Finney Vol. 1 - Immutable Journey - Flipbook - Page 52
While Finney rested in the break room,
Mr Shift messed with his phone. “See,”
he said, looking up. “Your new chesta
has already been fabricated. I told you
it wouldn’t be long.”
Feeling both relieved and apprehensive,
Finney stood up. “Where is it?” he asked.
“Let’s go.”
Just then the door to the break room
opened and one of Mr Shift’s refinery
workers entered. Wearing dingy blue
coveralls and thick leather gloves, the
worker approached Mr Shift and handed
him an object that Finney initially mistook
for a chunk of scrap metal.
“Looks good to me,” said Mr Shift, holding
the object up and turning it around for
inspection. “Thanks Bobby. Take an extra
five minutes for lunch today as a reward
for getting this done so quickly.”
“Thanks, boss,” said Bobby, leaving the
room.
“Is that supposed to be my new chesta?”
asked Finney skeptically.
“Let’s check the fit,” said Mr Shift,
approaching Finney and pressing the
lump of welded steel to his chest.
“A perfect fit,” said Mr Shift.
“It feels funny,” said Finney. “It has spots
of rust on it and sharp edges that could
be dangerous.”
“My people are the best metalworkers
around,” bragged Mr Shift.
“I miss my golden chesta,” complained
Finney. “This one looks like a child’s
toy. Like a clumsy imitation of the real
thing. How do I know if it can even
regulate my processes. My old chesta
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did that perfectly. And it didn’t smell like
chemicals.”
“That’s the smell of productive industry,”
said Mr Shift. “Isn’t that what you came
to our planet to study?”
“I came to study crypto,” said Finney.
“You keep telling me we’ll talk about
crypto later, and we never do!”
“Very well,” said Mr Shift. “What exactly
would you like to know?”
Despite his discomfort, Finney brightened
up at the thought of finally learning
something related to his mission. “I know
that some tokens have miners and others
have block producers,” he said. “But
what’s the difference between the two?
Is one better than the other?”
Mr Shift frowned. “The answer to that is
too technical to get into here,” he said.
“Personally, I favor the mining approach.
It’s a simple equation: energy in, crypto
out. Other schemes are messier, involving
votes and such. Voting systems make it
harder for networks to operate smoothly.”
That didn’t sound quite right to Finney,
but he didn’t want to argue about it.
“What will happen after the 21 millionth
Bitcoin is mined?” he asked instead. “Will
transaction fees go way up because
there’s nothing left to mine?”
“Could be,” said Mr Shift, who felt the
conversation was getting away from him.
“But what you should really be asking
about is Shift Coin. That’s where all the
real action is.”
“What about Shift Coin?” asked Finney.
“It takes all of the best parts of the legacy
banking system and all the best parts of
crypto and combines these into the most
FINNEY VOLUME ONE - IMMUTABLE JOURNEY