The Story of Buckazoid:
From Space Quest to Solana
Space Quest IV and its galaxy coin Buckazoid (bz) quietly influenced an entire generation of hackers, engineers, coders… and early Bitcoin minds.
What is Buckazoid?
Buckazoid was the currency of the galaxy in Space Quest IV, a sci-fi adventure game released by Sierra in 1991. The in-game interface abbreviated it as bz, making it one of the earliest fictional currencies to use a ticker-style symbol. Buckazoid was originally created in 1986 for the first Space Quest game.
A Game That Shaped Minds
Space Quest IV and other Sierra titles weren’t just games — they were part of the digital foundation many developers, coders, and future crypto pioneers grew up with. The sense of humor, curiosity, and imagination these games fostered carried over into real-world innovation.
Real People Influenced by Sierra
Mark Hopkins (Dr. Bitcoin)
Early BTC OTC trader. Named his consulting firm “Roger Wilco Agency” after the Space Quest protagonist.
Chris LoVerme (Cloverme)
Former NASA engineer, founder of Age of Rust, and BitcoinStarter.com. Cited Space Quest as a direct influence on his career.
Stanislav Datskovskiy
Is a longtime cryptographer, cypherpunk, and developer who played a key role in maintaining and editing parts of the Bitcoin codebase. Like many cypherpunks of his era, he grew up on Sierra titles, especially Space Quest 4.
Mircea Popescu
One of Bitcoin’s earliest whales. He held between 50,000 and 300,000 BTC. Popescu frequently referenced Sierra Games and Space Quest in his philosophical blog posts, citing them as part of his digital upbringing.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss Brother
In April 2025, Tyler Winklevoss publicly shared his love for Space Quest and Sierra Games. As early Bitcoin adopters with 70,000 BTC and founders of Gemini, their connection to Sierra is yet another real-world example of how Space Quest helped shape crypto’s earliest minds.
More research coming soon….
Getting the Story Right
Some have tried to connect Space Quest to Bitcoin by making unproven claims — like Hal Finney working at Sierra or “crypto exists because of Buckazoids”. These theories were reviewed and dismissed by Legendary Bitcoin Maxis in forum, including discussions on Bitcointalk, the forum created by Satoshi Nakamoto.
More info: https://buckazoid.substack.com/p/bitcoin-maxis-overwhelmingly-reject
Even the Space Quest Historian - who literally worked with Sierra devs and sat on panels with them, confirmed that the symbol’s resemblance to ₿ was a coincidence, not a prophecy.
When culture matters, details matter. The official name is Buckazoid, not “Buckazoids”. The in-game abbreviation is bz. Confirmed by: Space Quest game interface, Space Quest Omnipedia and BitcoinWiki’s list of fictional currencies.
https://spacequest.fandom.com/wiki/Buckazoid#Prices
https://bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/list-of-fictional-currencies
With a coin like this — one that’s rooted in legacy, culture, and actual nostalgia — everything has to be precise. Starting from the ticker, and ending with the lore. If you don’t get the basics right, if you're building on fiction and made-up timelines, it won’t last.
Space Quest IV and the Buckazoid coin didn’t create Bitcoin… But they inspired a whole generation of nerds who were early Bitcoin adopters.
Cultural Mindshare
Why does this matter today? Because Space Quest has deep cultural mindshare. Millions remember it — from bundled PC games to game store shelves in the ’90s. And many of those players became developers, engineers, and early adopters of crypto. If you didn’t play this game back in the 1990s… you probably didn’t even have a PC.
