Currency Stolen, Magic Shared

I always knew it was impossible, though I would never dare admit it. All my life I worked so damned hard to keep our existence a secret. I had a family reputation to uphold, a legacy to continue.

Our society was thriving as it should have been until one novice wizard thought it would be a good idea to make a fortune by releasing our currency to the humans in 2008. Abezore was his name, but he used the alias Satoshi Nakamoto when he brought bitcoin to the humans. At least he remembered to keep up some form of secrecy. Idiot. Fool. Traitor. The Council rid our society of him in 2010 but the damage was already done. Now that our method of trade and business in what was supposed to be a shadow world is in the hands of the humans, we are ruined.

For millennia my people used magic to create bitcoin to trade with wizards, warlocks, witches, and those that dwelled in the second and third plains of existence, dark places where physical coins could not be. We prospered and performed in secrecy for all this time, my family at the centre of business being key creators of bitcoin through their magic.

It all fell apart when it was my turn to take on the mantle. That novice ruined everything. He brought chaos unto us all. Similar like-minded fools joined him and supported the flow of magic to the human world so that they can be wealthy. Fat lot of good it will do them; the Council will find them soon and it will all be over. It took the Council two years to find and dispose of Abezore so I have no doubts that they will find the others, too.

As I sit tilted back in my office chair with my feet on my desk, I can’t help but feel a grim satisfaction. It feels like a personal justice. The system my family line had been key creators and maintainers for was destroyed. For years now the Council has been hunting the few wizards left who have betrayed our way of life in the shadows. In that time magical and other-worldly beings have attempted to use a trading system and it has worked well enough . . . but be sure that there are people tracking unfair trades as a debt for when a new currency is developed. We are still a variant of human and that small human part of us is greedy.

I narrow my eyes at the dark semi-liquid block sitting on my spellbookshelf across the room. I can hardly bear to look at it anymore. The way the entity shifts and writhes with the magic it is imbued with, like it can’t be contained in its box form . . . it is like it is taunting me. The original Blockchain. This carefully crafted work of art once tracked everything but it sits untouched, tainted with the foul magic of Abezore and overloaded with the bitcoins in the inept hands of the humans. Abezore must have known the devastation this would bring to us; he was a fool but he was not unintelligent!

I have spent many hours wondering if there was something more behind Abezore’s actions those years ago. I heard whispers that he was tricked to release bitcoins while pursuing a woman who claimed to be a witch but was really only a human Wicken. Unfortunately I knew the wizard well enough to know that his studies captivated him too much to spare any attention for women. It is kind of people in the wizarding community to give him the benefit of the doubt, but most of us hold him fully accountable for his actions. As did the Council; they spared him no mercy.

It falls to me, now. As a member of the Magnuhn family it is my responsibility to restore our secrecy and rebuild our economy. The Council enforces the well-known law that we must operate with subtlety. The humans cannot know of our existence. Luckily they are not a bright bunch and have not yet figured out where bitcoin originated from. They never will, not if the Council can help it. Not if I can help it.

In a short period of time, bitcoin will no longer exist. Years of experimenting and toiling over my spell books have paid off. I have something more spectacular and secure that will never get into the hands of the humans ever again.

Through a fiery glow emanating from my hands a circular shape rises. I spin the shining silhouette of a coin in the air with a movement of my fingers. I am witnessing perfection. It is invisible to the non-magic eye, untouchable by the non-magic skin. The humans will never be able to get their hands on it. It will never be discovered accidentally, never be misused. An economy built on this small, shimmering token will never be destabilized like that of bitcoin. I have already decided on a name: Magcoins.

This will be my legacy.