Chapter 42: Overwhelming Computer Performance
Chapter 42: Overwhelming Computer Performance
Billionaire.
A word that usually meant someone with assets exceeding one billion dollars.
Becoming a billionaire opened the door to many possibilities.
Acquiring specific companies, investing in certain technologies, and so on.
'What role will Biolife play?'
COVID patients were continuously appearing in Daegu.
I had thought it would be a passing illness like SARS or MERS, but its current impact far exceeded expectations.
'What if I had invested a little more money in Biolife?'
If I had purchased the necessary facilities and equipment for research, and expanded the workforce.
Regrets about the past remained, but it wasn't something I could undo.
Strictly speaking, preventing and investing in infectious diseases was the nation's responsibility, and for a private company, it was a difficult area to profit from.
'Now that things have come to this, I can't just stand by.'
While Dr. Lee Ho-yeon had operational control of Biolife, I was the one who currently held a 67% stake.
The 60 billion won investment was put in as a loan for the time being, but if it didn't generate profit, it was money they couldn't repay anyway.
I was set to receive it as equity within a month, which meant I would effectively own 85%.
The remaining 15% stake was the share for Dr. Lee Ho-yeon and the research team, based on their contributions.
'He said he needed high-performance computers.'
For an AI to process vast amounts of data quickly, powerful computers were necessary.
There was an article about how AlphaGo connected 1,202 CPUs and 176 GPUs when it played Go.
Although deep learning technology has advanced, lowering the required computer specs significantly.
But understanding the structure of humans or viruses required overwhelming computing power.
'Let's give it a shot. With my connections and my money.'
First, I should take care of the dormitory issue he requested.
- Kim Shin: I have a favor to ask.
- Jin Yoo-kyung: What is it! Don't tell me you're asking me on a date? I do have plans today, but...
- Jin Yoo-kyung: I might be able to free up some time, so hurry up and tell me!
- Kim Shin: Mirae Motors has a construction company among its affiliates, right?
It was a characteristic of South Korean conglomerates; most of them had a construction company within the group.
As South Korea developed rapidly, there was a huge demand for construction, from social infrastructure like roads, bridges, and ports to factories, commercial buildings, and apartments.
There was also internal demand within the companies, and they often used their construction firms as a channel to create various slush funds.
- Jin Yoo-kyung: Mirae Construction? Are you going to invest in that company too? Are you asking for inside information?
- Kim Shin: It's not like that. I have a building that needs to be built quickly.
- Jin Yoo-kyung: Ah, so you want to commission Mirae Construction for the job.
- Kim Shin: The scale isn't that large. But I'd like it built as fast as possible.
When it came to the "hurry, hurry" culture, few could keep up with Mirae Group.
I gave her an introduction to Biolife and explained that I wanted to build a dormitory.
- Jin Yoo-kyung: You're doing a good thing. Mobilizing an affiliate might be a little difficult at my level, though.
- Kim Shin: I'm asking you as a favor.
- Jin Yoo-kyung: If it's a favor... alright. I'll take care of it.
Asking someone for help wasn't something I was used to.
Remembering my father being hounded by debt collectors, I was the type to starve rather than borrow money from others.
But connections were a form of capability, and I believed that if it meant solving an important matter quickly, I shouldn't be picky about the means.
The next day, I went to Dream Art Rainbow and spoke to Jeong Beom-tae and the producers we had recruited.
“Due to some circumstances, I'll be going to the U.S. for a while. Even while I'm away, please continue with the businesses and projects we have in progress.”
“Yes, CEO.”
Active operations were underway since the company's establishment.
We were in the stage of meeting with the top variety show producers from various broadcasting stations to discuss what they wanted.
Whether they would transfer or not would depend on the company's reputation and performance, but we were putting in the effort early on.
* * *
I took a flight to the U.S. and arrived in San Francisco.
Having traveled a lot, I was now used to flights longer than ten hours.
When I got home, I found Oh Myeong-woo crying.
“Sob, sob.”
“What? What's wrong? Don't tell me you got fired from your company?”
“I just saw the ending of this game. The farewell is so sad.”
A programmer crying over a Steam game.
I sighed for a moment before speaking to Oh Myeong-woo.
“Let's make a coin.”
“Why a coin all of a sudden? It's hard to make money with those these days.”
The coin boom that had exploded three years ago.
After a major crash, the market had been stagnant, fluctuating up and down for the past two years.
Bitcoin had at least recovered and was maintaining a price in the ten-million-won range, but altcoins remained at rock bottom.
“It's not to make money.”
“Then what is it for?”
“It would be nice to make money, but... there's an immediate need for it.”
The idea of using a coin came to me when I heard about the need for computing resources for the AI developed at Biolife.
“Myeong-woo. The performance of personal computers has improved a lot compared to the past, right?”
“It's gotten incredibly better. Running high-spec games on full settings has become the standard. If it's not on full settings, it feels like something's missing.”
The graphics in today's games were so good that the screen felt photorealistic.
While software had improved, it would have been impossible without advancements in hardware.
However, the reality is that the vast majority of users buy expensive computers and use less than 10% of their performance, except when gaming.
Browsing the web, watching YouTube.
It's rare for them to run programs that fully utilize their computer's performance.
I explained the general situation at Biolife to Oh Myeong-woo and continued.
“We'll use blockchain technology to utilize the system resources of computers that sign up for mining. In return, we'll give them coins.”
“So you're saying we use their spare computer resources? Or use them when they're idle.”
“Yeah. It'll be cheaper than using cloud services from Amazon or Microsoft, and more importantly, we'll be able to leverage a lot more performance.”
In exchange for using personal computer resources, we issue and distribute coins.
For the coins distributed this way, we'd guarantee a minimum buy-back price. Our company would exchange them for dollars.
They say that mining Bitcoin accounts for 0.5% of the world's total electricity consumption.
That's how many computers were dedicated to mining.
Oh Myeong-woo's eyes sparkled.
“Literally a coin. We're creating our own currency. We use computer resources and pay them in return. Enough to cover their electricity bills and maybe earn a little extra.”
“Yeah. That's the plan.”
“Later on, instead of cash, we could offer variety shows, movies, or dramas in exchange for the coin. Or even give out game software or figurines.”
“Huh?”
That was something I hadn't thought of.
It's true that the coin didn't necessarily have to be exchanged for money.
“This sounds fun. We have to do this.”
The coin development work began the very day I arrived in San Francisco.
I established a company in Palo Alto through an accounting firm and signed a lease for a large office.
We needed to hire official employees, but Oh Myeong-woo took on the task of gathering people to work from day one.
“Myeong-woo. Are you going to post on a part-time job site?”
“That's the old way of doing things. Don't worry. I'll find some capable people right away.”
* * *
Oh Myeong-woo logged onto a site shared among programmers.
It had tutorials and information about computers, but it was also a site connected to all sorts of hobbies, including gaming.
His rank was Master.
For the past eight years, he had posted over a thousand articles and answers annually.
- Title: Let's save the world.
We are secretly developing a vaccine and treatment to combat the coronavirus that originated in China.
Limited to programmers with 5+ years of experience.
Those who want to be superheroes, apply.
Help with the work and receive daily game software, computer parts, figurines, or Legos.
Or you can take $300.
Less than twenty seconds after he posted, comments started pouring in.
- Doing great work. I'm in.
- You're buying games? I can feel the warmth.
- You guys are good people.
- Where do I go?
- Starting a line. 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 3.
- There are two 3s. I'm 5.
People whose startups had failed. Or those who were just taking a break.
A diverse group of people applied, and the 30 slots filled up immediately.
* * *
Workers were arranging furniture and installing computers in the office.
“We brought our own computers from home.”
“You can just put them on the floor.”
The computer experts Oh Myeong-woo brought over started working after connecting monitors, desktops, and the internet right on the bare floor.
Their fingers danced across the keyboards.
They divided roles among themselves and even organized into teams on their own.
“Myeong-woo. Aren't you going to work at Google?”
“This is about saving the world. I have to manage it.”
Back in his teens, this guy wasn't exactly the righteous type.
I tilted my head in confusion.
“But is $300 enough compensation to attract people?”
$300 might seem like a lot, but not when you considered the cost of living in San Francisco, especially Silicon Valley.
A city where even professionals earning $100,000 a year struggled to live.
It was a city that boasted a killer cost of living, where after paying rent and taxes, there was nothing left.
Oh Myeong-woo said.
“If you offer $300 in cash, not many people would come. But it feels different when you say you'll buy them that much worth of game software or figurines.”
“What's the difference from buying it themselves with their own money?”
“To a skilled programmer, $300 is not a lot of money, but getting several games they've always wanted is worth much more.”
The daily wage wasn't really the issue.
Having been an office worker myself, I was willing to pay sufficient compensation, above the industry average, to hire people.
However, among the people who gathered were highly skilled individuals who would be difficult to hire under normal circumstances.
“That's Eddie. You should try to get to know him if you can.”
“Eddie?”
“A genius programmer. You could say every single line of code he writes has a soul.”
I didn't know much about the world of programmers, but in any case, the work centered around Eddie was progressing incredibly fast.
Desks and computers were set up in the office, and the work continued day and night.
Issuing a coin was simple, but creating and connecting a platform to draw in computer resources using blockchain technology was another story.
“The mining system needs a feature that lets users decide how much CPU it uses.”
“And it needs to be able to reduce the mining amount while gaming.”
“That's an absolute must. No matter how good the cause, frame drops are unacceptable.”
“The company needs a comprehensive settlement system, and we have to implement a tracking system to prevent forgery or alteration.”
As they were experienced in this field, they added the necessary features on their own.
On the second day of work, Oh Myeong-woo spoke up.
“Shin. You have to name the coin.”
The name would reveal the coin's identity.
BioCoin, HeroCoin, etc. I had thought of several options, but I didn't want it to be defined by a single characteristic.
“Let's call it Source Coin.”
“Source Coin?”
“A coin that can be the source of anything, I guess.”
I didn't know much about blockchain.
I had only stepped into this world to utilize the AI at Biolife.
It might just be a way for the company to pay for computer usage by guaranteeing a minimum buy-back price.
But who could know what would happen in the future?
It felt like a very intriguing endeavor.