My Journey Into The Rabbit Hole Of Cryptocurrency, Since 2009

My name is Carsen Klock, I am a 27 year old developer, designer, and technology professional. This is a short story about my journey through cryptocurrency since 2009.

It was 2009. I was a Junior in High School. A smart eccentric friend of mine at the time showed me this witty website where you would essentially gamble with “Bitcoin Eggs”. The biggest prize on the site was 500 BTC. Bitcoin was not worth much at the time and I would play the game occasionally to usually receive only a few BTC. I had already created a fully custom PHP script at the time called oReserve, which was a classy clone of the future defunct LibertyReserve at the time. With e-Gold going under as well, this new digital currency was highly interesting to me.

Time went by and in 2013, when LibertyReserve went under, I decided to go out publicly on bitcointalk.org and create altcoins (alternative cryptocurrencies based off the original Bitcoin code). I proceeded to create a lot of random altcoins and PoW (Proof of Work) mining algorithms, which I in turn got a lot of flak from some and praise from others. During my younger years during development, I was able to learn how this new cryptocurrency industry worked inside and out, including psychologically and technically what would happen when different coins were launched.

Names below have been changed to protect the innocent and keep things confidential.

Now in 2014, I was looking for a job in the cryptocurrency industry. I saw an article on a blog website with an open Q and A with John Doe, the CEO of a newly formed company. John Doe was talking about how he wanted to create a new cryptocurrency and incorporate it with some other software that was in development. John Doe was then talking about how this new cryptocurrency would be called <crypto coin name deprecated>. Me being the original developer of the altcoin founded years before, I asked John Doe if he could utilize a different name for the sake of not stepping on my toes. He agreed that a new name would be used and went ahead to give me a genuinely impressive job offer. I then accepted said job offer as a developer within the company.

I worked on their platform, software, altcoin, and many other systems at the company. Being so focused in my work, I did not really know what was going on around me. I was a company fanboy, simply put. I was excited to be working at such a bleeding edge company, being able to be heard. During my final week of employment at the company, things went sour, very quickly, shortly after the production launch of the software. Before this final week of employment, John Doe, the CEO, had taken a vacation to <location deprecated>, from my understanding, for a quick getaway before coming back to give us the go ahead to launch a project we were working on beside the other proprietary software. So, I go to work like any other day and the <name deprecated> of the company oddly comes into our developer chat and states that we are all laid off, pending further information.

I am honestly completely in shock at this point as to why <name deprecated>, whom I never answered to before, was laying everyone off, including me, as I previously reported only to John Doe and his closest associates. I then proceed to contact the <name deprecated>, whom then comes onto webcam chat flaunting a gun and a sheet of paper. To my understanding, this was some sort of contract with a previous company he owned with John Doe. <name deprecated> was waving the gun around, threatening me and stating that he had full control over the company while John Doe, the CEO, was absent. During this time, company documents and emails were being leaked around online.

Some of these leaks were setup conversations and deals relating to John Doe. This caused him to become the “fall guy”. These emails and documents were entirely fabricated by this person or person(s) within the company, who were now in control of the company by mutiny. I then went ahead to call John Doe, the CEO, on his personal line. I told him what was going on and asked him why I was being laid off. His reply was complete shock of what was going on and he was just as confused as I was. The CEO then continues to tell me he is contacting his lawyers and would call me right back. I then proceed to explain to his lawyer what was going on and they told me to stand by and see what else <name deprecated> does or says to me.

At this point, I think a company mutiny was happening and had reason to believe that this person was in control of over $45 Million USD in crypto, at the time, and many other things relating to the company. This would allow this person to throw John Doe, the CEO, under the bus and then get away unscathed with millions. During this time, I was obviously still looking for work, from being laid off from the company. John Doe, the CEO, being an inspiring and good person in my opinion, still wanted to try to save his company and felt bad that I was out of a job. He then had me create some software that used a browser extension to allow purchasing items with altcoin directly from a major retailer for consumers. Half-way through the project, John Doe, the CEO, had gone quiet. By the time John Doe had come back to the states it seemed the internet trolls had taken over the propaganda and every big news outlet out there did as well, with headlines reading anything from “John Doe Scam” to “John Doe Steals Millions”. John Doe, the CEO, then essentially takes the fall and gets sentenced to prison. Obviously being curious still, about what I know and not seeing any articles relating to the knowledge I have, time goes by a few years and I notice the <name deprecated> from the company that had laid me and others off and waved the gun on webcam, <name deprecated>, had gotten a gender change and changed his name…suspicious? Yes.

Now coming into 2017, I get contacted by a mysterious figure from the land of crypto. He tells me that Bitcoin (BTC) is going to skyrocket later in the year and that I need to come back into the industry and help build him an altcoin. After just recently separating from my job at Apple, I was more than willing to do so and give it a chance. This mysterious figured then donated a small sum to me to create this new altcoin for him. Eventually me and this mysterious figure separated ways as I was unable to gain contact with him any further. Before he disappeared, I had realized a large amount of people still had some hate towards me from the 2013 era, which got my wheels turning and lit a fire in my soul. During that summer of 2017, I came up with and decided to ninja launch Denarius (D). A hybrid cryptocurrency with Tribus as a new hashing algorithm for PoW (Proof of Work) and PoS (Proof of Stake). I have stuck with and developed Denarius for the past two years, through thick and thin. It has been a crazy journey for 10 years and I still feel like this is just the beginning…

Disclaimer: The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred. No person or entity associated with this story received payment or anything of value, or entered into any agreement, in connection with the depiction of this story.

Disclaimer: This is not trading or investment advice. The above article is for entertainment and education purposes only. Please do your own research before purchasing or investing into any cryptocurrency or digital currency.