CHAPTER 64: THE BIRTH OF "THECONQUEROR.COM"

It took him two full days of meticulous, obsessive work before the foundations of his new enterprise were in place. Instead of it all being password-protected, he constructed an ecosystem by adding a sprawling, open-access section, a library of high-quality articles available to anyone, subscriber or not.

He recognized that the world of online Formula 1 analysis was still in its infancy, dominated by fan communities like PlanetF1 and other general motorsport sites. By providing professional-grade, insightful content for free, he could create a powerful new channel to draw in traffic, capturing an audience that might never have known about his social media presence or his uncanny predictions.

With the forum’s scaffolding erected, he resisted the urge to launch it immediately. An empty library was useless. He began to write, populating the digital shelves to ensure the first visitors would find a wealth of information waiting for them. He started with the fundamentals, authoring twenty articles designed to bring a complete novice up to speed on the basics of Formula 1. Once that foundation was laid, he penned another twenty pieces at an intermediate level of content that would reward new fans for their learning while still offering fresh insights for seasoned followers.

Finally, he moved to the advanced articles. The crown jewel was an exhaustive, technically dense breakdown of the Brawn GP BGP 001, complete with diagrams he painstakingly created in Photoshop, illustrating exactly how the team had exploited the double-decker diffuser loophole to achieve their stunning early-season dominance.

"Thank God I didn’t have to research all of this," Fatih murmured, stretching his fingers. The Brawn GP article had been the most demanding, requiring him to use his burgeoning Photoshop skills to create technical diagrams that would clarify complex concepts for his readers. He leaned back, a deep sense of satisfaction settling over him. In just two days, he had built something substantial.

"You are not forgetting to thank your primary source, are you?" Apollo materialized in front of the monitor, a translucent, knowing smile on his face.

"How could I forget my biggest benefactor?" Fatih replied with a genuine grin. Apollo’s contribution had been invaluable. As a master racing instructor, he possessed an innate ability to distill complex topics into simple, understandable concepts, a skill that proved essential for the beginner and intermediate articles. More surprisingly, Fatih had discovered his mentor had a deep well of technical knowledge, helping him clarify and correct the most intricate parts of his advanced pieces.

"I’m going to list you as the co-author for my articles," Fatih added, beginning the process of uploading the content to the forum, currently hosted at TheConqueror.wordpress.com, because a custom domain required money and would have to wait.

"A wise decision," Apollo said, a flicker of pride in his incorporeal form. He was pleased at the thought of leaving a trace of his existence beyond his student.

"So, Mr. Co-author," Fatih asked, once the final article was posted and the paywalled predictions were scheduled to unlock five hours before each session, "any final suggestions?"

"None on the content. It is impeccable," Apollo replied. "But I am curious. When do you plan to unleash this upon the world?"

"Probably now," Fatih mused, glancing at the calendar. "There are only two days until the next Grand Prix." He logged into his social media accounts. The announcement graphic was already prepared; all that remained was the text.

[A New Home for The Conqueror’s Community!

Due to the incredible growth of our community, I’m excited to announce the launch of our new, dedicated Formula 1 forum! This will be a space for in-depth discussion and will feature a library of exclusive technical articles for fans of all levels.

To sustain this project and continue providing high-quality content, a new revenue model is necessary. While our race and qualifying predictions will remain public, they will now be posted just 10 minutes

before each session begins.

For those of you who have come to rely on these predictions for... other pursuits, we are now offering a premium subscription service. This will allow us to keep the lights on and provide you with even more value.

Subscription Tiers:

Tier 1 ($10/month): Access to the private forum, Top 3 race predictions 5 hours in advance.

Tier 2 ($50/month): All of Tier 1, plus Top 10 predictions, Top 5 qualifying predictions, and detailed analysis.

Tier 3 ($250/month): All of Tier 2, plus access to an exclusive mailing list, a direct Q&A (one question per race weekend), and the coveted ’Dark Horse’ Prediction.

DISCLAIMER!!!!!: All subscription payments are considered donations to support this platform. All predictions are based on a proprietary analytical model with a historical accuracy rate of approximately 75%. Any use of this information for gambling is done at your own discretion. We are not liable for any potential losses incurred.

]

He reread the post several times, refining the language. "This is going to make quite a few people angry," he chuckled, then clicked ’Post.’ He screenshotted the announcement and uploaded the image to Twitter, neatly bypassing the character limit.

"The ones who complain the loudest will be the first to pay," Apollo observed wryly. "They have already tasted victory using your information. They will not give that up easily."

"Now, we just wait for the first bite," Fatih said, opening his E-gold account in a separate window.

........

Two days later, Fatih watched as Mark Webber crossed the finish line to win his first-ever Grand Prix.

"Yesss," he breathed, a wave of profound relief washing over him. He had been confident, but having paying customers added a new, sharp-edged anxiety to the experience. If his first monetized prediction had been a failure, recovering his credibility would have been a monumental task.

The launch had been a resounding success. The announcement had, as predicted, been met with a wave of complaints, but the grumbling was quickly drowned out by the sound of E-gold transactions. The gamblers, having already profited from his insights, had little trouble justifying the cost.

The real triumph, however, was the VIP tier. His ’Dark Horse’ prediction, that Webber would not only win but also take pole position, had been seen as a long shot even by the bookmakers, with betting odds of at least twenty-five to one. For the handful of high-rollers who had subscribed to his most expensive tier, the return on their investment had been astronomical. They were no longer just subscribers, as seeing the results had turned them into loyal and willing to pay customers.

From all the subscribers, he had earned the equivalent of $5,500 in E-gold. The number would have been higher, but the friction of using the obscure payment service had likely deterred some.

"Now, for the next step," Fatih said to himself, rising from the sofa as Webber listened to the Australian national anthem on TV, heading back to his room, where the desktop computer was still quietly mining Bitcoin in the background.

He opened his IRC client, HexChat, and joined the #bitcoin and #cryptography channels before quickly composing his message.

[Subject: WTB: Looking to acquire BTC]

Hi all,

I’m looking to acquire a significant amount of BTC. I believe in the technology and want to support the ecosystem in its early stages. If you are a miner looking to offload some coins, please send me a direct message.

Proof of funds available upon request.

- Imperator]

He hit enter, his new handle, `Imperator`, appearing in the chat logs. He knew he could have waited for a more formal exchange to emerge, but he didn’t trust E-gold. The service was something he didn’t remember at all, a fact that made him deeply suspicious of its long-term viability, and in a world where his second greatest asset was knowing the future, an unknown was a liability. So, he needed to convert his earnings into a more stable, forward-looking asset as quickly as possible.

"Now, we wait for the offers," he murmured.

Although he could be wrong, perhaps his lack of financial interest in his past life was the reason he’d never heard of it, there was no harm in converting it as soon as possible.

He had no other use for the money yet, and even if he did, there was no way to use it as he didn’t have a bank account to cash out. At the moment, this was the only logical move, and now, he waited for the first bite.

At first, few people believed in him. But after a reputable individual on the forum sold 10,000 bitcoins for $100, a transaction he confirmed with a testimonial, many users began reaching out to him. They informed him of the amounts of bitcoin they held and inquired about how much they could exchange them for. He always calculated the exchange rate based on the precedent: 10,000 bitcoins equaling $100.

Although he could have lowballed them by offering as little as $30 per 10,000 BTC, he chose not to. He didn’t need to. Doing so would have discouraged users with smaller holdings from participating, since the returns would be negligible.

Knowing that storing a large amount of bitcoin in a single wallet would make it difficult to sell discreetly, people might assume he was planning to cash out all at once, triggering a market crash. To avoid that, he created a new wallet for each individual seller. Since most sellers only had small amounts, this allowed him to distribute his holdings across many wallets.

Within three weeks, he had already accumulated more than 70,000 bitcoins across nearly seventy different wallets, and he planned to continue buying them until the end of the year or until he reached his target amount.