I want to live in a world I can believe in
The picture you see is a New Year’s gift I gave this year. I didn’t want to receive these young people, who still have their entire futures ahead of them, so I gave them a gift using a currency I could believe in. I was told last year to stop putting these strange ideas into their heads, but this year, it went so smoothly I could hardly believe it. I also took the chance to explain to them how to use and manage their gift.
And now, it’s 2018. The future is practically now. So, I’d like to announce a few, not quite new year’s resolutions, but things I’ve decided I really have to stop doing, as an expression of my determination.
1. Meeting people
There are so many things I want to do, and so many things I want to discuss with people. Even I’ve been surprised by the number of new contacts I’ve made, especially in the latter half of 2017. It’s far beyond the level of growth Bitcoin prices have seen. From old acquaintances to super famous enterprises, the sheer increase in the range of people who’ve reached out to me puts even Bitcoin’s volatility to shame.
And that is something I’m incredibly thankful for. However, I’m trying to use my time as effectively as possible, for the future that awaits both myself and the comrades I’m fighting alongside with. I’ve realized that nothing good will come of participating in conversations about things that aren’t a part of my vision for the future, for either party involved, and thus I’ve been proactively declining to participate in such conversations. I’ve always been a bit shy and had a tendency of avoiding people, so I suppose I’ll just be avoiding them even more, and devoting myself to my work.
2. Talking
You can’t imagine the number of things I’d love to talk about. Left to my own devices, I’d be pitching ideas and engaging in arguments 24/7. But then, we wouldn’t be getting anywhere. I believe that over these last five years, everything that needs to be said about both cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin has already been said. All that’s left now is to decide on a course of action and follow through with it.
And this year, I’ve committed to focusing on the technology more than I have before. To try to bring about the societal change I’m hoping for as efficiently as possible, which is nothing short of an epic challenge, I’ve decided I’ll be focusing heavily on the technology at the heart of it all.
On the other hand, I’ll be heading out to speak at events that I do believe are important. I’ve already gone to speak at several events this year at venues in Europe, U.S, and Tokyo, among other places.
3. Blabbering on and on about ICOs
I remember hearing once that Hayao Miyazaki had already drawn more lines than any human should be able to in one lifetime, and I’m starting to wonder whether I’ve used the word “ICO” more times than any human should in one lifetime.
From now on, I won’t be using the word except on important occasions. I have no particular feelings toward the word, in any case.
4. Staying too long in Japan
I’ve gone to quite a few places around the world in 2017, and at each of these places, I feel I’ve managed to do some meaningful work. This year, I’d like to increase the pace of this progress.
I plan to set my parameters to increase my flexibility to its utmost maximum so that I’ll always be able to immediately move to wherever I’m needed most at a given time and begin working at full productivity.
Accounting for all the plans I’ve already made, it’ll actually be harder for me to make plans in Japan, so the meetings I do have will generally be through either video conferencing or online chat.
5. Using cash and products from the old generation
I’m not the sort of fundamentalist who’d be adamantly against using a currency based on an unstable source of value, which pollutes the earth every time it’s issued, and that serves as a hotbed for crime. I only concern myself with considering which of my options is the best for making a payment.
As I’m sure anyone who’s gone out to eat with me is aware, I haven’t carried a wallet with me these past few years. More often than not, I don’t carry any cash on my person. Having to accept change basically amounts to torture for me, so I try to avoid such situations at all costs, by only using services and going to stores that allow me to pay either by credit card or electronic money.
Bitcoin is not exactly something you can use for settling accounts, so I tend to use either credit card or electronic money when I need to pay people. It’s convenient, and the societal structure for it is already in place, so I believe it’s a fine option — far better than carrying around cash. Though legal tender hardly seems necessary now, when compared with cryptocurrencies, both credit cards and electronic money seem poised to make great progress this year as means of processing legal tender. I love Apple Pay!
I suppose it sounds like I’m talking about nothing but money, but that’s not the case. I find myself surrounded by a dizzying number of products from the old generation, as well.
When the first iPad came out, I decided to do away with all my paper books. The several hundred books I had on my shelf at that point were reduced to exactly zero books. When streaming was introduced, I did away with CDs and television, and I now consume a massive amount of content — far more than I could have ever imagined consuming in the past — though I own none of it physically. The notes I used to take with pen and paper have been made completely obsolete by the iPad Pro, and now I feel as though I’m experiencing life in a different dimension than the one in which I’d been living up until this point. And, with the advent of the sharing economy, I’ve done away with my car and my home.
Though these may seem like the sort of things any normal person would own, I still plan to do away with anything I don’t interact with in a way I see as fundamentally part of my vision for the future.
In conclusion, I plan to do away with even more things than I have up until this point, in order to do the things that I want to, and should, do.