I was in fourth grade. I had drawn a picture of a steel marble on a track designed, via gravity, to make the ball "go forever."

I hesitate to draw it here, so I won't, but keep in mind I was in fourth grade. I hope some of you with a bit of imagination can understand what my mind had seen at this point, though it seems extremely hard to explain. Basically, the idea which fascinated me (and still does) is that something (energy) could perpetually be generated from "nothing"(just an idea and model of a track and marble), if only that something was first set in motion. My teacher laughed at me. I was scandalized. I felt in that moment that I must create my perpetual motion machine if only to spite her and wipe the smug smile from her face.

What I wish to get across in this post more than anything is that, yes, while it is technically "impossible" to build a perpetual motion machine that lasts forever, it is possible to build machines that can last FOR A VERY LONG TIME AND GENERATE A LOT OF ENERGY.

The question is, why isn't more of this being done? The answer, I am sure you can guess, lies largely in vested interest enterprises which would be directly threatened by the proliferation of these technologies. This is the very same reason the U.S. government is not interested in singing the praises of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Steem, which have the potential to put the garbage, green fiat stuff to the wastebasket (that is, if the fiat garbage doesn't crash on its own first).

If I am not mistaken, both Ned and Dan of Steemit, and Roger Ver a.k.a. "Bitcoin Jesus" have emphasized that cryptocurrencies have the potential to effectively pull the keys out of the statist war machine. Without the ability to endlessly print worthless fiat "money" to finance wars, wars would be much harder to wage. Without being able to pay off poor high school kids to go kill people and be killed overseas, recruiting new pawns for one's blood lust idiocy becomes more of a challenge.

So maybe there is no machine that can last forever (goddamn you, entropy and laws of thermodynamics!). There is, however, a way to bootstrap a cryptocurrency, and to me it is really no less miraculous than perpetual motion. All it takes is an idea.

All it takes is an idea, and then a bunch of people getting the idea, and wanting to be a part of it in their own unique way. Pretty soon you have created value from "nothing." Ex nihilo. A Fucking miracle, man. Do you get this!? Anyway. I'll calm down. It goes like this:

• Dude gets idea for currency
• Other peeps begin to believe in currency as valuable
• Peeps trade with and use currency
• Currency based on social media and blockchain so more peeps join
• More people using the currency to buy and sell things (market transactions)
• Currency's value continues to increase.

That's all. Now, of course the idea needs to be good. I feel like Steemit has a pretty damn good one.
Now I am going to do my part, and use the currency to buy something I want. In the same way that the first Bitcoin transaction was made for two pizzas, giving the currency actual market value, I am now using Steem to buy a portrait. Actually, I already have.

For those of you who don't know how to send or receive Steem Dollars (SBD) within the platform, here is an excellent tutorial. Just because there aren't many "official" Steem marketplaces and online stores yet doesn't mean you cannot trade, buy and sell in SBD! Agorism lives, folks. Do more of it!

Here's my portrait. Pretty fucking killer, eh?

My friend @catmoss is an artist I like and she has a running deal where she will do your portrait (or other reasonable commission) for five SBD. Be on the lookout for her upcoming post about this. Well, I sent her the Steem and she drew this for me. So yeah, I just commissioned my own portrait in Steem-Backed Dollars.

Well people, that is basically all I have to say, but I am going to leave you with this beautiful, if heavily downvoted/criticized video of "perpetual motion machines." Back to the lab for me. I still have my fourth grade teacher to prove wrong. Perhaps in the meantime I will let Ned, Dan, and Bitcoin Jesus stand in my stead and show that, indeed, something can come from "nothing" as long as there is an idea. People say "ideas" are nothing. Well, tell that to Bitcoin. Tell that to Steem.

~KafkA

P.S. Here's the vid. Eat this, fourth grade teacher! (In the interest of full disclosure, she is actually a wonderful woman who I respect and like very much.)

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Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist residing in Niigata, Japan.