Bitcoin Origins

One small boy traumatized from financial tragedy singlehandedly innovated the concept of currency like an invisible hand. Resilience is best seen in the lives of those that have faced significant challenge especially those that have been systemically marginalized. But who knew that resiliency could have given birth to the future of cryptocurrency? Jonah Abraham Blackmoor remembers seeing his grandmother screaming, “My God, my children are gone”, from a phone call. That day turned into days, weeks, and ultimately years. At that moment he became an orphan who would learn how to be a man from an even greater man, in whose shadow he would enjoy bittersweet success. His mother and father were killed in a car crash and he was now in the full-time care of his grandparents. They had all lived together so it was not a big adjustment, but the ache of no more mom and dad never faded.

Grandfather Abraham Benjamin Blackmoor was a hardworking man admired by the community of Cambridge Massachusetts the home to Harvard University, and a place of great minds and innovativeness in many industries. He was a banker like his father before him and many found him to be so brilliant yet so humble and distant. Very early in his his life, Jonah was taught his family’s history by his grandparents and after his parents died these teachings became more formal and reiterative. A big part of this teaching was being introduced to the concept of saving coins and being told stories using various family precious metal heirloom coins. His Dad used to always say to him, “coins are forever son”. These were not ordinary coins but were gold, silver, and even platinum precious metal coins. Now, he heard his grandfather who was his mentor, friend, and hero saying the same thing quite often in their talks. His grandfather was a Jew and was identified by the public as a black Jew and with it came an inherited level of respect. Nobody questioned the founder of Blackmoor National Bank and he often showed that he was way ahead of his time. He expanded the small two-branch bank to a multistate financial institution and while never credited for it was informally known to be the inventor of debit cards.

And many years later the public still does not know the origins of the astute knowledge on finance including banking and investment embodied in Grandfather Abraham and his own father Dauid Abraham Blackmoor. This remains a mystery to outsiders. The secret teaching of their origins was only revealed to those within the family. Despite being considered African American no record of descending from slavery could be found for the Blackmoors and only Jonah and his children will hopefully ever be taught their story. Grandfather Blackmoor explained that his family were prisoners of war sent from Europe and because of their advanced knowledge of banking and commerec from what he called 'the old kingdom' they were allowed to escape enslavement. They built a financial empire and embarked on banking and investment as a tool for freedom for many impoverished people. Being Jewish resulted in their double discrimination, but still allowed them to access protection through the Judaic community. They never fully embrace the Jewish community because even within it they suffered great racial injustice.

Jonah was taught that there is great power in being able to create, sustain and increase wealth, and as Grandfather Blackmoor usually said, “this is what keeps a man and his family truly free”. He was exposed to money all his life and poverty and lack were never an experience he had, but his limited access to peer enjoyment and greater social interaction was the cost for that life. His family was a set-apart people who upheld the teachings of the Torah from the Old Kingdom. So, life included being up early, then long hours and late nights, which made his family great. Understanding currency and how it moved even when others slept was the tool they used to achieve success.

Jonah’s grandfather was proud of how well Jonah was doing and as technology became a part of the world of banking and finance, his knowledge helped diversify the family business even as a teen. So, it was no surprise that his brilliance was identified early which opened the doors of Harvard University to him. His desire to pursue a triple major was not surprising and certainly not challenged. Banking and Finance, Economics, and Computer Programming were his majors and he excelled in them all. Like his grandfather, he never waned in commitment and while others partied, he was studying and in his free time traveled the world by the side of his mentor and best friend Grandfather Blackmoor. Grandmother Esther would argue with her husband about not pressuring Jonah too much, but she too understood its importannce and how much rested on his young shoulders.

Surprisingly not the envy of their competitors grew as Blackmoor National Bank expanded and became one of the most successful commercial banks nationally. It was also a foreign exchange investment broker with clients worldwide. There were always spies lurking and investigations from financial regulators trying to find irregularities in their operation, but they never could find anything wrong. The ethics of Abraham Blackmoor was well known, and this also fueled envy among usually unscrupulous competitors. Sadly, in the final year of his post-graduate program, Jonah remembers coming into the main branch lobby and feeling danger in the air. Grandfather was in his office looking disheveled and Grandmother Esther did her best to wipe the tears from her eyes. They explained to him how the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had ordered several branches closed and a stop order placed on all their brokerage functions. Their reason was concerns that Blackmoor National Bank potentially could monopolize the financial market. Jonah was angry and dismayed at the same time and felt like he did when he was told his parents were dead. Injustice and punishment for being good rang out in his mind, and it seemed to be a curse that his family and their ancestors were always dealt.

Despite the setbacks, he graduated top of his class and took over management of the single home branch of Blackmoor National Bank that was left after the public persecution. And notwithstanding having offers from large emerging brokerage firms and financial institutions he insisted on carrying on his family’s business. He did well and ventured into acquisitions and real estate and Grandfather Abraham was proud. Jonah worked by day and spent a few hours with his girlfriend Leah in the evenings. But sure enough he would head down to the basement every night where he would fall asleep working on his secret project.

Jonah tried to explain his ideas to his grandfather, but could not fully explain his invention to anyone. It was a burning idea in his mind like a puzzle he was trying to piece together. But what his mentor offered instead, was strategies of security to protect the idea and to ensure that his success would not be robbed by the envy of the greedy. Jonah desired to change the way people saw currency globally while giving independence to the individual to perform transactions without the control of governments and traditional financial systems. His assumptions of how artificial intelligence would innovate commerce in the future inspired him to create a borderless digital currency in encrypted technology.

The Blackmoor’s knew the persecution would be great but felt that they were prepared for this juncture in history. Their ancestors went through hundreds of years of slavery but were still able to pass down this inherent brilliance in managing finance and innovating commerce. They devised a plan to create fake identities and began to set this system up not in the mainstream but in the dark web where anonymity could be achieved. Jonah really never knew then how great his invention would become. despite knowing was was big. The desire that drove him was not for wealth, but was his way to protest the injustice of rewarding an old man and a family with persecution and pain for their hard-earned success. Jonah felt that this was the ultimate freedom fight that would liberate not just people, but systems and the way power would be perceived, acquired, and maintained globally. Because in his mind, “money was power”.

Jonah targeted virtual commerce and its big players who needed this borderless anonymity of currency and the potential of his idea was limitless. He was able to mine $36 billion USD by 2010 just a few short years after launching his virtual currency now called cryptocurrency. He planted all kinds of conspiracies about the origin of his currency he called Bitcoin on the Dark Web, where the currency thrived most. Bitcoin represented the coins that his grandfather said his ancestors traded in the marketplaces of Babylon, Nubia, Persia, and Israel many thousands of years ago. His grandfather created an alias name for the inventor that spoke to the brilliance of the discovery. They made it Asian because many innovations were coming from that continent which would then made it more believable. Jonah’s creation came from being able to think through the problems of maintaining the value of any currency in a virtual encryption form and he did this despite facing many emotional and mental challenges which seemed to lie as the basis or origin of his creation.

‘Satoshi Nakamoto or Clear thinking for the central origin’

And while the inventors seem to disappear to the world, they really did not but profited through much investment in Bitcoins as a bank and used their resources to help to begin to solve the world's challenges that threaten humanity. Jonah and his grandfather were like batman and his butler and grandmother was the central force of love that kept them both grounded as family. He never experienced the love for Leah as his future wife, like that of his parents or grandparents but felt she was useful to carry on their family’s values. Their wedding was simple but intimate and his grandparents remained healthy and lived well into their nineties and enjoyed life with his children. And as expected the legacy continues and a whole team of young Blackmoors are being brought up to innovate and elevate the quality of life of mankind and they better than many others know and understand that “coins are forever”.