Zed looked out over the bustling city he called home. At times it seemed to him like some fantasy of an acid-crazed Minecraft user, the lofty spires reaching ever higher as the city streets became shadowy canyon floors and the people little more than scurrying ants far below him. He still found it hard to fathom that he was the owner of a penthouse apartment, albeit a fairly modest one. His 29th floor eyrie gave him a reasonably unobstructed view of Bangkok and the balcony was his place for thinking when away from his beloved computers. He had been able to afford it purely because of a student’s whim back in 2009. While researching his final thesis on encryption, he had come across mention of the launch of a new global digital currency – a libertarian idealist’s dream – and had decided to
