Pether (6)
While Syd was building the Penny stablecoin, David signed agreements with banks on Wall Street. There were plenty of firms that wanted to work with Continue Capital, so it wasn’t difficult at all.
Meanwhile, I started persuading the companies I’d already invested in to expand Penny’s ecosystem. What good was a coin if there was nowhere to spend it?
I called Chairman Taylor of Blackwood International.
He answered in a bright, cheerful voice. “How have you been?”
“I’m well. I trust you’ve been keeping well too, Chairman?”
“Ha! Of course, of course.”
For the record, Blackwood had successfully planted its flag in the ultra-luxury shared-stay and private-jet businesses, and its stock had more than doubled since the ransomware crisis.
That was all thanks to my advice and Snow Crash’s full support, so our relationship was a close one. In fact, Chairman Taylor had even asked me to join the board.
“You looked over the materials I sent, right?”
“I’m an old man, so I can’t say I understood every last bit of it. Still, the board is reviewing it, and everyone seems positive about it.”
“Yes. It’s a good move. In the future, it could cut staffing and costs related to payments by a huge margin.”
“If you say so, then that must be how it is.”
Widening currency circulation invigorated the economy, so everyone responded positively.
The one who welcomed the news most warmly was Tom Scott, the CEO of Legend Games.
He said excitedly, “Legend Games strongly supports adopting a stablecoin. We’ll get everything ready so it can be used for payments right away.”
“That’s the right call.”
In truth, there weren’t many places better suited to crypto than games. It could be used not only for in-game purchases, but also for item trading between users, contracts, and all kinds of other transactions. And since it had smart contract functionality, it could prevent a host of scams as well.
But Scott had another reason for liking it.
“If we use Penny, we won’t have to pay Enple and Guble those in-app purchase fees, will we?”
“Ah….”
So that was it.
Night Light had recently launched on mobile as well, riding its surge in popularity.
Not everyone had a PC or a console, but everyone had a smartphone. As soon as the mobile version launched, the user base shot up sharply, and mobile users quickly made up 30 percent of the total.
“Those bastards are taking a 30 percent cut of every payment. Does that make any sense?”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Because of Enple and Guble’s fees, not just game companies but almost every content company has a burden on its hands.”
“Now that you mention it, Guble caused a bit of a stir recently by forcing in-app purchases even on non-game content.”
Guble had originally collected fees only by forcing in-app purchases on games, but now it had expanded that policy to other kinds of content as well.
Because of that, streaming platforms, webtoon companies, and other content businesses raised their prices.
Even when you looked at the same web novel chapter, it was 100 won if you went to the site on PC or in a browser and paid there, but 120 won if you paid inside the app. It was a ridiculous situation.
He shouted in anger, “The creators’ margins don’t even reach 30 percent, and the fee itself is 30 percent? That’s no different from highway robbery! In the end, consumers are the ones who’ll pay for it!”
“That’s why sensible consumers just go to the site and pay there instead of using in-app purchases.”
“But Enple and Guble have blocked companies from telling consumers that, and they’re threatening to delete apps if anyone violates the rule.”
As a result, many consumers didn’t even realize the price stayed the same if they paid through the site. They were being forced to pay the higher in-app price with gritted teeth and a sour heart.
“Just wait a little longer. As we promised when we signed the contract, we’ll solve that problem for good.”
Scott’s voice softened. “I’m counting on you, then.”
This time I called Mr. Lentz.
“Looks like the preparations are just about done.”
He laughed. “You’ve had a hard time of it. I’m curious to see how CEO Chang reacts.”
Leonard Chang had been born in Central, Hong Kong, and he had once dreamed of becoming a financier.
At the time, China’s IT market was growing at a frightening pace. Watching the development of China and Shenzhen, he decided the real opportunity was there, and he began studying fintech in earnest.
Then, through a friend, he stumbled across Vantcoin. Back then, Vantcoin was treated as little more than a toy, a joke tossed around by developers.
But the moment Leonard Chang saw it, he fell hopelessly in love with the appeal of blockchain.
This is the kind of technology that will change the world.
Blockchain was based on a P2P system, where small pieces of data were linked together endlessly like a chain, forming blocks.
In the old systems, where information was stored on a central server, an administrator could alter or delete records if they wished.
But on a blockchain, everyone could access the information, and no one could forge or erase it.
It was a completely new way of handling data.
Then Vantcoin was followed by Ethereum, and the concept of smart contracts was born.
Thanks to that, contracts between private parties could be executed without a third-party certifying authority.
With smart contracts, blockchain moved from 1.0 to 2.0, and limitless possibilities opened up. From that point on, all kinds of cryptocurrencies began pouring onto the market.
Leonard Chang mined Vantcoin and Ethereum, then built an exchange where all kinds of cryptocurrencies could be traded.
For the first few years, he never managed to break even, but once the crypto market exploded, the exchange began to draw attention as well.
What was shocking was that people didn’t really care what blockchain technology was, or how it might change the world.
The only thing they cared about was one question.
How much would the coin price go up?
There had been a hacking incident in which Vantcoin was stolen, but he overcame the crisis by issuing new coins and compensating the damage over a long period of time.
And when Pether succeeded, Coinmax rose to become the world’s number one exchange.
Leonard Chang had become the single most important figure in the crypto market.
He held an exchange with more than 50 percent market share in one hand and the crypto market’s reserve currency in the other.
That was possible because the market was unregulated.
He could raise or crush cryptocurrency prices by adjusting Pether’s supply. He also decided which coins would be listed.
Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of coins poured out every single day.
And yet only a tiny fraction were actually traded on exchanges. Even coins with almost no value acquired value the moment they were listed.
And he was the one who decided that.
Developers begged him, one after another, to list their projects.
To get listed on a stock exchange, you had to satisfy all kinds of requirements: incorporation period, revenue, capital, accounting standards, and more.
So what did you need to get listed on a crypto exchange?
Surprisingly, nothing at all. It didn’t matter who the developer was, what kind of project it was, or how the revenue structure worked. All they needed was a single white paper.
He invested in coin developers, bought large quantities during the Private Sale stage, and then listed those coins on Coinmax.
That alone was enough to send prices soaring tenfold or even a hundredfold, and he sold after listing to pocket enormous sums of money.
In the stock market, large shareholders had to disclose their sales to protect minority investors. But the crypto market had no such rules.
It was common for developers to pump the price, dump their holdings in an instant, and run after the coin collapsed by 99 percent.
Even if a coin was delisted, the exchange had no responsibility whatsoever.
Leonard Chang was practically a god in this world.
But he had no intention of being satisfied with that.
Blockchain technology kept evolving by the day.
Decentralized finance, or DeFi, was born. Decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, were created. Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, were traded like works of art.
In some developing countries where politics was unstable and the value of the local currency swung wildly, there were even nations that adopted Vantcoin as legal tender. Meanwhile, developed countries prepared to issue CBDCs and sought his advice.
If he could seize the right to issue the currency of the future…?
He would hold power beyond that of any nation.
And that dream was steadily becoming reality.
Recently, the crypto market had been so hot that people were calling it a bull market.
Vantcoin and Ethereum had broken all-time highs, altcoins had risen along with them, and the market cap across the entire sector had more than doubled compared to the previous year.
Both the number of investors and the amount of money flowing in had increased dramatically.
Then came the news that Snow Crash was issuing Penny, and the market was thrown into chaos.
Deposits and circulating supply were made visible in real time on the blockchain, and if the deposits ever fell below the amount issued, holders would receive an automatic warning.
Of course, since 95 percent of the deposits were held in short- and long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, that would never happen unless the United States itself went under.
Sure enough, not long after Snow Crash unveiled Penny, it launched a DeFi project.
If you deposited Pether, it paid 5 percent interest every three months. The model was simple: lock up Penny as collateral, and the interest was paid in Penny as well.
The crypto sites were buzzing.
As word spread that you could earn huge returns safely, massive amounts of Pether rushed into the DeFi pool.
On the other hand, on Coinmax and the other exchanges, Pether drained away like an outgoing tide.
Watching that, Leonard Chang felt puzzled.
What in the world are they thinking?
The seigniorage you could earn by issuing currency was enormous.
There was no way Continue Capital and Snow Crash didn’t understand that. And yet they had voluntarily disclosed both supply and assets, giving up that seigniorage as if they were marching straight into regulation of their own accord.
And then there was this…
Launching a DeFi product that pays interest at this completely absurd level.
What possible purpose could there be in luring Pether in with 20 percent interest?
Everyone had the same question.
And it was answered before long.