A look back at 2014 Crypto-Fictions

Let’s take a trip down Crypto memory lane together ! The year is 2014. In the middle of the bear market, Bitcoin enthusiasts are still optimist about the potential of their cryptocurrency and a book “Bitcoin for the Befuddled” is published to explain it to novices.

One specific extract from this book was then published as a blog post and stood out in my memory: “A Typical Day in a Blockchain-Enabled World Circa 2030”.

In this chapter, we follow Crowley, the humanoid crocodile character, as his day unfolds in a hyperbitcoinized world and witness his interactions with smart contracts and programmable money.

Crowley is first woken up by his smart alarm clock which rings at the time chosen by the knowledge of the crowd of people and AI betting $BTC according to his vital signs.

Does that sound like an @AugurProject or @gnosisPM prediction market?

He then takes a long hot shower knowing that the energy used to heat the water is sourced from his building private generator and paid to the satoshi through microtransactions.

Hmmm, I have already heard about this: @gridplus is implementing that with payment channels.

Before heading out, he transfers a few coins to an autonomous drone lawnmower patrolling his block to get his lawn mowed.

Looks just like one of of @slockitproject smart IoT projects.

Unfortunately, Crowley misses his bus 🚌 to work but gets reimbursed of the fee paid to his alarm clock by an automated insurance smart contract !

Well, I have just done the same this week for my flight to DevCon4 with @etherisc and last summer with Fizzy from Axa.

With the reward from the insurance, he rents the closest electric car with one single transaction to get him to his meeting with his client.

Pretty similar to what @ProjectOaken is planning with autonomous car leasing…

I forgot to tell you our favorite reptile is a real estate agent by trade. One hour later, he has successfully conducted the sale of a house through a multi-signature contract.

Did the authors predict the rise of @MeridioRE this far in advance?

After a hard day of work, he deserves a treat and order a salad to a neighbour who cooks this kind of meals. She trusts him in her house because of his highly-rated decentralized reputation profile. This type of reputation could be built with the self-sovereign @uport_me.

I think that, by now, you are starting to understand the point I am trying to get across: A majority of these predictions is being built right now or live on Ethereum. And guess what? Bitcoin is still immensely valuable and taking care of the value transfer thanks to the Lightning Network or being transferred on Plasma chains in its wrapped form.

So, why did I go through the trouble of setting up an Ethereum bounty on @eth_bounties to dig up this 2014 book extract I had only a faint memory of?

https://twitter.com/JimmyRagosa/status/1058358741005930497

If you put aside the dystopian undertones of this fictional universe, I simply wanted to display an evidence that, not so long ago, Bitcoin supporters (I am still part of this group) were dreaming of a world disrupted by decentralized finance and programmable money.

The takeover of part of the Bitcoin community by Maximalists completely changed this former narrative and each one of these public blockchain applications are now considered “impure” because most are implemented on Ethereum.

This dream is still alive: Bitcoin and Ethereum developers are working night and day to make it a reality.

Tribal skirmishes are only slowing down the work.

Collaboration between crypto-communities as seen at DevCon4 is the way to go and I wish it becomes the way forward.

Here are the book authors Twitter handles: @lisperati & @DrChrisWilmer if I’m not mistaken. I’d love it if they or one the member of the crypto-community took on the mantle and tried to write an updated version of this fiction including all the progress we have made so far.

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