We dominate the earth for our ability to cooperate with each other. “Pit 10 chimpanzees against 10 humans, and you cannot predict the outcome. Pit 1000 chimpanzees against 1000 humans and the humans will win every time,” says "Sapiens" author Yuval Harari. Cooperation is our evolutionary advantage, yet we’ve allowed ourselves to be divided in half, perpetually. Peer to peer consensus offers new methods to unite, but unless we involve ourselves, new tools will be about as useful as a fleet of cars to a troop of chimpanzees.

What might cooperation yield?

• We are questioning whether the unseen “Planet 9” at the edge of the solar system might be a small black hole. (Since first writing this, now we also hypothesize there may be many suns, including our own, with a small black hole within it.)
• Equivalence between gravity and acceleration might yield new means of eliciting quantum superposition should a nearby black hole exist.
• We might figure out how to control and operate quantum reduction.
• There may be a non-zero probability you will orbit another star.
• The probability is pretty small for most of us, but we have an astronaut with slightly higher chances. He’s developed the next generation of rocket engine. If we help him, he can take us to the black hole, if it’s there, visiting many rich worlds along the way.

Protocol Labs mines crypto by proving useful work performed, in this case storing data. This crypto, Filecoin, is the first whose existence certifies performance of useful work, network storage. Proof of work isn’t new; Bitcoin secures >$850b (six times its pre-pandemic value) with proof of work. Bitcoin’s work is wasted, effective as it may be for security. Newer coins like Filecoin and those that follow can certify network services, environmental protection or public service. Instead of creating money with debt and backing it with extracted minerals, why not create currency from work that benefits most of us?

Our astronaut issues a currency which he demands in payment for any use of his engines. New coins are earned into existence by his work to further develop his invention. Investors recognize the engine’s potential to reduce costs of Mars exploration and colonization, and for being the only extant path leading beyond the red planet. Beyond includes total available market of 30,000 Trillion Dollars, 300 times the world’s economy, in asteroid minerals we might mine without messing up our living space. Wealth literally astronomical, and lots of moons too. Our astronaut’s coin market is liquid.

Imagine crawling out of the cave to back institutional transactions with our astronaut’s currency instead of gold. Mining the shiny metal wreaks havoc with earth and inhabitants while <1% of its supply can satisfy annual industrial demand. Nothing more than agreement can set aside gold in favor of creative, productive, useful human work. Besides, crypto can be honest. Gold is melted and recast quickly by the side of airstrips.

Blockchains automate trust between people who don’t know each other. That’s how crypto currencies work. No third party, like a bank, intermediates transactions. Speech and votes can be authenticated using the same technologies. Free, open source blind voting is overdue. Or are we going to depend upon our governments to provide us with voting we trust?

Reach for the stars. Literally. It will improve life on Earth.