Shown above is a map of communist and socialist countries in red, the year? 1978. Notice how they dominated throughout eastern Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and at least half of Africa. If you were alive back then, the thought must have been that this "Evil Empire" (as dubbed by President Reagan), would always exist and never fall. But it could and it did, coming apart at the seams in the span of just a few short years.

A 12-year-old growing up in Yugoslavia, likely never thought there would ever be a change in the political and economic situation of his country, yet a few years after the collapse of the USSR, NATO changed everything for them as well.

A betrayal precipitated the fall of Constantinople in 1453, with the city gates being let open to the invading Muslim armies who'd all but given up on taking the last vestige of a Roman state. They decided to give it one more try, and all it took was one traitor inside the city to open the gates and alter a historical event.

Former Beatle John Lennon was assassinated on December 8, 1980, because he wanted to go home and tuck his son Sean in bed for the night. He'd made the fateful decision to fire his security team two months prior, thinking he didn't need them and desiring to live as a normal man. He wasn't. And like clockwork, his assassin chose that time to visit New York and make his plans to take the beloved Beatle down.

He had planned to stay out very late, but realized he wanted to tell his son a bedtime story before saying goodnight. A different timeline would have John keeping his security guards who take the armed nutjob down who was loitering outside his home. Suddenly, everything's different. Thus two decisions; to eliminate his security and to dip back home early, ended his life and affected the entire world.

As a student of history, I've learned that little things such as this happen all the time and can cause big swings in deciding whether something else happens or not.

HODL

What motivated Satoshi Nakamoto to create Bitcoin? Or the accident by BitcoinTalk user GameKyuubi which caused him to go out and get drunk with his friends, only to arrive home and type "HODL" instead of "Hold."

Like I said, these little things can end up turning into big things, as nothing ever remains static. I see the same thing happening with crypto. Here we are sort of drifting along, when something we may not ever have imagined helps to alter the paradigm pushing crypto into the mainstream.

If/when it does occur, many of us will say: "I never thought it would happen that way! That's one of the reasons why I'm happy to be a part of the vanguard with the vision to see the big picture. Our vantage point gives us the ability picture possibilities much like when Steve Jobs was handed the first prototype of the iPod.

Steve had that "vision thing" which allowed him to see this tiny device as the spark of the 'Halo Effect' that it would ignite for Apple. We're in the same position here on Hive as we lay the groundwork for a bright future filled with endless possibilities. Are you ready to help make that change?