Say it to Me S.A.T.O.S.H.I.

These were not the words of the late Hal Finney, the first known recipient of bitcoin mined by Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's pseudonymous founder. Hal would eventually use these bitcoin to have his brain cryonically frozen in 2014, shortly after his death, hoping to buy time for scientists to find a cure for ALS. Finney's thoughts were frozen, but also were like everyone else - for he was among the first to run Bitcoin software, the seed of what would become a worldwide decentralized network of people who seek freedom from the global banking system, and see Bitcoin's software as a pathway to that freedom. To this day, many people believe that Hal Finney was Satoshi Nakamoto.

The words were written by the legendary rock band Phish. At the time that they sung them, we were meant to believe that they were written by a band called Kasvot Voxt, a band Phish wanted its fans to believe they were covering for their 2018 version of the great Halloween tradition playing a "costume set". By the time 2018 rolled around, many people believed the Halloween tradition had run its course. Phish had topped themselves so many times that it seemed inevitable that the well had to run dry at some point. They had covered so many great albums like the Beatles' White Album in 1994 and Velvet Underground's Loaded in 1998, and Exile on Main Street in 2009. Just 2 years earlier, they did a spectacular cover of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. Months of anticipation of fans trying to guess what album Phish would do had become a common pastime for Phish fans but after 22 years and almost a dozen performances, the standards got so high that it got a little stale even for Phish.

Phish had pulled out all the stops for their Halloween costume sets. In 2013, they surprised their fanbase by debuting a new album, Fuego, as themselves. The move was met with mixed responses at the time but we all agreed that it was ballsy and eventually part of them getting their mojo back after returning from a 5 year hiatus in 2009. They raised the bar again in 2014 by covering "Chilling, Thrilling, Sounds of the Haunted House", an obscure album released by Disneyland records in 1964 that marked Phish's new Halloween home at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. In 2016, Phish just wanted to play Ziggy Stardust and they crushed it (I was there), but fans expected something even more original than themselves no matter how great the music could be. Phish fans are the most spoiled fans on the planet.

Phish, nevertheless, continued to try to wow their fans and exceed their unreasonable standards. In 2017 they didn't schedule a Halloween show but, perhaps feeling let down by the tepid reaction to Ziggy Stardust, they scheduled 13 consecutive nights in the middle of the summer at Madison Square Garden (called the Bakers Dozen) where they refused to repeat a single song. They played 237 different songs for their fans over the 13 nights and to this day, this goes down as one of the great accomplishments in the history of music. Fans regained their faith in Phish's ability to call their shot and deliver, and in 2018, Phish decided to put Halloween back on the calendar, putting fans on notice that they believed that they had something special up their sleeve.

We will never know what those thoughts were because on August 19, 2018, the band was notified that the summer festival they spent a year planning at Watkins Glen International Raceway would be cancelled by the state of NY with no recourse due to flooding. The notification came 24 hours prior to the band taking the stage in front of the 40,000 fans who were expected to attend, many of whom were already in camp. The members of Phish, their fans, and their management were inconsolable. Its difficult to describe how disappointing it is to plan a festival and never getting to experience a split second of it. Much like Hal Finney, this festival was cut down before its time. But also like Hal, its passing would leave a lasting legacy. Phish was crushed and after a few days of despair, they decided to use the concepts they invented for the festival and turn them into the greatest Halloween set they ever conjured.

They created a band that they would cover, a band called Kasvot Voxt, who was from Scandanavia (unspecified) and had an album called iRokk in 1981. Phish loaded the internet and social media with a backstory and materials so that anyone Googling the band would think that this was a real band. In the fake materials, it was revealed that the lyrics were in various unspecified Scandinavian languages and that physical copies of the album itself were extremely rare because the producer dumped them in a fjord. Phish even recorded a 1981 version of the album.

The backstory describes the band as having created the album as a side project while the band was actually doing scientific research in Greenland. The ten songs are partially dark musings of scientists trapped in their work, as well as glimmers of ideas that Hal Finney would have been interested in. Track 4 is literally titled "We Are Come to Outlive Our Brains".

Knowing Hal Finney's story, and the story of Bitcoin (which could have been a science project in Greenland that began in the 80s) it's difficult to not be compelled by Phish's creation of iRokk, which in English means "Faceplant into Rock". One might interpret this translation to indicate that Rock represents Gold and that civilization has faceplanted by chasing a Gold standard that has been corrupted by fractional reserving, government fraud, and outright theft. Finney saw Bitcoin as a clearly superior alternative to Gold and wanted to live long enough to see what impact it could have on his civilization.

Ultimately, Hal might have been using Phish in 2018 to let us all know that the cryonic procedure worked, not just for him but for all of the people who elected this path. "My thoughts are frozen, like everyone else."