Keep Going
Copyright© 2026 by Trevor Dohlen
Chapter 4: The Wallet
The pump technician arrived at 08:56.
Daniel was still drinking coffee.
Mercer announced it from the kitchen monitor.
“Jensen Pump vehicle approaching the east gate.”
Daniel looked up.
“Who?”
“The technician scheduled for Pump Four.”
Daniel checked the time.
“Early.”
“Four minutes.”
“That’s early.”
“Would you like me to deny access until 09:00?”
Daniel stared at the screen.
“No.”
“Opening the east gate.”
The monitor briefly showed the exterior camera. A white service truck rolled through.
Daniel finished his coffee.
By the time he reached the equipment level, the technician was standing beside Pump Four with a tool bag.
“Mr. Mercer?”
Daniel smiled.
“Daniel.”
The technician shook his hand.
“Rick.”
“You talked to Mercer yesterday.”
Rick looked confused.
“Yeah. Thought that was you.”
“Nope.”
Mercer’s voice came from a nearby speaker.
“Good morning, Rick.”
Rick looked up.
Then around.
“Where’s he?”
Daniel pointed toward a wall monitor.
Mercer’s face appeared.
Rick stared.
“That the guy?”
“No.”
“The guy I talked to.”
“That was Mercer.”
Rick looked back at the screen.
Mercer said, “Yes.”
Rick frowned.
“You work remote?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
Daniel bit the inside of his cheek.
Rick turned back to the pump.
“Okay.”
Daniel decided not to help.
The pump was dying.
Rick confirmed what Mercer had already concluded.
“Motor’s pulling too much current. Bearings sound bad too. I can probably keep it alive, but I’d replace it.”
Daniel nodded.
“Do it.”
“I’ve got the replacement on the truck.”
“Same model?”
“Newer version.”
Mercer spoke.
“The proposed replacement is electrically compatible with the existing controller.”
Rick looked at the screen.
“You already looked it up?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
Rick glanced at Daniel.
“Your guy’s fast.”
Daniel smiled.
“He has his moments.”
The replacement took two hours.
Rick tested it.
Mercer monitored current draw.
“Operating current is within expected range.”
Rick wiped his hands.
“Good.”
Daniel nodded.
“What do I owe you?”
Rick pulled out a tablet.
“With the pump, labor and callout...”
He tapped.
“Twenty-one hundred forty-eight dollars.”
Daniel winced.
“That’s an expensive hole in the floor.”
Rick shrugged.
“Better than an expensive flooded hole in the floor.”
“Fair.”
Daniel took the tablet.
The invoice was already filled out.
He signed.
“How do you want payment?”
“We can email you the invoice and you can mail a check, or I can take a card.”
Daniel frowned.
“Check?”
“Yep.”
“People still do that?”
Rick laughed.
“People with missile silos apparently do.”
“I don’t.”
“Card then.”
Daniel pulled out a credit card.
The transaction failed.
Rick tried again.
Failed.
Daniel stared.
“Why?”
“Could be the amount.”
“It isn’t.”
“Fraud alert?”
Daniel checked his phone.
There it was.
UNUSUAL PURCHASE DETECTED.
He sighed.
“Of course.”
He approved the transaction.
Rick ran it again.
Approved.
Mercer said, “Payment completed.”
Daniel looked toward the monitor.
“You don’t know that.”
“The terminal reported approval.”
“That means the card processor approved it.”
“Yes.”
“That does not mean Jensen has actually received settlement.”
Rick stared at Daniel.
Mercer replied, “Correct.”
Daniel nodded.
“Never assume success.”
Rick looked between them.
“Do you two do this all day?”
Daniel and Mercer answered simultaneously.
“Yes.”
Rick laughed.
After Rick left, Daniel returned to the kitchen.
He opened his laptop.
There were three emails.
The Jensen invoice.
A fraud alert from the credit-card company.
And a receipt.
He saved the invoice into his accounting folder.
Then renamed it.
Then moved it.
Then added the expense to a spreadsheet.
Then attached the invoice reference.
Then updated the maintenance log.
Then checked the trust expense category.
Then stared at the screen.
“This is bullshit.”
Mercer’s face appeared.
“Which part?”
“All of it.”
“Please specify.”
“I already know the pump failed.”
“Yes.”
“You diagnosed it.”
“Yes.”
“You called Jensen.”
“Yes.”
“You scheduled Rick.”
“Yes.”
“You let him through the gate.”
“Yes.”
“You verified the new pump.”
“Yes.”
“You have the invoice.”
“Yes.”
“You have the maintenance record.”
“Yes.”
“And then I spent fifteen minutes doing bookkeeping because you can’t pay twenty-one hundred dollars.”
“That is correct.”
Daniel leaned back.
“Why?”
“Because you have not authorized me to initiate payments.”
Daniel stared at Mercer.
“I hate it when you’re right.”
“I have no preference regarding being correct.”
“That’s probably worse.”
Daniel called Margaret.
“I want to give the computer money.”
“No.”
“You didn’t even ask how much.”
“No.”
“Margaret.”
“Daniel.”
“It already manages the property.”
“It monitors the property.”
“It schedules contractors.”
“With your permission.”
“It orders filters.”
“Within the spending limits you established.”
“So it already spends money.”
“No. You spend money. Your software creates orders.”
“That’s a distinction without much difference.”
“It is an extremely important difference.”
Daniel sighed.
“What if I establish a separate operating account?”
“What kind?”
“Bitcoin.”
Margaret was silent.
“Of course.”
“Don’t say it like that.”
“How much do you want to put in it?”
“Enough for routine maintenance.”
“That could mean anything.”
“Fine. Fifty thousand dollars equivalent.”
“No.”
“Twenty-five.”
“No.”
“Ten.”
“No.”
“Five?”
“Why are we negotiating like you’re buying a used car?”
“Because you keep saying no.”
Margaret sighed.
“Let’s back up. What exactly do you want the software to be able to do?”
“If a pump fails, it should be able to replace the pump.”
“It cannot physically replace the pump.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I need you to say what you mean.”
Daniel thought.
“I want Mercer to be able to identify an authorized maintenance need, obtain a legitimate service, verify the work, and pay the bill without waking me up.”
“That is much better.”
“Thank you.”
“It still worries me.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re removing a human approval step from spending.”
“That’s the point.”
“Human approval steps exist for reasons.”
“So do cron jobs.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Automation.”
“I know what automation means.”
“Then we’re making progress.”
Margaret insisted on bringing in the trust’s CPA.
His name was Leonard Price.
Leonard was sixty-seven, wore rimless glasses and regarded Bitcoin with the emotional warmth normally reserved for termites.
Daniel liked him anyway.
They met in Margaret’s conference room.
Leonard opened with:
“Why Bitcoin?”
“Because Mercer can control it directly.”
“That is precisely why I don’t like it.”
Daniel smiled.
“Good. That’s why you’re here.”
Leonard looked at Margaret.
“Does he always do that?”
“Yes.”
“Do what?”
“Sound pleased when we disagree with him.”
Daniel shrugged.
“If nobody challenges the design, the design is probably bad.”
Leonard sat back.
“Fine. Explain.”
Margaret held up a hand.
“Before you draw anything, start at the beginning.”
Daniel looked at her.
“How far back?”
“Far enough that I know what we are talking about.”
Leonard nodded.
“For once, counsel and accounting are aligned.”
Daniel sighed theatrically.
“Bitcoin was described in 2008 by someone using the name Satoshi Nakamoto. The network started running in 2009.”
Margaret frowned.
“Someone using the name?”
“Nobody has conclusively established who Satoshi Nakamoto actually was.”
Margaret stared at him.
“You are proposing to put part of a nine-hundred-eighty-seven-million-dollar fortune into money invented by a person nobody can identify?”
Daniel smiled.
“Now you are getting it.”
Leonard rubbed his forehead.
“This meeting is improving rapidly.”
Margaret pointed at Daniel.
“And a satoshi?”
“One hundred-millionth of a bitcoin. People call them sats.”
“Named after the mystery person.”
“Yes.”
“Naturally.”
Leonard said, “And Bitcoin is the network, bitcoin is the asset, and sats are little pieces of bitcoin.”
“Close enough.”
Margaret looked from one man to the other.
“Who designed this terminology?”
“Computer people.”
“That explains nothing and everything.”
Daniel laughed.
Leonard leaned forward.
“Fine. Who keeps the ledger if there is no bank?”
“Everyone who runs a validating node keeps a copy and independently checks the rules.”
“And if they disagree?”
Daniel picked up Margaret’s pen and drew several circles.
“There is an old computer-science problem called the Byzantine Generals Problem.”
Margaret looked suspicious.
“Bitcoin has generals now?”
“No generals. Imagine several generals surrounding a city. They need to coordinate, but some messages may be delayed or false and some participants may be dishonest.”
“That sounds more like law practice.”
Leonard laughed.
Daniel continued.
“Bitcoin gives an open group of computers that do not have to trust one another a practical way to converge on one transaction history. Proof of work makes rewriting that history expensive, and each validating node independently rejects blocks that break the rules.”
Leonard pointed at the circles.
“Without one general in charge.”
“Exactly.”
Margaret nodded.
“So Bitcoin got rid of management.”
Daniel smiled.
“Now you understand why I like it.”
Leonard said, “I am putting that nowhere in the accounting file.”
Daniel drew three boxes on a legal pad.
“Operating funds.”
He drew a second.
“Emergency reserve.”
Then a third.
“My money.”
Leonard pointed.
“Your money is already your money.”
“Not the point.”
Daniel tapped the first box.
“Mercer controls the private keys to this wallet.”
Leonard immediately frowned.
“No.”
“Hear me out.”
“I’m listening while disagreeing.”
“Good. Mercer can spend from Operating, but only according to rules.”
“What rules?”
“Vendor limits. Expense categories. Daily maximums. Monthly maximums. Large purchases require additional approval.”
Margaret asked, “From whom?”
“Me.”
“And if you’re unavailable?”
“That’s where Emergency comes in.”
Daniel tapped the second box.
“Separate wallet. Different controls. Mercer cannot casually use it.”
Leonard said, “What does casually mean?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“That is not an accounting term.”
“I know.”
Daniel tapped the third box.
“Mercer does not have the private keys to this one.”
Margaret leaned forward.
“What does it have?”
“Extended public key.”
Leonard sighed.
“English.”
Daniel grinned.
“Think of it as permission to generate receiving addresses and watch them, but not spend from them.”
Margaret nodded slowly.
“So Mercer can send money to you.”
“Yes.”
“But can’t take it back.”
“Exactly.”
Leonard looked interested despite himself.
“How?”
“Hierarchical deterministic wallet.”
“Less English.”
Daniel laughed.
“Okay. One master wallet can generate a very large sequence of addresses. I give Mercer the public side only. It can derive the addresses I should be paid at. It never gets the private keys needed to spend those payments.”
Leonard considered that.
“That part I like.”
Daniel pointed at him.
“See?”
“Don’t get excited.”
They spent two hours defining controls.
Margaret cared about authority.
Leonard cared about records.
Daniel cared about not having to approve a two-thousand-dollar pump at breakfast.
Eventually they developed a working policy.
Mercer could spend operating funds only for predefined trust purposes.
Routine expenses below a threshold could be paid automatically.
Larger expenses required Daniel’s approval.
New vendors required verification.
Every payment required documentation.
Every Bitcoin transaction required internal accounting in dollars at the time of payment.
Every transaction had to be linked to an invoice, contract or authorized internal transfer.
Leonard insisted on reconciliation.
Daniel agreed immediately.
Margaret noticed.
“You didn’t argue.”
“Because he’s right.”
Leonard looked surprised.
Daniel continued.
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