The Story of 21 Futures - How We Started and Where We're Going
Freedom through fiction — that’s the mission.
But it wasn’t always the case.
21 Futures started back in late 2022 as an idea for a single book.
I dreamed up the idea of marrying short stories with the bitcoin community to produce the world’s first bitcoin fiction anthology.
Why? Because I thought there were millions of creative people like me, waiting to be orange-pilled.
Of course, it's not as simple as telling a quick story about broken money or Satoshi's brilliance to change a person's world view. These things take time.
But I feel that post 2020, there are many more non-technical people arriving to understand the need for bitcoin. They are not always convinced through financial tomes or technical explanations of hash rates and decentralized nodes.
Stories make us feel. They generate an empathy and a curiosity which leads to us discovering the answer on our own - not because an early adopter told us to 'study bitcoin'.
The name of the first book was a hybrid, stemming from a brainstorming session with the head of Konsensus Network, Niko Laamanen and renowned author Knut Svanholm.
I already envisioned the name of '21 Futures' to help identify the book as sci-fi while playing on the 21 million cap of bitcoin. In the end, the book even comprised 21 stories.
Svanholm suggested the subheading Tales from the Timechain to appeal to bitcoin enthusiasts and readers. The book (released December 2023) became known as Timechain, and a wider project sprang from 21 Futures.
After presenting the book at Bitcoin Atlantis in early 2024, I sought to broaden the project to fit the ideals of our publisher, Konsensus Network. 21 Futures was not just about sound money; it now focuses on the freedom community — privacy tech, self-sovereignty, free cities, and libertarian ideals.
The Next Chapter
The second anthology Financial Fallout (March 2025) focused on the dangers of economic dystopia, and a third book is in the works.
Yet, the project has grown into more than just presentations of short-fiction.
Socials
Nostr publishing
Blog (fiction, opinion, reviews)
Podcasts
Merchandise
21 Futures has become a story universe built to defend and spread freedom.
Coming Clean About Funding
There is no secret libertarian think tank or bitcoin whale behind the project. It's developed organically. However, I believe in building in the open and being transparent about funding.
As a proponent of sustainable finance and sound money, 21 Futures seeks to offer value exchange for funding.
Selling books and collecting zaps on nostr doesn’t allow us to run these big projects, even with a team of writers and publishing pros working mostly for free. Still, we are not a charity or political mouthpiece.
To fund our activities, we want to help freedom authors to publish books. 21 Futures acts as an imprint of Konsensus Network - their fiction arm.
When authors come to us with a freedom fiction manuscript, we offer publishing services for a fee.
This is 'hybrid publishing'. We have skin in the game because we want freedom authors to succeed. We’ll promote their book because we believe in their message of freedom. We charge for editing, cover design, typesetting, marketing etc, and deliver the book for them to take 100% of the royalties.
Why do authors publish with us? It’s a middle ground for writers who need help. They may have less time to learn the skills necessary to put out a top quality book, so they spend money to do it.
We’re the best fit for authors in our genre - libertarian fiction - because we have proven success and a network of readers. Most vanity publishers want to charge you $10k for services and just deliver the files.
As a decentralized hybrid publisher, 21 Futures can deliver near-top quality for mid to low budgets. Find more information here.
Our goal is not to generate huge profits.
It is simply to remunerate publishing professionals, artists and authors who contribute.
As well as paying authors (quite rare in the short-story world), 21 Futures sponsors initiatives like the inaugural Fiction Month on Stacker News, rewarding more bitcoin writers for penning imaginative stories.
The Future of 21 Futures
Our main focus in 2025 is to fund and produce The Noderoid Saga, our short-film project.
We believe that highly anticipated and well produced bitcoin entertainment will attract thousands of viewers and offer value to sponsors.
As well as sponsorship opportunities for bitcoin-native companies, we offer audio books, paperback, exclusive merchandise and unique experiences for those who contribute to our Geyser campaign.
Upon launch of the short film (which will be available for free), 21 Futures will publish a third anthology as well as other single-author freedom fiction releases.
And after that?
We are open to artistic collaborations and more projects to broaden our universe.
Just as with bitcoin, the network effect of 21 Futures is already in progress. By paying authors and artists over $4,000 in total 21 Futures is spreading into the sci-fi and design communities.
As more viewers, listeners and readers pay attention, our message of freedom through fiction will move to the mainstream.
I’d personally like to thank every author, artist, podcast listener, reviewer, and book buyer who has been involved with 21 Futures so far.
Your support is what keeps us going.
