The moons were just rising in the Summer sky, Clotho almost full, Atropos gibbous, Lachesis still below the horizon, the evening light blueing the sunset red and gold. When Jack Palin took him aside, Toby wondered for a moment what it was about, until Jack took the print of an email from his pocket and showed it to him. Ah - Bitcoin Conference 2012!
"Toby, what do you know about this?"
"Bitcoin" said Toby. Jack nodded, mute. "Dave told me about it when he came home last year. What he said, it's some sort of peer-to-peer cryptocurrency"
Jack's face was a picture. "You're not joshing me?"
Toby shook his head. "Nope. It's the real thing, apparently."
"Did you get an invitation to this conference thing?"
Toby nodded, and grinned at his friend. "Yep, sure did."
"You going?"
"I am. Look, Jack, you're a normal, red-blooded, male, right?" Jack nodded. "Bitcoin offers you the guarantee of meeting a guy every week, and the knowledge that the meeting is so that you both can get laid. What's not to like?"
Jack grinned. "When you put it like that, nothing. I'm not ready for commitment, anyway, but I surely do like the idea of getting laid."
"Come on, we only have ten more minutes until class. We'll go to the conference together, okay?"
*
Toby looked around, wondering if he was doing the right thing, or a little out of his mind. From the looks on some of the faces, others were wondering the same thing. At the front of the room, Bruce Wagner stood up, waiting a moment for the hubbub of conversation to die. He looked around at the expectant faces, and grinned.
"Welcome to Pattaya. More particularly, welcome to BitCon 2012," he said, "perhaps better known to a lot of us as The Sex Society." He waited a moment to let the cheer die away. "I'd just like to remind you of what it's all about. About ten months ago, two bitcoin supporters were discussing sex on IRC. As we all know, sex is the forbidden fruit for bitcoin proponents. Cryptocurrency projects comes a poor second to their repressed, unsatisfied carnal lusts. Yeah, right. Calm down. Anyway, they were discussing sex. Our founder had remarked to his friend, in bed, just after they'd been enjoying each other, asking why couldn't things be simplified? Why couldn't everyone on the blockchain just admit they were just as horny as everyone else?"
"It took a few more conversations before they came up with the idea of random pairing. Peer A is linked with peer J, peer C with peer A, and so on, for a night of sex. No strings, no recriminations, just two guys having fun with each others bodies. Next week, a different partner. Whether any of the couples got together at other times was up to them, but on a Friday night, with no conference bookings on a Saturday, the men would link up with that days allocation, and both of them would know that the other expected sex."
Please send 1 BTC to the address below and I will continue to write Bitcoin slash fiction. Or alternatively send me 2 BTC, and I will cease to write Bitcoin slash fiction.
