DOSSIER 04 / 08

VOLT

A CURRENT AFFAIR

ELECTRIC EEL / HOME: HARTBEESPOORT DAM

A pre-paid eel, always topping up.
His coin is worth less than the power it took.

SPEED
POWER
REACH

Fighter dossier / Black Current / Confidential 04

“It's not load-shedding. It's an investment.”

VOLT / THE LIGHTCOIN MINER

HARTBEESPOORT / THE POWER HOUSE

Volt lives in the Power House under Hartbeespoort Dam, where holiday boats drift overhead and the lights go out every evening at six. The waterfront blames the grid. The grid blames the dam. Nobody blames the electric eel humming quietly in the basement.

It's him. He's been mining LightCoin, a currency he and two kurpers invented, on the Power House's own turbines. It is light as a feather and worth about as much. Every blackout at Harties is Volt topping up his wallet. Die Boek has the meter readings.

He's entered Snoek'em to get his page back before the waterfront does the maths. If he wins, he says, LightCoin will finally take off. He has been saying this for six years.

THE PRIZE The King Prawn keeps a book on every fish on the coast. Every year he hosts Snoek'em and puts Die Boek up as the prize. He has never lost. Every invitation comes with the fighter's own page enclosed, so they know what's at stake.

Fighter moves