Formula 1: The GOAT

“I look forward to working with you for the season,” Aslan said, his voice carrying a tone of finality as he shook hands with Rümeysa. They had just finished signing the sponsorship contract in front of a small, private gathering of the key parties.

“Me too,” Rümeysa replied, a genuine smile on her face as she felt another significant weight lift from her shoulders.

The contract they signed was for a single year, with an option to extend it for two more years should Fatih meet certain performance metrics that were clearly defined within the agreement. A crucial clause, however, stipulated that the contract would automatically terminate the moment Fatih moved up to the next category of karting. At that point, the sponsorship would need to be renegotiated from scratch, allowing them to compete with any new offers that would inevitably come their way.

The obligations for Fatih were simple. He was required to wear a racing suit prominently featuring the branding of Aslan’s business, “Adam’s Karts,” and to be photographed as much as possible—an outcome naturally achieved by consistently finishing on the podium. To incentivize his performance, the contract included a bonus of 250 Turkish Lira (approximately $160 USD in 2009) for any podium finish, and a bonus of 500 Lira (approximately $320 USD) for every race win. If he won the overall championship, Aslan’s company would match the tournament’s prize money as an additional bonus. In return, Adam’s Karts would provide all of his racing equipment, which would be sponsor-branded, with the sole exception of his helmet. That was left to Rümeysa’s discretion, a point she had insisted on at Fatih’s request, as he wanted it to remain empty and unbranded for now.

Fatih was smiling through the entire process. He had finally removed the second major financial burden from his mother. The academy handled everything related to the kart, training, and maintenance, while Adam’s Karts now handled all his personal equipment. The only remaining expense was travel, which was more than manageable.

To sweeten the deal even further, the academy, seeing the new sponsorship and wanting to secure their star driver, had also increased their support. Rümeysa had reached an agreement with them to match the bonus structure from Adam’s Karts for podiums, wins, and the championship title, all in return for the immense exposure Fatih would provide by driving under their banner.

But Fatih’s smile didn’t last long. He met the gaze of Selçuk, who had also been present for the contract signing. Selçuk looked at him as if he had just swallowed a cockroach, his celebratory behavior from the previous day completely gone. Fatih wondered what was going on in his mind.

He didn’t know that Selçuk was currently feeling a rage even more potent than when he had first seen his father laughing with Fatih. He had now *experienced* his father’s happiness and excitement, a direct result of his own victory, only to see his father turn around the very next day and sign a major deal with Fatih, smiling at him again despite his P2 finish. It’s one thing to hear about something good; it’s another to taste it, which only makes you want it more. Selçuk was experiencing that firsthand, and his resentment for Fatih intensified. He saw Fatih enjoying the rewards that he, Selçuk, felt he had to work so hard for, rewards that Fatih seemed to get without meeting the same standards.

Fatih, however, didn’t let it bother him. He returned his attention to his grandmother, who was sitting beside him, holding his hand with a proud smile covering her face as she looked at her daughter successfully securing her grandson’s future.

With each party keeping a copy of the contract, they had a short, final conversation before bidding each other farewell. Rümeysa, Fatih, and Güldane left to start their journey back to Istanbul. Rümeysa had only taken Monday off from work, and considering the fatigue from the long weekend, they needed to get home as quickly as possible to rest and recover.

…….

Life returned to its usual routine once they arrived home. The first thing Fatih did was place his new trophies—Driver of the Weekend, Pole Position Award, and the P2 trophy—in the cabinet, which now held six awards in total.

As the days passed, he kept to his routine: daily missions, academy practice, and driving in the park on his free days. His sixth birthday continued to approach, and he couldn’t help but look forward to it. Despite knowing what he was most likely going to get, he was still incredibly excited. The gift would finally give him the ability to do something with his memories, however limited they were when it came to matters of making money.

The days, which had felt like they were crawling by, finally led to his birthday. The party was attended by nearly all the friends he had made in the park, including Emir. Burak also attended at Rümeysa’s invitation, coming with a small, thoughtful gift.

After all the celebrations were done and the guests had left, leaving just the three of them at home, Fatih helped his mother clean up the mess. He was eager to both help her and accelerate the process so that she could finally give him his gift.

“Happy birthday, sweetie,” Rümeysa said, carrying a large box from her room, with his grandmother following behind, carrying another one. Fatih wondered when they had managed to smuggle them into the house without him noticing.

He held his breath, his excitement barely contained, as he watched the desktop computer being set up on the table in his room, which was usually covered with his miscellaneous toys and action figures.

“Today, I will only teach you the basics. You can start using it properly tomorrow, okay?” Rümeysa said once she finished setting up the computer and was in the midst of powering it on.

’How cruel can you be, Mom?’ he thought. ’Dangling this temptation in front of me and making me wait until tomorrow to use it.’ But outwardly, he found himself jumping with joy. “Yes, yes, yes!” he exclaimed. What was one more night when he had already waited for months?

But that was all for show. That night, the only way he managed to get any sleep was by logging into the Simulation, forcefully disconnecting from the real world. Otherwise, he might have been caught using the computer in the middle of the night, risking losing all his new privileges on the very day he got them.

….

“Grandma, can I borrow your phone?” Fatih asked the next morning. His grandmother was in the kitchen, washing the dishes left over from breakfast.

“It’s on the table, dear,” Güldane answered, not paying it much mind.

Fatih immediately took the phone and returned to his room, his plan already in motion. He began creating accounts on all the social media websites that were already available and that he knew would become massive in the future. He used his grandmother’s number for the two-factor authentication, trying to make sure he got the handle he wanted. Thankfully, the username `TheConqueror` was still available on all the major sites. He chose it as it was a direct translation of his Turkish name, Fatih.

Once he was done setting up all of these accounts, he returned his grandmother’s phone to where he had taken it from. Then, he went back to his room to begin the most important part of his plan, the primary reason he had wanted the computer ahead of time. As he sat down in the chair that was still too big for his small body, he watched as the computer downloaded Bitcoin-Qt, the original full-node client, from the Bitcointalk forum.

It was now mid-2009. Just in January of this year, the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto had mined the Genesis Block. At this moment, mining Bitcoin was something only cypherpunks, cryptography enthusiasts, and a few forward-thinking hobbyists were doing. It had yet to become something of mainstream value. The difficulty of mining was so low that a normal CPU could handle it, and the reward for mining a block was the highest it would ever be: 50 BTC.