Digital assets and American power

WASHINGTON, DC – When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit in 1957, Western policymakers in the United States and elsewhere were shocked into recognising that they had fallen behind their archrival. Having been caught off guard, they rapidly mobilised a sweeping effort to catch up, in the process laying the foundation for GPS, Starlink broadband services, military communications, and many other technologies that keep today’s modern world humming.

Today, blockchain and digital assets hold the same transformational potential that satellite communications did for an earlier generation. Yet despite calls for more US leadership in this area – including in US President Joe Biden’s own “crypto executive order” last year – the US is at risk of falling behind globally.

In the original space race, the US federal government led a nationwide campaign to invest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), and eventually landed astronauts on the moon. In the end, winning the race also gave the US a dominant position in many key technology sectors. America succeeded because the government gave free enterprise and human ingenuity a common destination and a shared mission.