Author: Liu Honglin
On April 26, 1956, in Newark Port, an old tanker named "Ideal X" slowly sailed out of the harbor. In its hold, there were no gold, oil, or important political figures, but 58 uniform-sized, sealed metal boxes. At this moment, humanity witnessed the true meaning of "container" for the first time.
There was no welcoming crowd, nor any media coverage. But historians later looked back and determined that the significance of this day was no less than the roar of the steam engine or the birth of the internet. This metal box is not the commodity itself, but it has reshaped the way commodities flow; it has not shortened the distance across the oceans, but it has completely reorganized the structure of the global supply chain.
Decades later, in the distant digital world, another "standard" is quietly rising. Its goal is likewise not to change the essence of currency, but to provide a unified interface for the circulation of global currency. Today, we still cannot be certain.