The Future of Air Traffic Control
Plus, it's Bitcoin Pizza Day!
Ric Edelman: It's Wednesday, May 22nd. On today's show, a new area of growth for air traffic control. You know something's working really well when it's a vital part of your life, and you never give it any thought. I think that pretty well describes air traffic control. I mean, the only time we ever think about it is when something goes wrong, and thank goodness that doesn't happen very often in that industry.
But while air traffic control is pretty routine these days, this field is about to experience a massive level of growth. That's because of drones. At the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy, they figure that 65,000 drones, little guys, 5 pounds, 55 pounds each, most of them operating autonomously, without a pilot, 65,000 of them will be taking off or landing every hour. And because these drones are mostly operating in low altitude air space, we're talking under 400 ft. It's mostly unregulated airspace. The FAA says that by 2027, this is just a couple of years away, there will be one million commercial drones in operation doing everything from delivering our pizza to assisting fire and rescue teams during emergencies.
With all of these autonomous aircraft, we have to shift to automated air traffic control systems as well. There are simply going to be too many devices flying around for humans to be able to track. Sudden changes in weather, a flock of geese or an undocumented drone. Anything of like this can cause havoc. It's gonna require immediate reaction, real-time response. So the air traffic control systems of the future will be a combination of human and AI systems regulated by the FAA, but operated by commercial enterprises similar to how the securities industry works today. Traffic management will be automated at a scale we can hardly even conceive of today. And it'll be here before the end of the decade.
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Ric Edelman: Hey, we can't let May 22 go by without mentioning Bitcoin Pizza Day. Yep, that's what today is, a revered day among crypto enthusiasts. It was on May 22, 2010, when the very first commercial transaction was done using bitcoin.
Laszlo Hanyecz is a bitcoin programmer, lives in Florida. He went onto a chat room where bitcoin enthusiasts hung out and he posted a message saying that he'd like someone to deliver to him two Papa John's pizzas. And if they did, he'd pay for those pizzas in bitcoin. Now, ordinary folks would've bought those pizzas with cash. $25 is what it would've cost back then in 2010 to have two pizzas delivered. But instead of paying $25 in dollars, Laszlo paid in bitcoin. And you ready for this? He paid $10,000 bitcoins. Yeah, bitcoin wasn't worth very much in 2010. There had never been a commercial transaction. Nobody was really sure what the price ought to be.
So, Laszlo and the guy who provided the pizzas mutually agreed, 10,000 bitcoins sounded about right. It was the first commercial transaction ever to use bitcoin. Today, those 10,000 bitcoins are worth $670,000,000. Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day!
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Ric Edelman: Hey, we’ve got a great session coming up at VISION - it’s in Austin, June 2-4, coming up quick. I’m hosting a fireside chat with Chris Giancarlo, former Chair of the CFTC. Chris is one of the most influential figures in financial regulation, he’s gonna be talking about the CFTC, the launch of bitcoin Futures, and the future of digital dollars. And at VISION, every session’s main stage, you don’t miss a thing. Register now at DACFP.com, the link is in the show notes.
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On tomorrow's show, do you really need a college degree to get a good job?
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