2
# Chapter 2
## Whale
It was easier to handle everything on my own. Building relationships with people was labor to me.
But I had never imagined that such consistent labor would eventually return to me as the reward called trust.
---
* Ring, ring.
“Yes.”
“Representative, the Vice President would like to see you.”
“Tell him to come in. Ah, Ms. Lee Hye-in!”
“Yes, Representative.”
“If the Head of the Purchasing Team has sent the Ferretti report, print it out and bring it in.”
“Yes, understood.”
A little while later.
Along with a knock, a secretary dressed in a black two-piece suit entered. The clicking sound of her high heels drew closer, and she placed a report on the desk.
“This is the report submitted by the Head of the Purchasing Team.”
“Yes.”
“Is there anything else you would like me to do?”
“Ah, yes... You can wear sneakers or slippers inside the company. I think you only need to dress properly when protocol is required or when you're escorting a VIP.”
“Yes, sir~ Thank you, Representative.”
The secretary answered in a gentle voice with a faint smile. After she left the room, the Vice President entered while I was reading the purchasing team's report.
“Vice President! Thank you for all your hard work.”
“I asked to see you because I have something I would like to say.”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
The Vice President hesitated. As though he had made up his mind, he swallowed dryly and opened his mouth.
“Representative! You shouldn't pursue this business.”
“Please, go on.”
“The revenue model is unclear. It's impossible to estimate when it will surpass the break-even point.”
“...”
“Furthermore, the investment is far too large. In the end, it will become a sunk cost that weighs us down. On top of that, this is a business that will be difficult to sell off in the future.”
Looking at the Vice President, who was speaking in an increasingly agitated voice, I waved my hand downward as if telling him to calm down. Then I continued.
“Yes, I understand your concerns, Vice President.”
“But why?”
“The break-even point isn't important. I have my reasons. Please proceed as planned.”
“Haa... Representative. This is no different from a hobby, not a business.”
I met his eyes with a gentle expression.
“Vice President!”
“Yes!”
“You're right. It is a hobby.”
“...”
Turning my back on the bewildered Vice President, I looked out the window. Then I continued.
“Vice President, you are an important person to me.
Hmm, let's do this.”
“...?”
“I'll raise your salary by 30%. And I'll give you three years' worth of salary in advance. Of course, incentives and stock options are separate.”
The Vice President's face showed a mixture of surprise and delight. He could do nothing but let out a brief exclamation.
“Ah...”
“This isn't a business where we meticulously weave together a revenue model.”
“Then what is it?”
“Think of it as a mission for me. A project for a value other than money. Please proceed with it as planned.”
At the words 'a mission, not a business' and 'value, not money,' the Vice President wore an expression as if he had realized something.
---
I am Lee Syeon! - Syeon Lee
I had earned enough money. More than enough.
An environment where everything was insufficient and filled with deprivation.
A moderate amount of misfortune and appropriate frustration that pierced straight through it.
After experiencing the deep troughs of life, I came to realize a few things. Those things had made me who I am today.
People say,
'Effort never betrays you.'
But whenever they said that, they were merely using self-consoling maxims like 'Failure is the mother of success' as tools for comforting themselves.
The greatest betrayal comes from effort.
It didn't take me long to realize that.
I learned it through repeatedly experiencing something called frustration.
That something more than effort and talent was necessary.
I came to realize that the intersection between enjoyment and talent was where the driving force to sustain effort existed.
And yet, life had a way of making it impossible to stop living diligently.
Life demanded effort.
I endured while repeating to myself, 'A little more, just a little more.'
Effort continued to be repeated until I recognized the waves of fate.
The sun sets, the moon waxes, and then the sun sets again. A simple principle.
I needed neither positivity nor negativity, but composure.
A cold gaze and a cool head. They gave me the ability to see the inflection points of collective desire.
Like a roller coaster, I developed a sense for recognizing the rises and falls of its waves.
...
That was quite a long digression.
It was just a rambling preamble before beginning the story you're probably curious about.
From now on,
I'll tell you how I was made into who I am,
and how I made my money.
The keywords that kept me going were curiosity and enjoyment. In my teens, I was thrilled by Marco Polo's adventures. I immersed myself in history, physics, and astronomy.
Vaguely,
looking at the stars excited me as if I were setting one foot into an unknown world.
Like Spinoza,
I ground glass to make a mirror, and used it to build a reflecting telescope.
It was a 6-inch-aperture mirror with a focal length of 1,440 mm.
Naturally, fellow enthusiasts gathered around me, and we formed an astronomy club.
One day, while exploring the unknown world,
I happened to read Toffler's The Third Wave and Powershift. The words, 'Information is power, and it determines the future,' awakened something in me.
My field of vision expanded from the universe to Earth, to the world, and then to networks. That awakening caused a strange butterfly effect.
I became absorbed in the world of hacking.
...
In those days, we distinguished between crackers and hackers.
These days, people use the term white-hat hacker. But I was somewhere between black and white—in other words, I was a gray-hat hacker.
I engaged in illegal hacking, but I had my own principles and code of conduct. Of course, there was a limitation in that I was the one defining morality and justice.
I found fulfillment in using information I obtained through hacking in the name of justice, either reporting it to the media or secretly supporting activists who stepped forward into the world.
In the process, I naturally came to understand
the flow of wealth and value hidden within the sea of information.
* Brrrriiiing, zzzzing.
Back then,
the connection sound of a modem, announcing the modulation and demodulation between analog and digital, awakened me and led me into a fascinating world.
I spent my teens shut away in a small room. Then I escaped into the real world. I had no impressive credentials to boast of, but there was still one thing I could do: programming.
With low wages as my weapon, I joined a small software house. There, I became immersed in various technologies and a new world that I had never been able to encounter in that little room.
The biggest thing I learned was UX.
It wasn't simply about designing the user experience. It was about bridging the gaps between management and technology, the public and art.
And I realized something.
More than information itself, the world changed depending on how accessible that information was and how it was structured.
I became able to anticipate how the public and money would react to planned phenomena.
My hobby was hacking.
Thanks to backdoors cleverly hidden in various places, I was able to learn about many things that had remained unknown.
From time to time,
things I reported to civic organizations and the media became public issues. Sometimes, the course of history itself shifted slightly. Every time that happened, I felt an incredible thrill.
Then I went through something I cannot speak about, and came to carry a secret for the rest of my life.
Time passed. I witnessed the dot-com bubble burst, and following the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.
And then
the global financial crisis arrived.
I knew instinctively then.
That the moment when everyone was screaming, when a gigantic wave seemed capable of swallowing everything, would become both a crisis and an opportunity.
One day, while I was repeating the cycle of work and hacking,
the endless chain of curiosity and enjoyment led me to cryptography.
I joined a mailing list on a cryptography forum, and before long, I received a fateful email.
'Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper'
It was what came to be known as the Bitcoin white paper.
Drawn in by its powerful appeal, I joined the early community working on Bitcoin development. It was just as thrilling as the first time I successfully hacked something.
I couldn't play a leading role, but I agreed with the ideas of Hal Finney and Satoshi, and contributed a few ideas of my own.
Through the efforts of the core developers and Hal Finney, the Genesis Block finally came into existence.
I also provided a node for the chain.
In other words,
I became one of the earliest Bitcoin miners.
Afterward, I came to possess an enormous amount of Bitcoin. (The reason I cannot reveal the exact amount is because my electronic wallet could be identified.)
But at the time, I didn't recognize its value.
It was simply fun,
and I merely sympathized with Satoshi Nakamoto's philosophy.
I watched fortune and tragedy intersect as a result of the financial crisis and the ensuing QE (quantitative easing).
Seeing the world groaning under its weight, I came to agree with Satoshi's philosophy even more.
After that,
Mt. Gox, the world's first cryptocurrency exchange, emerged. A cryptocurrency craze swept through developers and a few people who were quick to catch on.