Why couldn't it have been "cooked up in a basement" though? Lots of great businesses and science projects these last few hundred years started out in basements/garages.

Apple and the modern PC for a recent example.
And how about Steem? Yes I know Stan (not Dan though to my knowledge) used to work for NASA, but are you telling me you think all great new inventions started out as pet projects created by a nation state? That clearly wasn't the case.