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"Don't worry about where I heard it from," Shane waved his hand. "Just tell me, how do I buy this stuff now? Is it troublesome?"
Lip stared at Shane for several seconds, judging whether he was drunk or driven insane by Karen.
"Buy? Are you fcking serious? You want to buy a string of numbers that you don't even know where they exist? Shane, if you ask me, that thing is just a toy right now, still just a concept! Someone on the forum used it to exchange for pizza; 10,000 Bitcoins only got two pizzas. Nobody wants this stuff at all."
The more Lip spoke, the more ridiculous he felt Shane's idea was. He pointed at the computer Shane gave him.
"Look, this is hard currency. With this computer you gave me, I can write code, hack into the school system, and take jobs to make money. What can your Bitcoin do? Wait for some alien to land on Earth and recognize it as the universal currency of the galaxy?"
Facing Lip's questioning, Shane didn't feel anything, because this matched most people's perception of cryptocurrency in 2010: absurd, worthless.
But who would have thought that in a few years, these Bitcoins would rise to a peak of tens of thousands of dollars each.
"Just treat it as me having a collection hobby, or having too much money and wanting to scatter some coins, acting like a rich second generation for once."
Shane didn't explain directly to Lip. Of course, these reasons couldn't be explained clearly. Even if he told Lip, Lip would only mock him for having his brains sucked dry by Karen.
"Just tell me, with your ability, can you do it for me. Our little genius wouldn't fail at such a small thing, right?"
Shane used a provocation directly.
Lip looked at his serious face and sighed somewhat helplessly.
"It's possible. There are trading platforms for Bitcoin now, although they look very knockoff, and you have to register with an email. As for purchasing, I remember they said you have to transfer money via bank transfer or PayPal, then exchange for Bitcoin and store it in their platform wallet."
"Don't store it in the wallet provided by the platform. Download the Bitcoin directly to your computer, understand?"
Shane interrupted Lip.
When watching related documentaries before, he remembered that the Bitcoin platform seemed to experience hacker theft in later years, and hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins stored on the platform were all stolen.
He didn't want the Bitcoins he bought or mined painstakingly later to be stolen.
"Store in the computer? Uh, let me check first... Also, the payment process is already complicated, and you want me to download it to the computer, which makes it even more complicated. Fck, your idea is truly stupid."
Lip was somewhat helpless about these requests from Shane, but had to agree.
The computer in his hand hadn't even warmed up yet. He was afraid Shane would be unhappy, get angry, take the computer back, and give him a rotten one instead.
But Lip still wanted to persuade Shane.
"Shane, tell me honestly, were you fooled by someone somewhere? Did they say something about this being the future currency revolution, or decentralized finance? These are all bullshit, things written by those idealists in forums when they drank too much. I think if you really want to invest in something, might as well buy some Apple stock. Although expensive, those Apple stores are actually open on the streets."
"I won't invest too much," Shane had already thought of a set of rhetoric.
"Just treat it as me buying lottery tickets. Anyway, even if I lose everything, I'll just drink less alcohol. In case these currencies become valuable later, maybe I'll be financially free directly by then."
Seeing Shane's impervious appearance, Lip rolled his eyes helplessly.
"Fine, fine, fine, if you insist on being a sucker, I can't stop you. But I have to say in advance, if your Bitcoin loses money or goes to zero directly, don't blame me."
"Going to zero is going to zero. What the Gallagher family lacks least is the experience of starting from scratch."
Lip added: "Also, you have to give some handling fee, or call it technical guidance fee. I can't do such a stupid thing for free."
"No problem, deal," Shane nodded.
"Then register an account for me first, and figure out how to download to the computer. Use the money in the debit card I gave you directly; I deposited some in it. Then, buy for me first..."
Shane tried hard to recall the price of Bitcoin in 2010 he saw in magazines, "Just buy me $500 worth first."
In 2010, a Bitcoin was less than a few cents. $500 was enough to buy a lot.
"Buy five hundred dollars?" Lip almost jumped from the chair.
"Are you fcking crazy? 500 dollars, you mean you want to use 500 dollars to buy a bunch of numbers that might go to zero anytime?"
"That's why I told you to buy less, test the waters first," Shane's tone didn't change much.
"Just treat it as me earning a lot selling breakfast recently, getting inflated. Told you, I just want to experience the joy of being a sucker too."
Lip looked at Shane, not knowing what to say. After not speaking for a long time, he could finally only curse:
"Fck, I'm really convinced. But I think you'd better not let Fiona know, otherwise she'll think you damaged your brain from doing drugs, and kick us out together."
"Then don't let her know," Shane stood up. "Get it done as soon as possible. Tell me if you need anything else."
Walking to the door, he turned back and added a sentence.
"Oh, remember, after buying, just leave it there. Don't get itchy hands and trade or delete it. After buying, just pretend you forgot about it."
Lip gave Shane the middle finger. "Got it, tycoon Shane. I think you'd better go to sleep quickly, nourish your brain, don't have such thoughts again in the future, and don't call me if you do."
"Thanks for the compliment." Shane closed the door and walked back to the basement.
For him, buying Bitcoin was just an idle move. Even if Bitcoin didn't become valuable like before time travel, it was only a loss of a few thousand dollars, which he could afford.
If it could appreciate to hundreds of thousands of dollars later... no, tens of thousands of dollars apiece, then he could really retire early directly and enjoy a beautiful life.
...
Time unknowingly came to 8:30 the next morning, at the Central subway station entrance.
Shane and Fiona started packing up the stall at this time today.
Based on the experience of the previous days, this should be the time when there were many people, but because today was the Thanksgiving holiday (many companies and schools were off), there were fewer people at the subway entrance than usual.
However, they didn't prepare much stuff either, and just sold out.
Fiona moved the last insulated box into the car and suddenly said: "Shane, I have an idea."