Mike Merrill Timeline
1977–2025: From Alaska to Quarterly Systems
1977–1994
Alaska Origins
Born in Alaska. Trans-Alaska Pipeline completed.
Iranian Revolution triggers oil shock. Cold War tension nearby.
Oil price collapse → Alaska recession.
Exxon Valdez oil spill devastates Alaska.
Soviet Union collapses. Alaska no longer frontline.
1995–1998
Army and Transition
Joins U.S. Army → stationed in Alabama. Barings Bank collapses.
Posted to Germany. Dot-com boom accelerates.
Leaves Army, uncertain next steps. Russia defaults, LTCM collapse. Joins friends in Portland's indie scene.
1999–2007
Portland DIY / Indie Web
Urban Honking founded (collective blog empire). Enron collapse prompts Sarbanes-Oxley.
Portland zine/web crossover scene. Facebook founded.
Global financial crisis begins. Portland DIY scene at peak; you position as experimenter in media systems.
2008–2012
IPO and Early Experiments
Mike Merrill IPO launched in Portland.
First "publicly traded person." Lehman Brothers collapse.
Bitcoin whitepaper released. KmikeyM positioned as parallel financial experiment.
Occupy Wall Street. KmikeyM referenced in coverage of alternative markets.
2013–2017
Media Visibility and Legitimacy
Snowden leaks. Mike appears in media (NPR, WIRED).
Brexit + Trump. Political climate makes governance experiments newly relevant.
Bitcoin hits $20k, ICO boom. KmikeyM seen as early parallel to tokenization of identity.
2021–2025
Speculative Culture and New Platforms
GameStop/AMC mania. Parallel to your experiment in shareholder influence.
Regional banking crisis (SVB collapse). Mike exploring Blippo+, indie games, media systems.
Quarterly Systems launched.
"Transform Ideas Into Operational Systems"