Re: Life - Business & Technology

Chapter 17 - Bitcash Craze

Hudson met with Vince after arriving in Austin to report on his company contractors' performance. Hudson suggested lowering the annual salary of his first few collaborators.

Vince denied the request as he wanted to reward the first few people who started his business, including Dollar and the Bitcoin Market crew.

Instead, Vince gave Hudson authority to assess the value of new contractors and sub-contracted companies he works with from now on and represented Vince in negotiating pay in the future.

Vince tasked Hudson to restructure Future Technologies starting with the creation of Future Studios that would deal mainly with the development of War Online and other entertainment products similar to how Vince treated Bitcash.

It would contain his friends and upper-level students as co-founders and add staff from other companies that collaborated in the development of War Online that were willing to dedicate their time fully to Future Studios.

Currently, Vince employs a few more than 100 direct contractors with an estimated $25 million a year in salary expenses. So he assigned a quarter of the database specialists to join BitCash while the rest would work for Future Studios.

Hudson left the villa to perform the instructed tasks. Then Vince continued working remotely with BitCash and Future Studios on various projects before catching up on homework. 

Another month passed, with Future Tech projects and collaborative efforts were in full swing. David stopped by to update Vince regarding the investigation.

A man with many connections paid for the attempt on his life. It took a while to pinpoint his exact identity and find out it was Ms. Miller's ex-husband. He was angry about losing custody of their son and found out Vince connected Ms. Miller with Lewis-Jacobs.

He knew that Lewis-Jacobs would have dropped the suit if the person paying for the lawyers had died and hired a professional to do the dirty work. 

David then mentioned something about Price helping them with the investigation by tracing network logs from the assailants' computer.

Vince thanked David and Price before instructing him to pursue legal action against the ex-husband.

David replied, saying Lewis-Jacobs had already filed the complaint and worked with the police and district courts. 

[It puts my mind at ease knowing the person who has it out for me would be behind bars soon.] Vince thought.

War Online had been hugely popular the past few months, and Ralph projected revenue to double soon.

Future Studios added minor updates to their cross-platform MMO Hybrid, such as 10-player raids against sprawling bases and more PVP options (player versus player) like fighting other players during base raids. Still, the team also improved the AI for AFK players (away from keyboard).

High-leveled players can choose to participate in the recently added battlegrounds to fight other online players without an army for support, solely focusing on their main character's stats, equipment, and micro-controlling expertise.

Winning gave rewards to outstanding users in the form of resources for their base and high-tier equipment for their player characters. Hardcore players would then sell equipment they didn't need on the BitCash market in exchange for Bitcoin or Bitcash.

Some of these players were making a good amount of money from just playing the game, and large guilds and alliances started forming to further their success and income. 

The arena 1.0 version will be released soon, allowing players to PVP without needing high-tier gear. After remembering how enjoyable watching esports in his past life like DotA 2, Quake, and CSGO, Vince proposed the idea of an esports game made for War Online.

The focus of the arena mode was to provide a level and balanced playing field for players seeking a more competitive way to PVP rather than the war in the battlegrounds for loot. 

After the inclusion of the arena, War Online would be able to cater to many different types of gamers, from very casual to hardcore and professionals.

[BitCash is doing quite well right now. It's even promoting more players in engaging with the market. The games are profitable, but I would bet BitCash would be earning more in the long run.] So Vince pondered while taking a shower in the master bedroom.

So far, the only way to use Bitcoin to buy products outside the BitCash ecosystem like War Online and Wingin' Chicken would be to sell it for regular cash through the BitCash Portal. But, unfortunately, users would have to wait plenty of time with this process.

[I need to find a way to add more products that use the BitCash system. For example, I can create more games to sell even more digital goods, but it takes too much development time. How about using other companies to utilize BitCash? Like being able to pay for groceries at Walmart using the Bitcash altcoin. That can work!] Vince thought while changing his clothes for the day.

He understood that manufacturing physical goods was only feasible if outsourced to foreign nations. Still, Vince decided to push his advantage in this new life and invest in AI-manufacturing, like the norm in production powerhouses like China and the USA, in 2021.

Vince called Hudson and tasked Hudson to recruit experienced engineers specializing in artificial intelligence. A group of ten would be a good start for Future Tech's new project. Next, Vince held a meeting with BitCash via video conference outlining his plans for the new BitCash update.

"Right now, the amount of Bitcoin Market transactions eclipses what it was before the release of both my games that utilize Bitcoin as its' main digital currency. So, therefore, I want to expand Bitcash and the BitCash Portal to all consumers, digital or not. Next, Dollar, I'll assign you to lead the BitCash team together with a promotion though you'll have to let some go to work on developing the hardware for this new venture.

I've decided to hire expert engineers to design our own artificial intelligence-driven manufacturing suite to reduce labor costs associated with manufacturing ultimately." Vince declared passionately.

"I'll need more people to work on the main BitCash Portal eventually now that you're taking some of them away." Dollar replied.

"You can work with Hudson to hire more staff. I permit you to form a sub-team under your current department you can fill with as many people you need." Vince responded reassuringly. 

Hudson joined the video conference call midway through notifying Vince and Dollar regarding the ten new AI specialists.

Vince didn't care how much they would get paid and trusted Hudson that it was a fair deal. In addition, Future Tech provided recruits access to their secure repository to collaborate with the development as standard procedure. 

After the hours-long video conference meeting, Vince decided to relax around his new mansion at Barton Creek.

Vince went to school and the gym for a week with his bodyguard and driver, spending most of his days on homework and designing the new products planned. 

It was winter vacation, and most of his friends decided to travel abroad with their families.

Vince was glad his friends were enjoying their hard-earned income. However, he kept working while formulating ideas regarding the expansion of BitCash and decided to deal with the big players in e-commerce first while Future Tech's production team was developing the hardware solution to be manufactured.

The new project was called the BitCash wallet and would be the size of a traditional credit card. So even if the user had only a few cents in their debit bank account, users would only need enough Bitcash in their wallet.

The portal would automatically pay for the traditional transaction as an intermediary and deduct the Bitcash from the user's account.

Bitcash being equal to a dollar made the existing system a lot easier. 

[Still, manufacturing will take a few months before users can receive one in the mail.] Vince pondered.

He tasked Ralph with opening accounts in major e-commerce payment portals like PayPal and AliPay.

At the same time, David helped Vince negotiate favorable terms with the big companies to integrate Bitcash in their payment networks.

A week later, an update to the BitCash Portal app notified users of using Bitcash to buy products online using PayPal and AliPay, including other smaller payment methods.

BitCash itself would back the transactions to avoid exploiting the service and protecting users. Many of the players were thrilled knowing they could buy stuff online without the hassle of selling Bitcash for Bitcoin and then selling the Bitcoin on the market before actually being able to buy things from third parties.

Fees were a bit expensive but were more than worth it for the convenience. The update shook the online community with viral posts on social media and videos from random people explaining how massive this change was.

Memes were flooding the internet about the viability of getting paid with Bitcash instead of real currency and utilizing Future Studios' video game to farm Bitcash. As a result, War Online became even more popular, with new players trying to hop on the bandwagon before it could leave them behind.

Guilds recruited skilled players in droves to monopolize the battlegrounds and their rewards, maximizing Bitcash profits for themselves.

A few War Online developers suggested providing players with free tools to create in-game game items during a creative meeting. 

Future Studios would pay modders with Bitcash for approved designs, practically outsourcing plenty of work in the process.

Another recent news came as War Online players recently discovered crypto-backed (NFT) unique in-game items dropped from the 'God of War' raid wing in the middle of the battlegrounds. As a result, players would have to fight every other guild and alliance for a one-time chance in securing the raid access every 24 hours.

A few new items were floating around the market and sold for thousands of BTC and Bitcash. These essential items allowed players to gain an edge over other strong players within the battlegrounds to further their own goals and flaunt wealth at the same time.

EDITED