Pengaturan aplikasi itu sangat sederhana. Begitu Fatih mengonfigurasi dompet Bitcoin-nya, dia langsung mengaturnya menambang di latar belakang. Dia berencana membiarkannya berjalan hingga akhir tahun, sadar sepenuhnya bahwa pada 2010, kesulitan penambangan akan melonjak drastis. Saat itu, orang masih menambang dari PC biasa, tapi tak lama lagi, farm penambangan dengan barisan server dan ribuan GPU akan mendominasi bidang itu. Bukan hal yang diinginkan atau direncanakan Fatih untuk terlibat.
Ini cuma proyek sampingan, usaha pasif yang bekerja diam-diam di belakang layar. Urusan itu selesai, dia mengalihkan fokus ke akun Facebook dan Twitter yang baru dibuat.
Saatnya membuat pos pertama. Yang akan menandai awal perjalanan medianya.
@TheConqueror Monako minggu depan. Ini yang kulihat: Pole: Button. Traksi kecepatan rendah Brawn tak tertandingi di jalanan ini. Podium: Dapatkan kejutan Ferrari. Räikkönen diam-diam saja, tapi Monako menghargai presisi. Dia berhak. Strategi: Super-soft akan hancur dini. Siapa berani stint pertama lebih lama pakai soft bisa melompat melewati peloton. Kuda Hitam: Webber. Kalau Red Bull jitu setup-nya, dia material podium. Simpan ini.
Dia baca ulang pos itu tiga kali, memastikan tingkat ambiguitasnya pas. Harus kedengarannya seperti tebakan terdidik, bukan ramalan orang pintar. Bahasa Inggrisnya jarang dipakai sejak lahir kembali, jadi dia cek lagi untuk kesalahan tata bahasa. Puas, dia tekan Post di kedua platform.
Lalu, sebagai langkah ekstra, dia logout dan hapus riwayat browser. Kalau ibu atau neneknya nemu jejak ini, menjelaskannya akan... rumit.
Waktunya pas. Formula One masih di bawah kepemimpinan Bernie Ecclestone, pria yang sangat konservatif soal media. Baginya, platform sosial cuma gangguan, bukan alat. Ini membuat ruang online F1 kelaparan konten menarik dan andal. Akan tetap begitu sampai akuisisi Liberty Media 2017.
Itu memberi Fatih jendela emas, peluang mengukir niche, membangun kredibilitas, dan jadi sumber bagi fans yang kekurangan informasi selama era Bernie.
Tapi dia tahu hasil tak akan datang semalam.
Bahkan setelah posting, kerjanya belum selesai. Meski dia tak akan posting lagi sampai beberapa hari sebelum Grand Prix Monako, dia butuh persiapan. Foto kemenangan, grafis podium, tabel statistik... Butuh belajar editing foto dasar kalau mau meniru strategi konten sangat terpoles dan menarik emosi yang Liberty Media bawa bertahun kemudian.
Versinya, beda. Dia bukan cuma posting setelah event. Dia akan publikasi prediksi, lalu bandingkan begitu balapan selesai. Kalau dia konsisten benar prediksinya, reputasinya akan bergulir seperti bola salju.
Dia juga buat channel YouTube tapi tak terburu-naik video. Butuh waktu dan usaha biar proper.
Beberapa hari ke depan, hidup berjalan biasa. Dia pertahankan rutinitas, cuma memantau akun medianya saat jam luang, kaya waktu nenek masak dan ibu kerja, buat kurangi risiko ketahuan.
Sejam sebelum sesi kualifikasi Grand Prix Monako 2009, dia posting Prediksi Top 5 Kualifikasi di Facebook dan Twitter. Akun-akunnya hampir nol engagement minggu-minggu lalu, tapi itu tak mengecewakan. Dia tahu pertumbuhan pelan tapi pasti lebih baik. Sensasi viral semalaman sering padam secepat munculnya.
Kualifikasi selesai, dia besok besok. Dia posting daftar resmi top 20, lalu perbandingan sisi-sisi prediksinya vs realitas. Lanjut foto pole-position Jenson Button ambil dari balapan sebelumnya, tapi cukup meyakinkan buat fans kasual, dan beberapa pos lain yang sudah disiapkan.
Berkat efisiensi dan pengetahuan sebelumnya memungkinkan dia selesaikan semua persiapan sebelumnya memberinya keunggulan first mover tak tertandingi, dia mengalahkan kebanyakan media cetak dan blog.
Strategi sama diterapkan hari balapan. Setengah jam sebelum lampu padam, dia posting:
"Selamat buat Jenson Button atas kemenangan cemerlang lagi, dan Kimi Räikkönen buat podium pertama Ferrari musim ini."
Dia ikuti dengan prediksi top delapan finisher lagi.
Dan kali ini... algoritma akhirnya perhatikan dia.
Pos-posnya yang dulu בקושי sampai sepuluh orang, sekarang ratusan yang lihat. Like mulai masuk. Komentar muncul.
-"Buat orang posting 'prediksi omong kosong', grafisnya terlalu profesional. Ngapain nebak kalau bisa posting setelah balapan?"
-"Setuju, cukup informatif dan tepat."
-"Tapi dia benar seluruh Top 5 kualifikasi. Cek pos sebelumnya, akuratnya menakutkan."
-"Nebak dua besar gampang; dominasi Brawn GP bikin 50/50 antara Button dan Barrichello. Tapi Top 5 full benar? Menarik."
-"Gak peduli itu. Orang ini nebak Kimi podium. Kalau jadi, sumpah jadi fans seumur hidup."
-"Jangan beri harap, bro."
-"Harus taruh taruhan prediksi ini?"
-"Bodoh kah? Kenapa judi di pos orang random?"
-"Dia benar pertama kali! Plus kalah aku salahkan dia bukan diri sendiri. Menang? Lebih baik."
-"Kamu posting selamat sebelum balapan? Masih dua puluh menit lagi..."
-"Dia bikin aku hampir serangan jantung. Kira ketinggalan balapan. Sialan!"
-"Kalau prediksinya benar, ini bukti F1 direkayasa dan ikut cerita, atau orang tak percaya Brawn GP tim baru, saat ini memimpin kejuaraan."
-"Nama baru, tapi anggota tim sama Honda, mobil ini didesain tahun lalu sebelum Honda mundur dari F1 karena krisis keuangan, bodoh..."
Fatih tersenyum lebar baca komentar. Pelan tapi pasti, dia bikin riak. Belum banyak, tapi dia tahu kalau dia lanjutkan, cuma soal waktu sebelum riak jadi gelombang.
The app setup was surprisingly simple. Once Fatih configured his Bitcoin wallet, he immediately set it to mine in the background. He planned to let it run for the rest of the year, fully aware that by 2010, mining difficulty would skyrocket. Back then, people would still mine from ordinary PCs, but soon enough, mining farms with rows of servers and thousands of GPUs would dominate the field. That wasn’t something he wanted or even planned to get involved in.
This was just a side project, a passive effort working quietly behind the scenes. With that handled, he turned his focus back to his newly created Facebook and Twitter accounts.
It was time to craft his first post. The one that would mark the start of his social media journey.
@TheConqueror Monaco next week. Here’s what I see coming: Pole: Button. Brawn’s low-speed traction is unmatched on these streets. Podium: Expect a Ferrari surprise. Räikkönen’s been quiet, but Monaco rewards precision. He’s due. Strategy Twist: Super-softs will crumble early. Whoever dares a longer first stint on the softs could leapfrog the field. Dark Horse: Webber. If Red Bull nails the setup, he’s podium material. Bookmark this.
He reread the post three times, making sure it had the right level of ambiguity. It needed to sound like an educated guess, not a clairvoyant’s prediction. His English hadn’t been used much since his rebirth, so he double-checked for grammar mistakes too. Satisfied, he hit Post on both platforms.
Then, as an extra precaution, he logged out and deleted the browser history. If his mother or grandmother stumbled upon any traces of this, explaining it would be... complicated.
The timing was perfect. Formula One was still under Bernie Ecclestone’s leadership, a man notoriously conservative about media. To him, social platforms were distractions, not tools. This left F1’s online sphere starved of engaging, reliable content. It would stay that way until Liberty Media’s acquisition in 2017.
That gave Fatih a golden window, a chance to carve out his niche, build credibility, and become the source for fans deprived of information during Bernie’s reign.
But he knew results wouldn’t come overnight.
Even after posting, his work wasn’t done. Though he wouldn’t post again until a few days before the Monaco Grand Prix, he needed to prepare. Victory photos, podium graphics, stat tables... It required learning basic photo editing skills if he wanted to emulate the highly polished, emotionally engaging content strategy Liberty Media would bring years later.
His version, however, had a twist. He wasn’t just going to post after events. Instead, he would publish predictions, then follow up with comparisons once races were done. If he could consistently get predictions right, his reputation would snowball.
He also created a YouTube channel but didn’t rush into uploading videos. That would take time and effort to do properly.
For the next few days, life continued as usual. He kept his routine, only montoring his social media accounts during idle hours, like when his grandmother was cooking and his mother was at work, to reduce the chance of being caught.
An hour before the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix qualifying session, he posted his Top 5 Qualifiers Prediction on Facebook and Twitter. His accounts had seen little to no engagement in the past weeks, but that didn’t discourage him. He knew slow, steady growth was better. Viral overnight sensations often burned out just as fast.
When qualifying wrapped up, he struck while the iron was hot. He posted the official top 20 list, then a side-by-side comparison of his predictions against reality. Next came a celebratory pole-position photo of Jenson Button, drawn from previous races, but convincing enough for casual fans, and a few other pre-prepared posts.
Thanks to his efficiency fore knowledge allowing him to finish all of the preparations before hand giving him an unbeatable first mover advantage, he beat most print media and blogs to the punch.
The same strategy carried over to race day. Half an hour before lights out, he posted:
"Congratulations to Jenson Button on yet another brilliant victory, and to Kimi Räikkönen for securing Ferrari’s first podium of the championship."
He followed it up with another prediction post for the top eight finishers.
And this time... the algorithm finally noticed him.
Where his posts had barely reached ten people before, now hundreds were seeing them. Likes trickled in. Comments began appearing.
-"For someone posting ’nonsense predictions,’ these graphics are way too professional. Why waste time guessing when you could just post after the race?"
—"I agree, they’re surprisingly informative and on point."
—"But he predicted the entire Top 5 in qualifying correctly. Go check his earlier posts, it’s scary accurate."
—"Getting the top two right is easy; Brawn GP’s dominance makes it a 50/50 between Button and Barrichello. But nailing the Top 5? That’s interesting."
—"I don’t care about all that. This guy just predicted Kimi on the podium. If it happens, I swear I’ll become his lifelong fan."
—"Don’t give me hope, man."
-"Should I bet on these predictions?"
—"Are you dumb? Why would you gamble on some random guy’s post?"
—"He got it right the first time! Plus, if I lose, I can blame him instead of myself. If I win? Even better."
—"Did you accidentally post the congratulations before the race? Pretty sure there’s still twenty minutes left..."
—"He nearly gave me a heart attack with that post. I thought I’d missed the race. F&%k you!"
—"If his prediction turns out to be true, then this will finally be my proof that Formula 1 is rigged and is set to follow a story, or no one will believe that Brawn GP a new team, is currently leading the championship."
—"The name is new, but the team members are the same Honda team members, and this car was designed last year before Honda decided to withdraw from Formula due to the financial crisis, you dumb mother....."
Fatih grinned as he read the comments. Slowly but surely, he was making ripples. It wasn’t much yet, but he knew that if he kept this up, it was only a matter of time before those ripples became waves.
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