Cypherpunk

“Hurry! They weren’t far behind us,” I hear the frantic woman plead with Crynn. She's been working furiously on the woman’s code, inputting new lines of code and changing ones to zeros, for an hour now. The woman had run to our underground bunker in a panic waving a piece of paper, pleading for us to let her in. Flair and Ryatt verified the woman's paper which has a special code embedded in it that we give to clients to share with those they know are in a desperate situation.

Her husband had been addicted to opiates, a common escape from this life that so many hate. He was found out and arrested for possession, a felony. A loving wife, not about to let her son's father be sent to the notorious Concentration Camps to pay his dues, made a desperate deal with the Sharks to pay his bail and set him free. A few weeks later he overdosed and left his family with his debt. The coldblooded Sharks are infamous for their debt collectors. If your debt goes unpaid they'll simply kidnap a member of your family and send you pieces until you either pay off the debt or run out of loved ones.

The woman grips her wrist tightly to keep the Code Screen illuminated for Crynn as they both glance at it almost spasmodically waiting for the right code to be written so as to erase her history, so her and her son can start a new life and escape the Sharks.

I work on her son. I have to keep reminding him that he has to hold onto his forearm so I can see his Code Screen. He’s only 4 years old and he’s already accrued $1,059,089.78 in debt. His Code Screen, projected just above his wrist, casts an orange glow over my work space, the colour of a Felon Associate. Even though he’s only a small child his parents’ choices have marked him and made any hope for a good future nearly impossible. No one will be able to trust him, no company will hire him because of this colour.

As I type new code into my computer I take in glances of his Code Screen. His criminal record is clean, if not for his father's felon status and red Code Screen this kid might've lived a normal life. He’s attended 43 days of school at Minerva’s Academy enrolled in the High Potential Program which makes sense since his IQ is measured at 148. He might even have been able to beat the odds and work his way into a position that would be able to work off his debt and become free all on his own. I look to the medical section of his code screen and see that his blood type happens to match mine. I scan through the rest of his documents and pull out the important information so I can input it into his new code, carefully working to make sure it’ll be believable enough for any Bluecoats, but encrypted strongly enough to keep out any new problems so that he can live a relatively normal and hopefully, happy life as a new person, under a new name.

“Okay, Nexus I think we’re ready!” Crynn calls over to me.

“ ‘Kay, just a sec,” I call over as I finish typing out my last few lines of code and see the little boy’s Code Screen flush green.

My jaded heart can almost smile at seeing the little boy’s face light up with surprise at this new color that shines above his arm. I swivel around to face our wall-to-wall computer, it takes up an entire wall but it’s the only computer strong enough to break through the governmental systems. A new Code Screen is all well and dandy, but if we want to keep these guys safe we need to match their new codes to the governmental records otherwise they’d be better off dead should they ever be caught.

Hacking into the government system is very dangerous and nearly impossible, but we’ve been doing this a good while so practice has made it easier and easier. I feel the anxious energy from the woman hanging over my shoulder, feel her nervous breathing in my ear, feel her sedated hope as I press the last key and log out.

“Alright. You guys should be good now so long as you don’t cause any new trouble on yourselves. Move far away where you won’t be recognised and lay low.”

“Really?” She says with careful optimism like she’s scared to believe that she’s really free. That her son could have a real future that isn’t attached to her crimes and debt, that he could reach his potential, that life could be about more than surviving.

“Yes, really,” I promise. “Just be careful.”

She leaps in to hug me and begins crying as she grabs Crynn for a tearful embrace as well. She then grabs her new son’s hand and begins to lead him out of our bunker, thanking us profusely as they slip into the night.

I slide back into my chair and let out a long sigh as Crynn leans up against the door frame looking equally as exhausted.

“He was four years old,” I say to her. Writing code can be exhausting mentally but what really gets me is the emotional and spiritual exhaustion of living in this system that keeps us all in a prison of debt.

“He’s lucky then,” she responds with a huff as she pushes off the door frame and moves to sit near me. “He’ll adjust quicker and with any luck forget he ever lived here.”

I lean forward and rub my hands in my face as I let out another sigh and pull my hands through my messy dark hair.

“Hey,” Crynn moves closer to me and touches my arm in a rare gesture of affection. “I know it’s hard and all of this,” she looks down in exhausted bewilderment, “it’s all just utter shit.” She looks up into my eyes, “But someone has to do it, because people like that little boy don’t deserve to grow up like this.”

I stand up feeling incredibly angry, “Yeah, but there’s just always gonna be more!” I start to pace the room, “We can’t do this for everyone, we can’t even do it for everyone that comes through that door. For everyone’s code that we rewrite there are a thousand more like them that don’t deserve it either! To be basically slaves to the government or to have pieces of their family mailed to them by the Sharks.” I kick a wall and feel a shock wave of pain up my leg. I slide down to the floor, “It’s fucking shit and what's worse is that for all that we do, it’ll never be enough.”

The whole Code Screen system started with the best intentions. Righteous mobs petitioning the government to do something about hardships caused by poverty, to do something about the criminals roaming free among us, to do something about everything wrong in our society. It made sense, you don't want little Bobby befriending the pedophile down the street, or lovely Catherine meeting a handsome stranger only to be found murdered in the back alley right? It seemed like an easy solution to implant criminals with their criminal history available at a glance to better protect potential victims.

But that was only the beginning. It then slowly progressed until nearly everyone had a reason to have a code screen and it became mandatory for every citizen to protect each other from our society filled with dishonesty. But with such brutal honestly embedded in their wrists, many citizens began to find it difficult to do well in job interviews. This led to mass unemployment and a severe economic downturn that led to the Climacteric Riots. They say the rioters brought the government to its knees and made the politicians work for the people finally. But, it only seems that way from an outside perspective.

What the government ended up doing was in order to solve the problem, they added everyone’s bank details and credit history to their code screens and modified the implants to be able to make purchases and transactions. They then created laws where no one would be denied their needs because of a lack of funding. Everyone was provided with housing and could not be evicted because of late payments. Everyone could purchase food and necessities no matter what their bank balance was. If you didn’t have enough, the payments simply became a debt written in your code that you could work off by working for the government.

Now, the majority of people are dependant on the government for everything and in so much debt the numbers have become all but meaningless. Only the rich can expect full control over their lives, most of us are told by the government where we’ll live, which school we’ll go to, what job we’ll have and how many children we’re expected to raise to take on our debt. Our lives are told by the glow from our wrists, red for felons, orange for felon associates, yellow for debtors, blue for the infectious, and green for the blameless, or rather, the rich.

Crynn moves and crouches down beside me to put her arm around my shoulder. My mind drifts the woman and her son.

“Rough day, huh?” I look up and see Ryatt and Flair enter the room. Ryatt launches himself and his wheely chair in our direction and stares at us with wide playful eyes over the back of the chair.

“You could say that,” I apathetically sigh out as Flair takes Crynn’s chair. I then hear Knox and Wells clomping down the stairs to join us, just barely audibly whispering about something. They immediately hush up though when they come into our view. Flair raises an eyebrow but no one asks what they were whispering about. We all have secrets and we each treasure the fact that we have the ability to keep them. Wells plops down into my chair and Knox settles down onto the floor though he’s tall enough to match the heights of everyone else sitting in chairs.

“So when are you gonna hack into the government’s mainframe and change everyone’s codes Nakamoto?” Wells’s gruff voice grumbles in my direction. His tone and use of my nickname is playful but it’s only a disguise.

I half smile anyway, “You know it doesn’t work that way.”

He gives a masked chuckle, “Come on man, if anyone can figure it out you can.”

I roll my eyes and Flair chimes in, “What do you mean if anyone can figure it out he can? What about me huh?” Her voice comes out naturally flirtatious and teasing. She’s the type of girl who can make you fall for her with just a simple look and swish of her blonde curls.

“Well…” Ryatt slowly spins to face her direction only to be met by a flying rubber band that smacks his forehead.

Flair and Ryatt erupt in laughter and break the tension in everyone’s shoulders, giving us permission to smile and join in on their fun. This the gift of their combined personalities. I used to be easily irritated by Flair until I realised this, that with a simple phrase she could change the feeling of a whole room from contentious to playful and Ryatt was always the perfect person for her to play off of.

Eventually we all call it a night and head out to our separate homes. Out of sight of the others Crynn touches my hand and slides her pinky around mine as we walk together in the direction of our independent houses.

We’d talked about moving in together when things started getting serious between us, but she decided it wouldn’t be such a good idea. When her parents died she received custody of her kid brother and she didn’t want him to get used to having me around if I wasn’t going to be around for good. So the agreement was when I proposed to her then she would move in with me. The problem with that was that even though I love her deeply, I couldn’t bear having to raise a family here.

“Creed asked when you were gonna come around again,” she throws out. I know I’ve been distant which isn’t fair to her or her brother. My frustrations have caused a crevice to open between me and everything in my life that I care about. Seeing, everyday, how quickly your life can change from normal though depressing, to absolute chaotic desperation, has made it hard to care about anything for fear of it being taken away.

“Yeah, ya know I’ve just been really tired lately,” I say to the ground in front of me. Her pinky releases mine and I know my words have pushed her away yet again.

“Okay, well I’ve gotta stop by the shops to get some stuff,” she says as she breaks pace with me. “I guess I’ll see ya tomorrow.”

We part ways and I regret pushing her away. I want her in my life more than anything, I can’t bear the thought of losing her. Yet, that’s what keeps me from her. So feeling beyond frustrated, I go home and decide to just go to sleep.

The next day, though I went to sleep early, I wake up late. I hurry to get to the Bunker and when I arrive it’s in pandemonium. Our bunker is never peaceful, it’s often filled with the panicked voices of despondent people in a hurry, but this is different. Though the people we work with are often in such a state, we’ve become accustomed to it and are able to remain calm. Today though, Flair has tears in her eyes as she holds a young boy to her chest and Ryatt is typing away furiously at his computer with a look of consternation. Wells and Knox are shouting and stomping around upstairs in a way that I’ve never heard. The entire place is a state of wreckage with papers scattered about and drawers half open.

“What’s going on?” I ask in Flair’s direction. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to work with a child without parents, those cases are always depressing but don’t normally warrant this chaos.

The boy wrapped in her arms turns his head and though it’s warped with despair I recognize Crynn’s younger brother, Creed. He lets go of Flair and runs into my arms. I crouch to meet his height and look wildly at Flair, expecting an explanation from her.

“The Bluecoats came by their place with a warrant last night,” her voice thick with emotion. “Said they got some anonymous tip.” She breaks into full out sobs and I feel my shirt begin to get soaked with Creed’s tears as his body shakes against mine.

The world seems to fade into a haze and the only thing I can focus on is this little boy's voice, “What am I going to do?” I pull him closer to let him know that he’s not alone.

Over the next few weeks and months Crynn’s trial comes and goes. The Cypherpunk’s code states privacy as the key to our organisation. Should any of us be found out, we’re on our own. To help Crynn would bring attention to the rest of us and the Cypherpunk’s would all go down. Crynn, just as much as the rest of us, believes too much in the cause to bring us down with her. It leaves my heart in shatters, but I know she would never forgive me if I went against the code just to help her. After the trial ends Creed is released into my care as I am the appointed guardian Crynn chose should anything happen to her.

The entire bunker spends the next few months in a melancholic depression. Ryatt doesn’t crack any jokes, Wells doesn’t speak except to clients, not even Flair’s charisma can make us smile. I do all I can to take care of Creed and ease his burdens, but I know there’s little I can do to fill the void of his family.

I sit at my desk at the end of a long day and rest my head against my keyboard trying not to feel the absence of the presence that used to sit next to me.

Wells and Knox come stomping down the stairs. I expect them to walk out the door without a word which has become the norm, but instead one of them stops next to me which causes the other to falter and stop as well.

A gruff sigh lets me know it’s Wells that’s stopped beside me, “You know we have to do something.” His tone is serious and careful.

I look up into his eyes feeling angry, “Yeah? And what are we supposed to do? Huh? Go back in time? Stop the Bluecoats from getting her? Or better yet stop this whole system from existing? You know we can’t do that!” I shout at him and get up from my chair, body filled adrenaline.

“Maybe not!” He shouts right back,” But we have to do something! We can’t keep living like this! No one can!”

“What do you want me to do?” I shout, “I have a kid depending on me now, I can’t afford to take those kinds of risks anymore! I can barely even stand working here anymore! Everyday I’m putting my life on the line by coming here and doing what we do! What happens to that kid if I end up in a Concentration Camp too?”

“Always full of excuses,” he says under his breath, though it’s not exactly quiet.

Our loud voices have attracted Flair and Ryatt in from their space and Flair moves to place herself in between us. “Everyone just needs to calm down,” she says as she places a hand on each of our chests.

I shove past them and walk to the door wordlessly toward home.

I come in the next day to find Wells and Knox in Ryatt’s and Flair’s space, talking in hushed tones.

“Well if you think about it, it wouldn’t really be that hard to go back in time,” Knox is saying. “I know he wasn't serious and I don't mean like, physically, but I think you could do it electronically…” I walk past them and into my space doing my best to ignore them. I spend the whole day working remotely with people online asking for our help and I begin to wonder why no one’s stopped by in person and why Wells and Knox haven’t passed me to go upstairs to their space.

I go over the doorway of Ryatt and Flair’s space and notice that they've kept the door locked. “Okay I think I’ve got it!” Ryatt’s voice says triumphantly.

“What are you gonna do?” Flair’s voice asks. “The problem with everything is that no one has no privacy and no money. We need to somehow influence people to protect both.”

“Have you ever seen Back to the Future?” Ryatt says indignantly, “Ya gotta be careful with these things, you don’t wanna end up getting hit on by your mom.” His keys clack away for a few minutes, “Okay so I think I’m just gonna plant a small little grain of mustard seed, by small means great things shall come to pass right?” The computer dings a notification.

“Oh look,” Flair says teasingly, “You’ve made a friend.”

“Perfect. I’m gonna send my new friend, David, an encrypted bank transfer and see if that helps.” He soon presses a triumphant dramatic final key, “Ha-ha, there.”

I finally decide to walk in and see them all standing there looking at each other as if expecting something to be different. “What are you guys doing?” I ask, startling Flair.

Ryatt turns dramatically in his chair, his hand stroking an invisible cat, “Why it’s quite simple my dear Watson, in fact it’s elementary! We have gone back in time to influence the past in the hope to change our future.”

I glance at Wells and see his stern face speaking the words he won’t say, calling me a coward, speaking down to me saying that if I won’t do my job he’ll just have to do it for me. I immediately pick up my stuff and walk towards the door, “You’re all fucking idiots,” I say under my breath.

The next day I come in and overhear Ryatt as everyone’s gathered around his desk once again, “Okay well it didn’t go exactly as planned, didn’t have as much of an impact as hoped, but I think we made a little headway.”

“You know what this needs,” Flair flops down into her chair, “A woman’s touch. We need them to be educated so they can recreate it and have it grow on their own, otherwise we can’t expect it to affect much here.”

“Okay, worth a shot,” Ryatt reponds as he starts typing away at his computer as well.

I go back to my computer and login to spend the day helping people remotely once again. It isn’t until the end of the day though that I notice the amount of people flooding my inbox is significantly less than yesterday. There’s still more than I can help, but the margin is less and I begin to wonder if maybe they have made a little headway. I begin gathering my things to head home and walk to the door through Ryatt and Flair’s space.

“I think Cynthia and Moni are really starting to pick up what we’re putting down,” Flair says to everyone gathered around her computer.

They work for a couple weeks like this and I overhear little snippets of their conversations.

“Let’s just publish the Cypherpunk Manifesto,” Knox suggests.

“We need more capitalist consumer competition for it to become more legitimate. Let’s introduce the concept to someone else, and call it something new like HashCash” Wells chimes in.

“You guys,” Flair sighs, “These small influences aren’t really doing that much. We need something that’s going to change our whole society, not just individuals.” She’s right, I think, the most change I’ve seen is the decrease of pleas for help, but the system still stands and millions are suffering in it.

“Well, you know who’s smarter than all of us combined? Who could figure out how to scale this so it really can change things around here?” Wells’s voice cuts through the door separating our spaces.

“You know that’s not fair to ask of him,” Flair cuts in, “Especially now that he’s got Creed. That kid’s already been through so much. It would be too much for anyone to go through losing another guardian the way he has.”

“But if it works, the risks don’t matter!” Wells tries to keep his voice quiet, but his voice just doesn't have that setting. “I’m just saying, shouldn’t the greater good and well being of everyone, including him and Creed, outweigh the risks?”

“Maybe,” Flair sighs, “But that’s Nexus’s call to make.”

I go home with Wells’s words in my head. Do the potential rewards outweigh the risks? What they’re doing is dangerous for a lot of reasons. Ignore all the possible legal repercussions of all of them ending up in a Concentration Camp and wiping Cypherpunks off the face of the earth. You can’t guarantee the results of messing with the past like that, for all they know they might make things worse by changing things. From what I could tell from their experiments so far, they hadn’t changed anyone’s memories. Day to day life was still the same, nothing was reversed. From what I found out online, people who previously needed our help no longer did because one day they simply woke up to find their Code Screens green, without any knowledge of how it happened. So say, they were able to make this happen for everyone, what’s to stop the government from simply changing the system to put them all in the red? How would people who’ve depended on the government for so long even get on when given the reins? Would it be anarchic chaos? Maybe, but what the question really was, don’t people have a right to make that choice for themselves? To decide how they want to be governed, how they want to live? And did I have any right to stand on sidelines when there was in fact a crucial part I could play?

“Alright, get off those computers, they’re not going to work for what we need to do.”

“You alright Nexus?” Ryatt calls after me as I walk into my space and set up at the wall-to-wall instead of my desk.

“Get in here,” I call to them. I hear them all shuffle in trepidatiously. “What you’re all doing isn’t going to work in the long run. You’ve got all the bits and pieces scattered all over and that isn’t going to do us any good. It also isn’t going to do us much good relying on someone else who doesn’t know how things work over here to start a company that’s meant to help us here. I've spent all night working it out in my head. We need to make a persona in the past that can create a cryptocurrency that will last and help people understand how it works and why it needs to work.” I immediately start to work on lines of code and everyone starts shuffling around me to setting up their stations.

We create the persona Satoshi Nakamoto, named as suggested by Ryatt and unanimously accepted, to help us build an empire of what we decide to call Bitcoins.

After a long week of coding I turn to my team, “I don’t think this is going to happen quickly. I think we’re going to have to stick with it for a while, maybe a few years, to make sure it really takes off and sticks around long enough to affect us here. And there’s still no guarantee that it’s gonna work out the way we want it to.”

“I think you’re right, but I think we have a better chance now that you’ve started working on it,” Wells tips his drink to me. It feels strangely comforting, but ultimately very odd to have him in my corner.

We all head home feeling cautiously optimistic. I look into Creed’s room to find him sleeping and I send out a hopeful prayer that this will all work out somehow, someway, that I won’t make things worse, that I can make this life better for Creed, for us both. And for the first time in a long time I allow myself to hope that maybe I can even make this life better for Crynn, that maybe one day I can see her again.

Epilogue

For nearly two and a half years the Cypherpunks code and communicate through Satoshi Nakamoto to build a network for Bitcoin, to get it off the ground and into the mainstream. Slowly less and less people come to them for new Code Screens. Their neighbourhood begins to change and the people become happier. Lives all around the country begin changing until eventually everyone finds themselves in the green. Parties rage in the streets for weeks as people celebrate their sudden freedom. The Bluecoats try to quell the chaos but without much luck. Soon after that Code Screens begin to disappear altogether from people’s wrists and that’s when the riots begin.

A revolution fights its way into the history books as the government battles to retain control. Full war and anarchy break out across the nation. The Cypherpunks are the first ones to lead the charge to free the Concentration Camps.

Nexus concerned with only one thing, finds Crynn on the verge of death and spends the next few years nursing her back to health, physically and emotionally with the help of Creed and the rest of the Cypherpunks.

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