Great Power Industry: You're a private company building an aircraft carrier?

Yokohama, an island nation, in the Chinatown of Yamashita-cho, Naka-ku.

This place has a history of Chinese settlement for over a hundred years, and even now, three to four thousand overseas Chinese still live here. They celebrate the traditional festival, the Spring Festival, by performing lion dances, folk dances, and releasing lanterns.

Reporters were also standing on the street, taking photos.

"Kojima, how do you plan to write this report?"

"Of course, we should write about the origin of the Spring Festival first, and then..."

Before they could finish speaking, someone patted them on the shoulder.

"There's big news in Tokyo, let's go!"

Tokyo?

"What news?"

"A completely new currency has emerged, powerful enough to challenge the existing global financial order!"

"what?"

The reporters all left with a whoosh.

Island nations are tiny places; the straight-line distance between Yokohama and Tokyo is less than 30 kilometers, and it only takes about 20 minutes by tram.

A group of reporters arrived at a financial services institution in Tokyo, only to find that there was no such new currency at all. Was the information wrong?

Just then, someone received a phone call: "The launch of Bitcoin is happening online! Let's find an internet cafe right away!"

Soon, a flurry of reporters flooded into the internet cafe. After clicking on the relevant webpage and logging in, the official launch of Bitcoin began.

"Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Satoshi Nakamoto. I believe that the current monetary system has major problems. It is issued by the government, which often over-issues currency, leading to currency devaluation and inflation. Now we are in the internet age, and our currency can be entirely created by the internet. It is based on natural algorithms and belongs to natural credit money. Most importantly, its total amount is fixed..."

The island nation's network infrastructure is clearly not very good. Some people's videos cannot be opened, or they experience severe buffering, so they can only switch to audio. Even if some people's videos can be watched, they are blurry, and they cannot clearly see Satoshi Nakamoto's specific appearance. However, these are not important.

They quickly extracted the key information: Bitcoin, a monetary system independent of governments! Its issuance is not controlled by governments, but is generated by computers on the internet!

This is absolutely a bombshell in the financial world!

Anyone in the world can participate in the creation of Bitcoin. As long as they have internet access, Bitcoin can circulate all over the world, no matter where they are, and the transactions are open and transparent!

What can this currency be used for?

Currencies issued by various countries are all backed by governments! The US dollar, in particular, is recognized worldwide and can be spent globally. But what about Bitcoin? Even if it's traded online, who can use it? Who will acknowledge its monetary attributes?

After Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper, he switched the video camera to his computer desktop. This time the video was clear, and all the viewers could see him installing software and then using the computer to mine the first Bitcoin block.

"What you see now is our genesis block. After four hours of mining, I received the first mining reward, which is fifty bitcoins! Fellow netizens, let's create our own currency together! Come with me!"

News of Bitcoin spread rapidly around the world, and some netizens joined in the fun and started mining. Even if their computer performance was insufficient, they were able to mine a few Bitcoins in the early stages. After all, the design of Bitcoin makes it increasingly difficult to mine in the later stages, so there was not much of a problem in the early stages.

However... most people are still skeptical about the practicality of this thing. If you actually try to buy something with Bitcoin, you might get beaten up!

Detroit, near the Great Lakes, United States.

During the Industrial Revolution, this area was among the first to develop, especially the advanced automobile industry, which made Detroit a world-renowned automobile city.

However... after affordable Japanese cars entered the American market, Detroit began to decline. The oil crisis caused oil prices to soar, and American automakers were unable to reduce fuel consumption. Their cars were also less reliable than those from Japanese cars, so their market share began to be impacted by Japanese cars.

Now, that's the more advanced Dongfang Motors.

In short, Detroit's auto industry is in decline, unemployment is rising, and this once-thriving city is now in its twilight years.

Especially after nightfall, it becomes a paradise for some.

The sputtering of motorcycles filled the air as a convoy pulled up. The handlebars were so high they even reached above the riders' heads. This uniquely designed motorcycle was only found in the United States. Its appearance was definitely not for the riders to show off, but rather... in some places, it was very unfriendly to the riders, with special wires set up so that when a rider drove by at high speed, they would be slit in the throat by the wires.

The high handlebars can prevent the cable from breaking prematurely, thus avoiding life-threatening situations for the rider. Over time, this has become a distinctive feature.

The motorcycle riders were all black, and they were all muscular. Despite the cold weather, they were only wearing leather jackets, revealing their muscular arms. From the side, they also had some tattoos, with two Chinese characters in the center.

The top part is "从" (cóng), and the bottom part is "心" (xīn). Together they form "从心" (cóng xīn), which means to follow one's heart and do as one pleases. This does fit their characteristics. It's just a pity that the two characters are tattooed too close together, making it easy for people to mistake it for the character "怂" (sǒng).

The motorcycles stopped in front of a bar, and the burly men got off and filed in. The patrons along the way cast provocative glances, then looked away, as if they couldn't afford to mess with them.

A group of burly men entered a private room where a beautiful woman was sitting.

"coming?"

"Well, we..."

"Take out your phone and download an app."

"Ahem, our phones... don't have that function."

Those smartphones cost money, and the strong men were willing to spend money on motorcycles, so for them, a mobile phone was enough to make and receive calls.

The woman glanced at them: "If it doesn't have any functions, then let's exchange it. There are new phones here."

*Splash!* A bag was dumped out, revealing a bunch of cell phones inside, all of varying quality—clearly…stolen!

"Here, one for each of you."

The burly men quickly switched to their new phones, and they were all beaming with joy.

“When we sell white powder in the future, we will tell them that we support Bitcoin payments. Once the relevant software is installed on the phone, it can receive Bitcoin.”

"What, Bitcoin? What's that?"

“A currency issued on the internet… never mind, you wouldn’t understand anyway. Just know that Bitcoin can be used, that’s enough. For now, we’ll charge one Bitcoin for one dollar.”

"Oh."

The big men are simple-minded. It's better to kill them than to make them think about complicated problems. All you need to do is give them orders.