One Christmas Morning at a Tiny House in the Countryside

3 min readDec 14, 2021

Sometimes life isn’t easy when you’re 10 years old, and that was particularly true for Jay and his family. Both mom and dad had long since lost their jobs because of Covid lockdowns. Nobody was hiring and it didn’t help that they lived fairly far outside of the nearest town.

Dawn was breaking when Jay rolled out of bed. Everyone else was still asleep. The echoes of his mother’s tears that he overheard the previous night still rang in his ears.

“Today will be different,” Jay thought to himself. For Jay, today there would be new hope. After all, it was Christmas morning. And even though there was no Christmas tree in the living room, no presents, and only a pile of unpaid bills in the kitchen, there would be hope.

Jay grabbed a brightly decorated homemade envelope addressed to his mom and dad from under his pillow and quietly crept downstairs.

For months Jay had spent as much spare time as he could on the computer. Most kids play games, and Jay wasn’t that different from others, but there was one advantage for him; Jay had found some play-to-earn “Human Mining” games. The months of grinding, quests, and adventures had paid off though, and Jay’s Christmas envelope was proof.

One fully decentralised blockchain game had proven to be particularly profitable as it was a hit and Jay had started early. Last week he finished selling off the last few valuable items he had in it, and even managed to sell his accounts.

Other Human Mining games Jay had played also afforded him the opportunity to earn. Some proved to be too difficult for him, but a few paid off.

Jay tiptoed into the kitchen and placed the envelope on the kitchen table between his mom and dad’s places, then quietly set the table for breakfast. He boiled some water and dumped in some rolled oats to make porridge for the family.

After propping up the envelope with the salt and pepper shakers to make it particularly conspicuous, he made his way back upstairs to wake up his mom and dad. Jay smiled and thought to himself, “This Christmas, I’m Santa Claus.”