The short stories on “21 Futures: Tales From The Timechain” are bound for the history books, and an Eduardo Próspero original is part of that landmark project. The anthology is the spearhead, the first published example, of a new genre that we call bitcoin fiction. It really is just fiction in which bitcoin plays a central role, but hey… nowadays, it’s crucial to play these marketing games.
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The book comes through Konsensus Network, a “starfish publishing house” that has been “connecting authors and readers in the bitcoin space since 2019.”
Back to my short story, it’s titled “Eye In The Sky” and it takes place in a bitcoin citadel. The citadel meme entered the community’s imaginarium through this classic fictional letter from a time traveler. Even though it contained veiled mockery, bitcoiners everywhere appropriated the term and made it part of their mythology. Nowadays, the community sees the epoch of the bitcoin citadels as a predecessor to the total hyperbitcoinization of the world. Before BTC becomes the only currency on the planet, bitcoiners will have to isolate themselves and create independent private cities.
In an introductory post for Stacker News, I shared an exclusive teaser trailer for “Eye In The Sky”:
“In the not-so-distant future, the Negrón family runs a fairly successful citadel. Thirteen bitcoiner families joined forces to grow their own food, run several businesses, educate their children, live, breathe, and intermix. However, change is imminent. A violent coup resulted in a change of government in the country that the citadel is in, and the new administration is not so keen on an independent city inside their domain.
At heart, “Eye In The Sky” is a family drama. The citadel is the Negróns’ business, and adversity causes the strong personalities of everyone involved to clash. What’s the right course of action? How will they deal with the threat? Who’s right and who’s wrong?
Besides the crisis, another mystery looms. Why do the Negróns have a separate residence in the middle of the jungle, far away from the citadel? What are they doing there besides bitcoin mining? The secret location might be the key to unlocking the citadel’s future prospects.”
This is my chapter in the “21 Futures” podcast that Konsensus produced:
And this is the beginning of “Eye In The Sky,” the fragment that I read in the video:
“We should have gone there instead,” Simon Derwall complained.
His wife was furiously scrubbing a gigantic saucepan with a sponge, and the objection stopped her in her tracks. A deadly silence filled the air. She had explained this to him several times already.
“The king’s visit brings eyes with it. Why are we compromising our OPSEC like this?” Simon continued.
Elena Negrón sighed and replied, “Father cannot travel, remember.”
He opened the oven door, and the smell of well-seasoned meat filled the kitchen. “Oh, right,” he said distractedly. “This is done.”
Elena spent both the morning and the afternoon in the kitchen, one of her happy places. Despite this, and for no apparent reason, she was nervous. Of course, Eleazar and Nicolás, her two brothers whom she hadn’t seen in eleven months, were on their way. That wasn’t it. That excited her. The terror’s origin was deeper. Elena stopped short, surprised that her inner voice admitted “terror.”
From the garden, Simon shouted in surprise, “Why is the grill on? There’s a whole barbecue here!”
Elena wondered if her husband was losing his memory, or if he just wasn’t listening to her anymore. “That’s the B meal,” she said.
Simon couldn’t make heads or tails of what she was saying. “The B meal?”
Elena gave up. “For the driver and bodyguards.”
A shiver went up Simon’s spine. They were taking unnecessary risks. He restrained himself and calmly asked, “How many people are coming?”
“I don’t know yet,” Elena replied. “How does it look out there? Is it ready?”
Simon opened the grill. “Two or three more minutes. What do you mean you don’t know?”
“You know how Eleazar is — always a mystery.”
Last but not least, this is the phenomenal AI image that Konsensus Network conjured up to illustrate “Eye In The Sky“:
Shout out to all of the other writers, to Niko from Konsensus for all of the marketing efforts and to Phil for creating the project and editing all of the stories. In my experience, his work greatly enhanced the text. As you can see above.
Samples and Examples 