay there... To make a long story short, I ended up not being able to do the job because of my knee injury (the job was just essentially carrying around giant logs all day). So, with my head dragging, I packed up my bags once again and headed back to Minnesota.
^Me being super stoked that everything worked out so well^
You've said the word bitcoin once so far, dude. The headline promised blockchains, dude. I know, but I had to tell that story to make this point. I think there is something innate in us all that decides to initially shirk off new ideas. We all have so much going on in our lives that whenever something new comes along, we don't really buy into it. When I first heard about bitcoin I asked myself, how is that possible?? How can money change? Everything I do in life revolves around money. There is no way that it can be replaced or transformed into something better. So I just dismissed it as an insane idea that was probably a scam in some sort of way.
Then came April of 2016, I was aimlessly clicking my way around the internet and stumbled upon a documentary called The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin. What's the big fuss about this damn bitcoin, I asked myself. I have had a vague prodding curiosity about it for sometime now. So, I decided to watch it with intentions of being able to further dismiss it as nonsense. Little did I know I was about to venture down the rabbit hole of blockchain technology... About halfway through the documentary, It clicked. I had the realization "Holy SHIT, this is not just money... This is an unstoppable, decentralized, transparent network", a blockchain. This changes EVERYTHING. My mind instantly began to flood with all of the possibilities that could be achieved through applying this technology...
I HAD to know more. So I went to the source and read the bitcoin whitepaper. Reading this further clarified my (for the lack of a better word) "Revelation". I was instantly hooked. The following months (even to this day) I have been obsessively indulging in every bit of information that I can find about blockchains and cryptocurrency. I have even begun contemplating getting into computer programming so that I can further understand and apply this technology.
Well besides me being an obsessive person... I learned that I am not the only one who felt as if though they had taken the red pill and subsequently dived head first into months of infatuated reading, trying to further understand this technology. Andreas Antonopoulos describes losing 20 lbs. and forgetting to eat for 2 months after he internalized the idea of the blockchain in this interview with Joe Rogan. Vitalik Buterin describes a similar obsession. There are people around the world who have rushed out of their p.h.d.'s and college degrees to further pursue this technology. So what's the big deal? Why do people care so much about a technology? Here's what I think...
Once I internalized what a blockchain really was. I began to realize the potential applications of this technology, the implications, for me, created an unforgettable rut of potential "utopian" futures. We could create a truly representative democracy where everybody's votes are transparent and accounted for. We can implement a transparent monetary system that is decentralized and gives everybody a fair chance to acquire, store, and instantly transfer wealth. We can create businesses that are not run by the greediness of human beings, but who's rules are written in code and available for anyone to see. This technology can improve every. single. sector of life. from transparent land ownership, to peer to peer transactions, to transparent governments, to individual health monitoring, to uncensorable social media, to improving farming conditions, decentralized currency, peer to peer contracts, court systems, everything that can potentially be on a blockchain... Would be improved from adopting a blockchain based system.
When you are somebody like me, a lower class citizen who feels extremely disenfranchised by the current societal structure. This technology provides an opportunity for us, as a society, to create a way out. This is exhilarating for me. I think other people share this sense of invigoration and are driven to this technology for altruistic purposes. However, It can also be used in the opposite sense, to further solidify government power, spying, and secrecy. It is up to us as a society to understand and drive this technology in a direction that will benefit the world as a whole, instead of just those at the top of the ladder.
I believe this is one of the most fundamentally important inventions of the last few hundred years. What an exciting time to be alive!
Do you have a similar experience when discovering blockchain technology? If so, I would love to hear your story!
Thanks for reading!
