Chapter 51: The Power of Money
Chapter 51: The Power of Money
I had made a lot of money.
Most of my life had been spent in poverty, so becoming rich didn't make me forget the value of money.
I knew just how precious a hundred million won was, but precisely because of that, shouldn't I spend it when I had to?
In capitalism, you could make money work for you.
“Eddie. Let's increase the number of miners now.”
“Yes. How high should we raise the limit?”
“Double it for now.”
With a simple adjustment, the mining limit for Source Coin was increased to 100,000 users.
[ Number of Miners: 52,861 ]
[ Number of Miners: 76,127 ]
[ Number of Miners: 100,000 ]
It took only a short time to reach 100,000 miners, thanks to the people on the waiting list.
Source Coins are only paid out after mining for more than two hours, but it was rare for a session to be terminated midway unless there was a computer or network issue.
Even if that happened, someone from the waiting list would quickly fill the spot.
That's why we added the performance equivalent of several supercomputers.
“Biolife is drawing more resources.”
Biolife's AI was running through the distributed processing system.
Accounting for the loss from distributed processing, it was at 74% of total performance.
Performance would increase further with future optimization and stabilization patches.
“Eddie. How many people are waiting to mine right now?”
“Around 250,000.”
“That's quite a lot.”
Earth Resource's business was booming from the very first day.
Still, it was a strange feeling to watch.
‘All of it is my money being spent.’
The current 100,000 miners and the 250,000 waiting seemed like they had gathered to drain my wallet.
The Source Coins being spent to support Biolife. The funds to cover that cost for Earth Resource were coming straight from my pocket.
‘Fifty thousand dollars an hour.’
What if I calculated it in terms of pizzas or hamburgers?
Or maybe chicken.
More money was being spent every hour than the cost of all the chicken I'd eaten in my entire life.
‘Back when I had nothing, I'd agonize so much before buying chicken. I'd even buy street-side rotisserie chicken to save money, even if it wasn't as tasty or crispy.’
The past felt so futile. I realized why people always say, “Back in my day...”
I had recently earned 10.5 billion dollars. If it weren't for that money, I wouldn't be able to pull something like this off.
After all, you have to be able to feed yourself before you can do good deeds.
“Eddie. Once it's stabilized, let's increase it to 500,000.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Let's just do it.”
“But that means a lot of Source Coins will be paid out.”
“I know. 250,000 of them an hour. Do it anyway.”
The Source Coin's link system operated without a hitch.
“We hit 500,000!”
“Half a million. With this much computing power, it's a massive success. It's so powerful.”
“I think we've created a monster.”
The employees exclaimed in admiration.
The system handled the 500,000 miners effortlessly, and Source Coins worth 250,000 dollars were paid out every hour.
To achieve this much on the first day.
There's a saying that a good start is half the battle. If you apply that to a startup, does this mean we're already halfway to success?
‘I'm happy, but also sad.’
If the popularity of mining remained high and the Source Coin payout rate could be adjusted, the expenditure could be cut by up to half, but for now, it was a considerable burden.
Six million dollars a day.
The value of several Seoul apartments was vanishing into thin air.
Oh Myeong-woo grinned mischievously.
“What's with you?”
“I saw the message you sent to Dr. Lee Ho-yeon. I think you left behind a famous quote.”
“What?”
“‘Let's crush it with money.’ I love it. This is going to be our company's catchphrase.”
Oh Myeong-woo immediately went to his computer and displayed the phrase on the wall screen.
[ Let's Crush COVID-19 With Money ]
“What are you doing?”
“It's a good thing. Let's give our employees a sense of pride.”
* * *
“This is reckless. Truly.”
“Will this even work?”
Producer Seong Ho-jin stood in a corner of the office with the writers, a serious expression on his face.
He had planned to make the successful launch of Earth Resource the main content for episode five of the YouTube series.
‘He's pulled off another one.’
Once you have a fun and exciting episode in the bag for a series, you feel secure for a while.
But it looked like the content for episode six would have to connect with Biolife.
Spending 250,000 dollars every hour to find a synthetic compound effective against COVID-19 using AI.
After the film crew left Korea, the coronavirus situation had been getting worse by the day.
And Kim Shin was going to lead the charge to cure a virus that was spreading across the globe?
And they were the ones filming it?
“Ah. This is insane. Really.”
“What's wrong?”
“It's so good it's absurd.”
He requested another support team from Korea.
He felt like they had far too few cameras focused on Kim Shin.
He felt they needed to record as much as possible to avoid any regrets later on.
* * *
Developing a new drug takes five years at the short end, and fifteen at the long end.
Most attempts end in failure due to unexpected side effects.
Failing from the start is one thing, but if side effects appear during Phase 2 or 3 clinical trials, you lose both time and money.
Even with the support, it was uncertain if Dr. Lee Ho-yeon's team could succeed.
Nevertheless, having made my move, I had no intention of backing down.
‘Now that I've come this far, I have to see it through to the end.’
You can't just close a book you've been engrossed in when there's only one page left.
I was spending money with exactly that kind of resolve when...
“CEO. We'd like to sign employment contracts.”
The early employees who had been planning to leave Earth Resource, those who had jobs lined up at other companies, decided to stay.
I couldn't immediately raise their salaries or incentives to match those other companies.
Even if I had a lot of money, that was only in comparison to an individual.
I wasn't in a position to play money games with companies boasting market caps of over a trillion dollars.
Moreover, I couldn't just throw money around and disrupt the employee compensation structure while the company was operating at a loss.
“I heard you had a contract as an engineer at Apple. Is that true?”
“Yes. But this company is far more interesting.”
Source Coin's success might have shown them its potential, but more than that, there was a shared desire to be part of a good cause.
“But I would like an incentive.”
“Yes. I'm thinking of offering stock options once the company is on track.”
“Stock? I'd rather receive some Source Coins than stock.”
“...”
Many people were coveting Source Coins.
‘If this keeps up, they'll start asking for Source Coins instead of a salary.’
Earth Resource was a company full of programmers.
There were about 100 employees, and we were hiring more than 15 new people every day.
In addition to the formal hiring process involving interviews, experienced programmers could be hired through recommendations from existing team members.
Talented individuals are valued at any company, so they often moved through referrals rather than open recruitment.
“Let's create a Source Shopping Mall.”
“Yes, sir!”
The creation of a shopping team within the company.
A shopping mall focused on limited edition and rare items from around the world. The only currency accepted would be Source Coin.
As the transaction volume grew, we planned to expand to include various goods and groceries.
“It would also be good to integrate a feature for trading with other coins.”
“We need to hurry with stabilization, bandwidth increases, and optimization.”
The Source Coin project was burning with the developers' passion.
It had taken a successful first step, reaching 500,000 miners.
There was a sense of hope that they could do anything.
The effect of pushing forward from day one, despite the massive deficit, was paying off.
If I had tried to maintain just 10,000 or 20,000 miners to turn a profit, the business wouldn't have grown nearly as fast.
“We would like to invest in Earth Resource. Our investment amount is 37 million dollars.”
“We rate Earth Resource's growth potential very highly. We'd like to invest 35 million dollars for a 10% stake.”
“Why not join hands with Sequoia Capital, a guaranteed ticket to success in Silicon Valley? We will turn you into a unicorn company with a valuation of over a billion dollars.”
Several investment firms came calling.
The stock investments I had made so far had been in established companies on the New York Stock Exchange.
Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Alphabet, and so on.
The FAANG stocks that represented American tech.
I had seen three to four times returns over two years, making my stock investments a success, but the speed of business growth was much faster.
The company's valuation shot up in the blink of an eye.
‘To be valued at roughly 350 million dollars just a month after founding.’
Even with 200 million dollars in capital, the successful launch of the business model and its future growth potential had created 150 million dollars in corporate value.
“We have plenty of retained earnings in the company, so I'll have to politely decline.”
We're generating revenue every hour.
Although it's my own money for now, once we sign contracts with other companies besides Biolife, we'll be making real profits.
Anyone could guess that the company's valuation would be much higher than it was now in just a few days.
And then there was a twist.
“You're saying only about 50% of the miners are cashing out their Source Coins?”
“Yeah. On the first day, it was close to 90%. As time goes on, fewer people are exchanging them.”
The number of people converting Source Coins to dollars through the company had plummeted.
A look at the crypto forums hinted at the reason why.
- Successfully farming with Source Coin!
- Left my home computer on and made enough for chicken for a day lol
- Doesn't the electricity bill cost more?
- I live alone so whatever... But damn, the company really does cash you out.
- You get the money less than a minute after you request it.
- The PC bang I usually go to has 80 computers. Because of Corona, they're using 75 of them to mine Source Coin lol. They're probably making around a million won a day?
- It's the savior of PC bangs in the age of Corona. Rescuing the self-employed that even the government can't save, damn.
- At this rate, we're gonna drain all of Kim Shin's wealth.
- He's worth way more than 15 trillion won, what's there to worry about.
On the first day, there was a bit of an atmosphere of surprise that the company was actually cashing people out.
- Source Coin. Don't you think the price is gonna go up?
- Why would it?
- Didn't you see the website they made? Their development roadmap is insane. And it's getting more buzz on international forums too.
- The company guarantees a minimum value of $1. It won't go to zero like other coins. And if they add the shopping mall and trading with other coins, it's guaranteed to moon, don't you think?
- Buying Source Coin. Will buy all for 2,000 won each.
- Source Coin Instant/Buy
- People are already hoarding.
- Those guys have been around since before the launch.
The crypto community's interest in Source Coin was growing. The frenzy in Korea was especially intense, more so than in other countries.
“The coin is being traded for more than a dollar.”
“Looks like they're optimistic about its future.”
From the company's perspective, this wasn't a bad thing.
Over 100 million Source Coins had been released, and if they were being traded at their own market price instead of being returned to the company, it would lessen our burden.
‘This means I don't have to pay out 100 million dollars right away.’
Although the Source Coins were issued within the limits of the company's capital, if I didn't have to spend that money, I could deposit it in a financial institution.
Interest rates are low these days, but it's like holding someone else's money in a deposit account, so it would generate a decent income.
And...
- Chris: I heard the news. It's really impressive. Our company would like to use your computing services too.
- Kim Shin: Really?
- Chris: If the conditions you promised are real. We'd be happy to jump on board.
Aurora, along with several other companies, reached out to Earth Resource.
I signed contracts with the companies and increased the mining volume even further.