Chapter 10: Silent Investments
February 20, 2009 – Rawat Residence, Dehradun
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Ram sat cross-legged on the floor, flipping through an old tin box of coins and tattered birthday envelopes.
He counted slowly:
Rs. 400 in leftover birthday money
Rs. 320 from his emergency comic book fund
Rs. 280 gifted by his Dadi last Diwali, tucked between two Hanuman bookmarks
Not much by 2035 standards.
But in 2009?
> It was enough to start a revolution.
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The Bitcoin Blueprint
Athena flickered silently inside Ram's mobile, its quantum core humming under the surface.
> "Confirmed: Bitcoin price on February 20, 2009 – $0.002 per coin," Athena whispered.
That meant $1 = 500 Bitcoins.
Even $5 = 2,500 Bitcoins.
Ram could hardly breathe.
He knew from memory—by 2021, a single Bitcoin would cross $60,000.
This tin box held enough to own over a million dollars' worth of future currency.
But there were hurdles:
No legal way to buy crypto in India yet
No credit card, no ID proof
Just a 9-year-old with a brain full of tomorrow
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The Shadow Pipeline
Ram had anticipated this.
He had studied how the early adopters bought Bitcoin:
1. International gift cards traded on niche forums
2. PayPal micro-purchases via anonymous chat boards
3. Open-source wallet software run through modified Linux distros
That night, while his parents slept, Ram turned his father's old desktop into a crypto rig.
With Athena's help, he masked his IP, routed traffic through 2009's underdeveloped Tor nodes, and found a Canadian seller willing to part with 3,000 BTC in exchange for a $6 Amazon gift card.
Ram traded a $10 card he'd saved for comics.
Five minutes later, his wallet blinked:
> BTC Balance: 3,000.00
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Bitcoin Wallet 1: Project Garuda
He named it Garuda—the mythical eagle mount of Lord Vishnu.
> "Guardian of freedom. Wings of fire. Untouchable."
He printed the private keys, split them into 3 ciphered parts, and hid them:
One inside a hollow Lego block
One behind a portrait of Abdul Kalam
One inside his old school diary, coded in Morse
No one could ever trace it to him.
Not now. Not ever.
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Micro-Investing in the Shadows
Ram didn't stop at Bitcoin.
He used Athena to:
Track undervalued domain names and buy them in advance
Register fictional startup ideas under pseudonyms on forums to test interest
Quietly create digital wallets for stocks like Infosys, Tata Motors, and future blue-chip companies, planning to trigger buys at specific dates when online systems opened up
He began keeping a money diary:
> "When I'm 18, this will all bloom.
But to the world, I'll still be the kid on the cycle with dusty shoes."
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The Art of Staying Invisible
He knew too much wealth, too fast, would attract the wrong kind of questions.
So he created four layers of separation:
1. Aliases for every online transaction
2. Physical hiding spots for every wallet backup
3. Scheduled actions via Athena to buy, sell, or transfer automatically
4. A small stash of cash to keep using for everyday things—to avoid suspicion
This wasn't just wealth.
> This was future-proofing the empire.
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The Final Move: A Seed for His Sister
That evening, Ram gifted his 5-year-old sister a coin in a keychain.
"Keep it safe. It's very special," he said.
She giggled and danced away.
She didn't know the truth.
> It was a cold wallet containing 500 BTC.
A future worth billions.
> Her college, her freedom, her world-changing startup—already paid for.
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Journal Entry: February 20, 2009
> "Today I planted a seed so deep even the Earth doesn't know it's there.
Not gold, not silver—code.
Silent investments. Silent empire.
The world won't hear me coming… until it's too late."
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End of Chapter 10