“Do you know why Bitcoin uses private and public keys?”
This is the question Li Mo asked me when he first met me. In a terrace cafe in a startup park in Shanghai, he did not greet or be polite, and his opening remarks were such a geeky question.
At that time, I had just resigned from the City of London and returned to China, preparing to join a digital currency investment fund. As the technical consultant of the fund, Li Mo was responsible for training me on cryptocurrency knowledge.
“Because you need to protect your privacy?” I answered tentatively.
He shook his head and squinted at me: “Because the world needs a balance point, between complete openness and absolute privacy. Just like the relationship between people, you must have the courage to open your heart and the wisdom to protect your heart.”
This answer stunned me. Before that, the people in the currency circle I met either only talked about technology or only looked at K-line. This was the first time someone interpreted Bitcoin in this way.
The training lasted for a month. During this period, I found that Li Mo had a unique habit: he would write his daily thoughts into an encrypted file, like maintaining a private blockchain. “Some words need the right time to be decrypted.” He said with a mysterious smile.
Our relationship changed subtly during a system crash. In the early morning of that day, the exchange had a serious malfunction and everyone was panicking. Li Mo was ordered to lead the team to deal with it urgently. I took the initiative to stay and help, buy supper for everyone, and make coffee.
At three o’clock in the morning, when the system finally returned to normal, everyone else left tiredly. Only the two of us were left in the empty office.
“Thank you for staying.” He handed me a cup of hot coffee, “Do you know? The Bitcoin system generates a new block every 10 minutes, like a heartbeat that never stops. But it was not until today that I realized that some heartbeats cannot be calculated by algorithms.”
I felt that my heartbeat suddenly became as fast as the Bitcoin network.
In the days that followed, we began a peculiar love. He would send me love letters in encrypted form and ask me to decrypt them with a private key; our dating places were often various blockchain salons; even to confess, he chose the night when the system was successfully upgraded.
“Would you like to be my permanent node?” He said this while holding a unique hardware wallet in his hand. When I opened it, I saw a special code stored inside.
“What is this?” I asked curiously.
“This is a smart contract I wrote,” he explained shyly, “If you agree, this code will be permanently recorded on the Ethereum network. Its content is: ‘I promise to use my whole life to decipher the password in your heart.'”
I smiled and said, “You know? Some passwords don’t need to be deciphered.” Then I kissed him.
We got married last Spring Festival. There was not only an exchange of rings at the wedding, but also a special “mining” ceremony. Li Mo designed a small blockchain network for guests to participate in “mining” our love proof. Everyone received an encrypted envelope containing fragments of our story. Only by gathering everyone’s blessings can the complete vows be unlocked.
“This may be the most hardcore wedding in history.” My bestie complained.
But I know that this is our romance. In this digital age, we use the latest technology to record the most original touch.
Now, our “private blockchain” has recorded every bit of our life for more than a year. Every night, we exchange the “private key” of the day to interpret each other’s mood. Sometimes it is the troubles of work, sometimes it is the joy of life, but the most precious are the codes that only we understand.
Yesterday, I also learned from his way and encrypted a good news:
“Dear, our node is going to be upgraded. In eight months, a small miner will join our network.”
This message is still lying in my hardware wallet, waiting to give him a surprise when I go home tonight. Maybe this is love, like the algorithm of Bitcoin, it seems complicated, but it always revolves around the simplest core: trust and commitment.
In this era of “decentralization”, we have found the most important center in each other’s lives.
