The Blockchain Is The New Space Race

Space race refers to the rivalry that unfolded between the U.S and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. During this time there was a fierce competition for world domination and space became the final frontier. Whoever controlled the skies would win the war.

This lead to on of the most prosperous times for science. Both sides allocated immense resources in order to develop technologies that would allow them to have an edge over each other. It was during this time that the first satellite, the Soviet Sputnik, was launched while shortly afterwards the U.S visited the moon.

The war never really took place, and this was mainly due to the insubordination of one soldier situated in a nuclear submarine. He refused to push the button that would probably have marked the last war for humanity. Both sides stepped back and the rest is history. Computers evolved on an exponential rate and we are now living in one of the most technologically advanced time in human history.

In 2009 Bitcoin sparked another kind of space race, one that had to do with digital wealth transfer and network distribution based on public ledger. It was called the Blockchain and it is the reason why a decade later we are now floating on half a trillion market cap with more than 1000 coins, each one addressing a different problem.

It also seems that the Blockchain has not been widely adopted due to its complex nature. It has a steep learning curve and it requires a lot of hours to start getting the gist of it. For this reason, more and more coins are trying to become user friendly so that they will have an edge over the market. Cold War space race was about dominion and power. The Blockchain Race is about innovation, scalability, security and most importantly adaptability.

For this reason the market right now is highly irrational with projects popping up almost daily. If something does not work, then a fork occurs and another community takes over from the where the last project left off. The best an investor can do right now is spray and pray because fundamentals and technicals are bit jumbled up if one also considers the social media factor.

Much like any race, there are hidden dangers that could make things pretty ugly, pretty fast. Governments, much like with every other technology, will try to weaponize this innovation in an effort to keep an edge over the enemies. This time things could be different if the network effect could break the arbitrary and primitive human borders. Conflict will always exist as long as we are human but if we manage to network on the blockchain level then extent of the each clash's damage will be minimal. When centralised empires or countries clash the damage is far greater. In a decentralised world the damage is absorbed evenly from the entire system.

This Blockchain race is the 2.0 Internet we have all been waiting for. It is in this space that innovation comes from places one could have never suspected. Billions in valuations change hands in matters of hours in probably the smallest (yet emerging) financial sector in human history.

Humanity will have to eventually decide for itself. If Blockchains become the norm then we will see an entire planet being interconnected like never before. The entire shell of this pale blue dot will become a network of communication, interactions and development marking officially a new era for our species.