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Did Buckazoids From Space Quest IV Inspire Jed McCaleb’s Original Stellarlumens Rocketship Logo?
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Satoshi x Jed + Mt. Gox 🤔
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Who is Jed McCaleb?
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Jed McCaleb is a programmer and entrepreneur better known for his significant contributions to cryptocurrency (Ripple and Stellar Lumens/ Stellar) and blockchain technology. He founded Mt. Gox, the first major Bitcoin exchange, co-founded Ripple, and later established Stellar, a platform focused on cross-border payments.
Jed McCaleb developed with the Bitcoin ethos in mind and eDonkey proved just that:
“The eDonkey Network is a decentralized, mostly server-based, peer-to-peer file sharing network created in 2000 by US developers Jed McCaleb and Sam Yagan that is best suited to share big files among users, and to provide long term availability of files.”
He repurposed Mt. Gox from a peer to peer Magic card trading platform to cater to Bitcoin as a platform for peer to peer exchanging Bitcoin. Interestingly he launched it in Tokyo, Japan, the same place Satoshi Uesaka was born.
His work has also extended to aerospace with the founding of Vast, and he is recognized for his philanthropy, notably donating to AI research organizations like MIRI and OpenAI.
It is speculated that Elon Musk and Jed McCaleb have amicable relationship.
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Jed McCaleb & Gaming History
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Jed McCaleb was also into gaming and released The Far Wilds via his company Code Collective. He also developed as executive producer for the popular Miss Management game back in 2008. There were a few other games he worked on as well. His first purpose of Mt. Gox proved just that because it was designed to adhere to Magic trading card fans.
mobygames.com/person/1684800…
“His calling seems to have found him early, as he admits to having been programming ‘since 3rd or 4th grade.”
iq.wiki/wiki/jed-mccaleb
Code Collective —
mobygames.com/company/12264/…
Miss Management — 2008
mobygames.com/game/216210/mi…
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Did Jed McCaleb Play Space Quest IV?
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256 VGA:
Mode 13h is the standard 256-colormode on VGA graphics hardware introduced in 1987 with the IBM PS/2. It has a resolution of 320 × 200 pixels.
Space Quest I — Starlab Arcada and escape pod. Previous significant example
Before Space Quest IV.
Space Quest IV — first time rocket has been seen so vividly because it implemented the 256 VGA graphics into the game.
Stellar’s early 2014 logo with a rocket resembles the Buckazoids token from Space Quest IV.
Jed McCaleb was very tech savvy and developed video games. Take a look at Miss Management for example it is a problem solving game just like Space Quest. Space Quest IV was a household game and the chances of him playing or knowing Buckazoids is very high.
Also, Buckazoids “is the base currency of civilized residents of the Galaxy, minted on Xenon. It seems to be a rather unstable currency and very prone to inflation and deflation. Alternatively, it could have different values in different contexts.” — Sounds like something that would inspire the creator of eDonkey, Mt. Gox, and Stellarlumens.
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Conclusion: “₿” “🚀” Brand Recognition
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If Jed McCaleb played Space Quest IV, he is well aware of that the “₿” logo was on the Buckazoids token, and he is aware of the rocket on the digital currency.
He catered to the first in-life decentralized digital currency — ₿itcoin. He also created his own decentralized digital currency — Ripple and then Stellar Lumens (now known as Stellar).
A smart, innovative, tech passionate, and someone with intensive gaming knowledge and developer capabilities, can pretty much connect the dots that the ₿ (something that was not yet added to ASCII/ANSI/UNICODE came from the Buckazoids token in Space Quest IV.
The first time a “B” has been showcased in such manner before the Unicode was established. McCaleb and other developers will always remember this.