Where Attention Is Earned

For those who don't know, I registered the domain proofofwriting.com in late December 2020. This was about a month after the BCH/XEC fork, back when eCash was still known only as Bitcoin Cash ABC, and the ticker was BCHA.

I'd never registered a domain before, let alone tried to build an actual website, but as I sat there one night a few days after Christmas, the idea hit me, and I decided I had to do it.

It began as nothing more than a simple blog for me to write about the work of Bitcoin ABC and their newly forked chain. I did it because I loved what they were building, and because I loved to write. So I thought it was the perfect way for me to support the mission that I still believed in.

About three years earlier, in 2017 when I first discovered Bitcoin and crypto, perhaps the biggest reason it finally clicked for me was this site in the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem called Yours.org. It was a blogging platform that allowed anyone to put up content behind a BCH paywall. It was rudimentary, but it worked, and seeing my small BCH payment unlock a paywall without having to give up my name or credit card number was the literal unlock that led to me finally understanding why Bitcoin mattered.

But then came the hash war, and another chain split, and the dream that Yours had unlocked for me was put on hold. A dream I've been chasing ever since.

Well, nine years after that first paywall unlock, and five and a half years after registering this domain, I'm starting to feel like that dream is finally coming true. I feel this way because this version of Proof of Writing is better than anything I'd previously imagined.

Behind the paywall, I provide a high-level overview of how the site works now, and what I hope it can become.