This new scene continues the story of a radical idea and the people willing to risk everything for it. Feedback and beta readers are warmly welcome.

The others had dispersed. Raj was on a call. Sofia had disappeared with a stack of reports. Alias had retreated to the veranda with a notebook.

Chang sat alone at the dining table, furiously coding.

Amara arrived carrying two mugs.

She placed one beside him. "Coffee."

Chang glanced up. "Thank you."

She looked at the screens.

Boxes. Arrows. Labels.

NODE.

ORACLE.

DISTRIBUTOR.

The usual hieroglyphics.

"What are you murdering today?"

Chang pointed at one of the diagrams. "The nodes."

Amara pulled out a chair.

"They look alive enough."

"They're not."

She smiled.

"That's reassuring."

Chang ignored the remark. "We still haven't answered a basic question."

"Which is?"

"Who runs them?"

Amara sipped her coffee. "People do."

Chang gave her a look. "That's exactly the problem."

Neither spoke.

Finally Amara nodded toward the screen.

"Explain."

Chang leaned back.

"If Pegged is to be fully decentralized blockchain, somebody has to run the network."

"Like Bitcoin miners?"

"Not exactly."

"Ethereum validators?"

"Closer."

She nodded. "And?"

"And people don't maintain infrastructure for fun."

"You do."

"I'm not people."

Amara laughed. "I'll make a note of that."

Chang pointed at the diagram.

"A node requires hardware. Storage. Bandwidth. Updates. Monitoring."

"Expensive?"

"No."

He paused. "Not particularly."

"Complicated?"

"No."

Another pause. "Not particularly."

Amara raised an eyebrow. "Then what's the issue?"

"The issue is motivation."

She waited. "Bitcoin miners earn bitcoin."

"Yes."

"Validators earn rewards."

"Yes."

Chang rotated his chair slightly. "Pegged isn't designed around rewarding node operators."

Amara frowned. "Why not?"

"Because every reward comes from somewhere."

"Meaning?"

"Every incentive reduces the payout ratio."

She nodded slowly. That much she understood.

If ten €PEG entered a draw and one €PEG paid infrastructure providers, only nine €PEG remained for participants. The whole point of Pegged was to minimize operational costs, which was referred to as “friction” in the White Paper.

"So the better the lottery..."

"The less money remains available for operators."

"That's awkward."

"Very."

Amara stared at the vast cupboard.

"So who installs the software?"

Chang shrugged. "People who care."

"About what?"

"The idea."

She looked unconvinced. "The world contains fewer idealists than programmers imagine."

"I know."

"Do you?"

Chang hesitated.

That made her smile.

It was a rare victory.

He swiveled back toward the screens. "The software would be open source."

"Available where?"

"Public repositories."

"GitHub?"

"Probably."

"Anybody could download it?"

"Yes."

"And run a node?"

"Yes."

"On a normal computer?"

"Probably. That’s one of my constraints."

She nodded.

The answer pleased her.

A little.

Then she asked: "Would my uncle in Yangon run one?"

Chang blinked. "I don't know your uncle."

"No."

She stirred her coffee.

"But that's the question."

He remained silent.

"My uncle repaired bicycles," she continued. "Suppose he likes Pegged."

Chang waited.

"Suppose he thinks it's useful."

Still waiting.

"Why would he run a node?"

After several seconds Chang replied. "He wouldn't."

"Exactly."

He folded his arms.

"So?"

"So who would?"

"People who understand the importance of the network."

Amara smiled. "There it is."

"What?"

"The engineer's answer."

Chang sighed. "I knew you'd hate it."

"I don't hate it."

She leaned forward. "I've just spent enough time in collapsing countries to know that important systems survive because somebody has a reason to keep them alive."

Chang stared at diagrams. The words lingered. Not because they were profound. Because they were obvious. The most annoying kind.

"You're saying idealism isn't enough."

"I'm saying idealism is rare."

He nodded. "Maybe."

She pointed at the screen. "Who runs Bitcoin nodes?"

"Enthusiasts. Companies. Exchanges. Developers. Universities."

"Exactly."

"And?"

"They all have reasons."

Chang looked back at a screen. The little rectangles suddenly seemed less technical than before. Each one represented a person. Or an institution. Or a motive.

"Maybe that's enough," he said.

"What is?"

"A few thousand people."

Amara smiled. "A few thousand people is a lot."

They sat quietly for a moment.

Finally she stood. "For what it's worth..."

Chang looked up.

"I think they'll come."

"Who?"

"The node runners."

"Why?"

She considered the question.

Then shrugged. "The same reason we're here, but I think we should raise node runner rewarding in tonight’s discussion. What do you think?"

“We should,” he said and watched her leave.

After she had disappeared into the corridor, he turned back toward the diagrams.

For the first time all afternoon, he stopped looking at the nodes as software. Instead he saw the people behind them. And suddenly the problem seemed both more difficult and more interesting than before.