Post for: #israel (3 Posts)

Fifteen years ago today, Moranne Amit was murdered.

I worked as a software engineer at Applicad from 1997 to 2000. Strange arrangement. Days belonged to the IDF. Nights to Applicad. Same job writing code, different desks. Sometimes I slept under one.

Moranne was the administrative assistant to the CEO. Brief conversations by the coffee machine. Quick mind. Sharp as hell.

One night, must have been '98, there was a critical bug blocking a release. Dror, Ilan, and me were the ones who had to fix it. Dror was a senior engineer, Ilan the VP R&D. They've since become like family. That night we were just three guys staring at screens, trying to make the impossible happen.

Moranne was the last person to leave the office besides us. It was already late.

About 30 minutes later, she walks back in. Doesn't say a word. Just puts down a bag of snacks and a couple packs of cigarettes on the desk. Turns around and leaves.

That's the kind of person she was. Small gestures. No fanfare.

A few years later, we had different kinds of conversations. Late nights, ICQ, just as friends, about love and relationships. Open, honest. She had this way of thinking about things. Sharp. Questioning. Never satisfied with simple answers.

Six weeks ago Bitcoin was at $266. Then it wasn't. Then it was $60. Last Thursday it was $120. We keep enjoying the ride. Bitcoin 2013 had just wrapped in San Jose. The whole conference was called "The Future of Payments". Gliph launched there with Bitcoin built into their messaging app.

eToro hosted "Israel's first Bitcoin hackathon". 48 hours, 45 people, their offices at Ramat HaHayal in Tel Aviv. Bring an idea, pitch it in 3 minutes, form a team, build a prototype, present Saturday evening. Everyone votes.

eToro wasn't just providing a room. Yoni Assia had been writing publicly about Bitcoin and programmable money for years. This is a company that actually believes in this.

Thursday night, Moran Shaked pitched ₿uy The Way.

The idea: you're walking past a store, see a 2-for-1, message your friends with the details and a payment request. The ones who want in click the button, Bitcoin is sent, you buy two. No IOUs. The mechanic wasn't the payment - it was the ask. Initiating a request tied to a real-world opportunity. Movie tickets for the group. Splitting a meal. A flash sale your friend would have missed.

"Where friends & money are even for a change."

We teamed up. Spent the next 36 hours building a POC. We wanted the demo to show the flow end-to-end: spot an opportunity, create a request, share it, collect payment.

This was Moran's first hackathon. She'd been following Bitcoin since early 2012 but isn't a developer. She came with an idea and the ability to make a room understand why it mattered.

Programming money feels different from programming anything else - you write code, real-world assets move. No bank in the middle.

Saturday at 18:00, each team presented. The crowd voted on three criteria: contribution to Bitcoin promotion, creativity, how finished the product was.

₿uy The Way won.

2 BTC + $1,000 eToro balance each.

Social payments exist. What doesn't yet is the ask that starts with a buying opportunity - you see something, you pull friends in, payment clears before you buy. No more asking your friend for that money back.

Now wondering how long before WhatsApp just adds a "₿uy The Way" button.

⚠️ This video contains air raid sirens recorded during the rocket attacks on Tel Aviv.

OK, I have to admit that now that it hit home, something's changed. The siren, office evacuation, frantic running-down-the-stairs-to-reach-the-bomb-shelter and hearing a big explosion not so far away while still on the way to the shelter, gave me a new realization about what the people of Sderot and the rest of the Southern District in Israel have been going through for the past 12 years.

Leaving politics aside, and taking the current military operation as a given, I'm amazed by the enormous effort taken by the Israel Defense Forces to surgically attack missile launchers deeply embedded inside the civilian population.

The absurdity of it all, having thousands upon thousands of Syrians slaughtered for months - just a few kilometers to the north - while the world stands still; having terrorists launch rockets targeted at women and children in Israel, while hiding behind women and children in Gaza; having Israel announce the invasion via Twitter, and both sides @replying to each other...

All this reminds me again and again what a snarky genius Einstein was:

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

• Albert Einstein (allegedly)