Dee Hock - the Man Who Accomplished in the 1960s What Every Crypto Entrepreneur Was Trying to Do in the 2020s

Dee Hock died last year. He did in the 1960s what every crypto entrepreneur aspired to do this decade.

He created a global systems for transferring money and making purchases across state and national boundaries. He was the first to realize that realize that money - which had been beads, gold, leaves, coins and pieces of paper - could be simply digital records and that creating such a system meant pushing the envelope on computer development so that you could easily draw from your bank in San Diego while making a purchase in Boston. Think of the simple genius in a credit card that makes a purchase as easily in Brno, Czech Republic as it does down the hill here in town, instantly converting your dollars into their koruna. And even better, it lets you decide each month whether that purchase was to be paid this month or was to become part of a floating loan (which you didn't have to explain to any banker through a laborious application process) which you paid off next month or next year. Instantaneous loan and currency conversion across borders, even when your banker is asleep back home.

His vision was a wild success. When he died last year, VISA had nearly 4 billion cards issued and annual volume of $19 trillion. (Global GDP is about $100 trillion. There are nearly 8 billion earthlings.)

His was a fascinating mind. His Twitter feed remains up, testament to his curious, often critical mind (both in terms of discerning and actual criticism of this modern world).

Here are just 3 of his tweets that you might not expect from one of the most influential bankers and capitalists of the 20th century.

"Originality and creativity do not result from rational, calculated effort, but from the natural state of consciousness - - - an open mind at play."

"In its beginning, few things are as delicate and fugitive as a new idea. But once deeply rooted in determined minds it's tenacity and growth are astonishing. It is incomparably more difficult to get it deeply and widely rooted than it is to discover it."

"Education has nothing to do with transmission of dogma, assertions of certainty or raking over ashes of the past that now dominates our schooling. It has everything to do with enflaming young minds to pursue questions not yet fully understood but essential to a better future."