Constant Fear

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Authors: Daniel Palmer
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them alone.”
    Instead of the ear, Fausto set the tip of the drill against Javier’s leg, directly at midthigh. The leg began to buckle and shake in a grand mal seizure way, but Fausto kept the contact point.
    “They are a part.” Fausto indicated to the empty chairs. “You are a part.” He motioned to Javier. “And we are a part.” Fausto gestured to himself and his henchmen. “We’re all in this mess together,” he said, making a big circle with his hands, a big mess encompassing everyone.
    “Okay. Okay. I got it. I got it,” Javier said. He was close to hyperventilating. “What do you know about the bitcoin business?”
    “I know nothing, except that I’m here to get the money back,” Fausto said.
    “It started when Soto had a lot of cash he wanted cleaned,” Javier said. “More than I’d seen before. Instead of cleaning it through bank accounts like I’d been doing, I suggested we could use that money to make more money. I’d been reading about this currency, and I told him he could buy computers so we could mine for bitcoins.”
    Fausto looked puzzled. “Mine for them? Like dig-in-the-ground mine?”
    “Not the ground,” Javier said. “Computational mining. Very powerful computers solving complex problems.”
    “What kind of problems?”
    “Computations that help to guarantee the integrity of bitcoins’ general ledger.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “Every bitcoin transaction has to be validated,” Javier said.
    “You’re clear as fog,” Fausto said.
    “How do you prove somebody bought and sold something that you can’t hold?” Javier said. “You can count dollars, weigh gold and silver, but how do I prove that I have as many bitcoins as I say I do? I could be faking it. Without proof, nobody would trust the system, and the currency would be worthless. The bitcoin ledger, that’s the official accounting of all the bitcoins bought and sold. The computational mining we do validates that every transaction on the ledger is real. It’s complex computing work, but anytime a bitcoin miner can confirm a block of transactions is real, they get bitcoins rewarded to them for the effort. Mining it is hard computing work. It’s how they limit the number of bitcoins in circulation, which helps sustain value.
    “So Soto bought a bunch of expensive computers with his money, and he’s using those computers to mine for these bitcoins.” A strange, almost excited look had replaced Javier’s more terrified one. It was, after all, his idea; and with lots of highly educated but underpaid computer experts in Mexico, Soto had little trouble getting the operation off the ground.
    “And that’s how you collected two hundred million dollars’ worth of these bitcoins? By mining them?”
    “Not all,” Javier said. “I also bought bitcoins on the exchange, but those transactions were anonymous. Nobody knows I bought them, unless I try to off-ramp the bitcoins.”
    “‘Off-ramp’?”
    “That’s where you sell the bitcoins. Owners of the coins are anonymous until they sell their coins. When somebody sells, the transaction gets broadcast for the whole bitcoin community to see.”
    “So that’s how you know this kid from the school took the money?” Fausto asked.
    Javier nodded. “Yes, yes. The Lion traced the seller’s IP address. I was shocked to see that the coins were sold from Pepperell Academy.”
    Fausto was beginning to understand, and it pleased him. “How do you know who at the school took the coins?” Fausto asked.
    “The Lion worked his magic and somehow penetrated the school’s computer network. From there, he got a name—David Townsend from Chicago.”
    “So then we go and get this David person to give us back our money.”
    “It’s not that easy,” Javier said.
    “Why not?”
    “The Lion hacked into David’s computer at school. I figured we could get the money back before anybody even knew it was gone. My guy said it wasn’t easy to do. I guess this David kid is a

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