The Stream Network
It had started off a throwaway idea, a joke intended to get a few laughs from the others in the room and laugh they did. But quickly, the laughter died into quiet contemplation.
What if?
The small room was filled with some of the most intelligent minds and they had worked together for a long, long time. Together, they made up a think tank for all manner of things that played in the shadows, undercurrents that pushed from beneath to steer the flows of society, persuade them to act, or not, depending on the requirements.
Free to roam, free to act independently, free to chase their own endeavors of any kind as long as it didn't encroach on the big picture plays. This was rarely a problem though, as working with the current afforded much more return and bandwidth than fighting against it. The resources and opportunities at their disposal were near unlimited and collected, they made up the 'Stream Network'
An innocuous name for an elegant solution that had manipulated markets, overthrown governments, installed dictators and destroyed countries. Every piece of life as we know it had been touched by their collective in some way although they themselves would never be visible. The SN was undetectable and even those in the highest reaches, did not know of their existence as a whole. Anyone that needed to know anything, only learned a fragment of what was - and even that was too much to carry for many.
They had been tasked with a recent problem, a pet that had escaped its chains and now roamed free in the yard, aggressive and all consuming, strong like nothing had been before. The banks. They had now outstayed their welcome, they had overreached and bit the hand that fed them, it was time for them to be put back in the kennel, or put down as the case unfolded.
The concern was the reach they had, the global control at their fingertips that would react mercilessly if threatened. They knew this as they had used them many times before to pressure change or quash uprising. Money facilitates power and the banks were the treasury.
The attack would have to be subtle, undetectable until too late. They would have to have the institutions on their side until the final moment, one that would throw turmoil into the system and not only bring them to their knees to beg forgiveness, but one that would reset the system and return balance.
It would be a Trojan horse infected with worms and they would take it into their folds, take advantage of it and ride it through their compounds while spreading the disease that would consume them from the inside out. Not only that, they would willingly accept delivery and think it was their idea, that they were in control.
They would buy-in hook, line and sinker for in their power-drunk state and blinded by their insatiable greed, they would not see it possible. The arrogant are often also the ignorant - and human nature was predictable, mathematical and they were trained to follow the numbers. They would think they had control.
But, like any mass movement it needed humble beginnings a genesis point where a protagonist would pit himself against their might and be dismissed as insignificant, worthless and useless. David vs Goliath, and the monster would turn his back and the stone block would come crashing down upon his head.
3 ...2 ...1 ...click. The block was laid. The Genesis block.
From this point it would spiral outwards, gathering momentum through back channels, fringe members of society, anarchists, dissenters, criminals, enemies of the state. It would continue its trajectory, gathering interest, building speed, getting mentioned ever wider, spreading its distribution.
It would make the news, inspire new thinking and threaten the old. It would be heralded a savior through its decentralization, it would begin to represent freedom and attract an ever widening pool of people looking for autonomy and of course, anonymity.
It would promise a new world order to those tired and hungry after the beast had taken their meals, locked them into debt cycles and slavery enforced by their desire to have what is seen in the advertising the corporations drove down throats.
It would fragment and split, new forms would rise and fall, new currencies would come and go and without regulation, fear, uncertainty and doubt would keep the average person out, the waves of volatility would be too high for most to ride.
Once the trap was set and the ball in motion, the stream of underground societies would do the rest until the banks begin to take notice, begin to take an interest in the movement. They aren't one to let a trend lay untapped, they are the milkers, the collectors, the patient hodlers. And they will stack and stack until they control the table, and people must beg them again for scraps.
They would invest wide, pump and dump small while slowly buying the dips to buy-in to the large players, the investment coins. The ones that despite their lack of practical usage, keep getting pushed higher and higher into the stratosphere, new moon after moon in a near endless cycle of investment and divestment. one thousand, ten thousand, 100,000, a million....
There will be billionaires made in the process, many more will lose but it will ramp up and up until near the end, the banks hold it all, control it all, hoard it all. And then, the final adjustment will come.
3 ...2 ...1 ...click. The fire will start.
They will release the embedded worms, they will flood the market that they had controlled from the start. Pushing and pulling, inspiring and quashing, forking and scamming until all coins were theirs and all were carriers.
The burn would begin from that little room, the Stream Network, SN, Satoshi Nakamoto will start a blaze like no other. A financial meltdown never before seen, one that would tear it all down, raze it to the ground and from the ashes, something new would rise.
A new stream will begin.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
I originally wrote this a year ago for a competition run by @v4vapid and it come to mind yesterday when someone commented that I should write about a conspiracy in the system. I liked the idea behind this one and enjoyed writing it at the time quite a lot so gave it a little clean up work. Of course it is just fictional but there are plenty of ways that all of this could be a grand manipulation that not even the banks are expecting.