50 Bitcoins for Christmas
by Kevin Ashley and AI
This story is a digital collectible. It was published in 2022, a long time before AI models reached capacity we have today, and may be considered one of the first AI assisted stories.
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Tales of California, Short Stories
Jason's startup didn't work so well, frankly it needed a lot of work, and money was running out. He paid 75 bucks for a monthly space at Hacker Dojo, a geek co-working space in Mountain View, working furiously on his website that was supposed to change the world. Jason quit his job almost a year ago, in 2013, hoping to launch the startup, but he wasn't getting much interest and he only had a few hundred dollars left to pay the rent and the space at dojo. In the last couple of months, he tried pitching the idea to a few investors from Sand Hill Road, but always hit the same reaction: people listened, next thing he usually heard was that they only invest in larger ventures, and besides encouraging him, nobody wanted to take a stake. Stella's desk was facing Jason's and from time to time she glanced at him across the room, her green eyes sparkled with interest, but she was too shy to ask him. Unless you had a robot companion, meeting people at the dojo was a dumb idea: most were desperate geeks, and the best conversation was usually about Python. The best place to chat at dojo was in the kitchen, by the coffee machine.
"I'm too tired to hack, I think I'll go to the gym," Jason said to his roommate, Mike, one evening. He was so proud of being able to pronounce the word "gym," he had never gone to one in his life and didn't really know how to work out. He had an idea that it would be a kind of a place where people were lifting weights and doing squats, and so he was imagining huge machines, much different from the squat rack he saw in the garage of his house when he was a child.
"Don't you want to stay here and code?" Mike asked without much enthusiasm.
"I can't stand it anymore," Jason replied. "I'm working on my startup every day, and I feel like I'm not getting anywhere."
"Why don't you chat with advisors, they can help getting you in touch with investors."
Jason shook his head. "I don't think I'm going to get any."
"What do you think of Stella?" Mike asked, pointing to the girl who sat at the far corner of the room with her laptop.
"Not my type."
"Are you kidding?" Mike chuckled, "You should have seen her when she first came here. She was really a nerd, but now she's really hot."
Jason looked at Stella again.
"Hmm..." he said, "Maybe."
He walked over to her and said:
"Hi, I'm Jason."
"Hi, I'm Stella."
"So, what are you working on?"
"I'm trying to build this drone that can also fly indoors," Stella replied. "right now, I'm just trying to figure out how to use its sensors, so that it doesn't hit the wall after every five minutes. I want it to learn."
"What?"
"My drone should learn, I'm trying to teach it how to map its environment and to avoid obstacles. The problem is that I have to recalibrate it every time it bumps into something. I'm a psychologist really, not a programmer. This is my hobby."
"How about using a laser or a camera?"
"They are way too expensive, may break my business model, and my investors won't like that."
"I'll give you my laser pointer."
"What?" Stella said.
Jason took the laser out of his pocket, and showed it to her. It was a normal laser pointer, the kind of thing you would buy at a dollar store.
"That's all I need?" Stella asked, surprised.
"It was a birthday present for my cat, but he doesn't like it."
"My drone only needs the dot for calibration. I was thinking of using this red dot. "
They continued chatting, and the next week Jason invited Stella to a Shabushabu place in Mountain View. On the way to the restaurant, on the first floor at Hacker Dojo they stumbled upon a newly installed ATM with the sign that read "First Bitcoin ATM in California".
"Do you remember this guy from the dojo who made it? He used to sit on the second floor next to the kitchen."
"Somehow, I can't imagine making an investment at an ATM installed in a place called Hacker Dojo. Doesn't sound particularly safe, even if I know everybody here"
They both laughed.
"I think next year, I'll have to pivot and quit this place and find a job. I need to pay the rent.", Jason was smiling but Stella suddenly realized she may be loosing him.
When Stella came back to dojo, she saw the Bitcoin ATM again. Two weeks before Holidays the place was getting empty, and a plastic Christmas tree next to it looked sad and abandoned. The next thing Stella did was largely unexpected, most of all, she didn't expect it from herself. But it was Christmas, and the gift is a gift, Stella inserted her credit card in the Bitcoin ATM and bought 50 bitcoins, it came almost to a thousand dollars, but she convinced herself she was doing it to help Jason's venture. She printed the receipt with the public and the private key and put it in an envelope and wrote "Jason" on it and put it on her desk.
The next day Jason didn't come to dojo. He didn't come the day after, his father wasn't feeling well and he had get back to his family in Bishop. Stella's parents invited her for Holidays. The night before leaving for her parents, she put the envelope in her bag, and forgot about it.
A Christmas Seven Years Later
Seven years passed since that Christmas. Stella was back at her psychology business; Jason got a job, but he was still dreaming about his idea: maybe one day! It was Christmas again, and Jason was again staying with his folks in Bishop, near Mammoth Mountain spending a few days hiking before the New Years. It was a beautiful sunny day before a massive snowstorm, Jason took half a day hiking to Lake Mary. He stopped at the Vista point, overlooking Crystal Crag, near Pokonobe Lodge, stunned by the scenery of a frozen lake, mountains and pine trees. Suddenly, a familiar buzzing sound broke the silence and Jason saw a drone and a pilot, a small woman was standing in the snow, controlling it. The woman looked familiar, and when she turned her green eyes at him, he exclaimed: "Stella!"
We'll leave them looking into each other's eyes for a moment. At that moment Jason realized that he didn't need any startups, he just wanted to stay with Stella, here in the Sierra.
"That year, I bought a Christmas present for you," Stella said. "And I never gave it to you. Those 50 bitcoins must be worth around $3 million now, so if you need funding..."
"I don't need any funding," Jason looked into the green eyes again. "All I want for Christmas is you!"
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All I want for Christmas is you!