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the screen the image of the professor, probably living out his last days in freedom, and switched to a special communication channel. It was time to go out with a daily report and explain to the ruler how the rebels managed to get on the air and disrupt the performance.

      Chapter Two

      Continent of Vinland, 2073

      The lecture at the historical university was coming to an end. In order to cover all the material, Professor William Graves drew the students’ attention to the final slide of the presentation, which summarized the topic of the history of past civilizations. It presented all the empires known over the last three thousand years with a chronology of existence.

      After making sure that the audience had time to familiarize themselves with the content of the slide, Mr. Graves said:

      – Every civilization, just like people, goes through four stages: birth, maturation, flourishing and aging, or, in other words, destruction. All the empires I mentioned went through these stages. Each of the powers at some point completed its historical path, passing the baton to the next.

      After looking at the recording, the professor continued:

      – Starting with Alexander the Great, whose empire replaced the Persian, all the rulers of the past dreamed of realizing the prophecy of the conquest of the world by one superpower. They conquered countries not with the aim of destroying or plundering them, as is commonly thought, but liberated them from oppression, giving people freedom. Yes, it was with the idea of freedom and equality that they dreamed of conquering the whole world and becoming united rulers. After the fall of Alexander the Great, the Mauryan Empire was formed in the east, and in China, the ruler Qin Shi Huang founded the Qin dynasty. Later, the Roman Empire appeared, during the division of which Byzantium arose, which existed for about a thousand years, as well as the Holy Roman Empire, which united many territories of Europe. At its peak, it included Germany and parts of the territories of Italy, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and France. The war with Napoleon Bonaparte at the beginning of the 19th century led to the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted more than 800 years.

      Looking at the table in the center of the slide, the professor added:

      – It is also worth special mentioning the three largest empires in world history, which controlled the largest territories: British, Mongolian and Russian. The Soviet Union was subsequently formed on the territory of the latter. The British, at the peak of their greatness, owned almost a quarter of the world, that is, every fourth inhabitant of the planet was a subject of the crown. Their colonies were located on all inhabited continents of that time and occupied an area of 36 million square kilometers. But it is worth noting that the British Empire did not declare itself the ruler of the world, or at least did not explicitly lay claim to world hegemony.

      Raising his hand, one of the students asked:

      – Professor, why didn’t the rulers of the past manage to conquer the world?

      After thinking for a moment, Mr. Graves replied:

      – Many historians agree that the time for the rule of one superpower had not yet come. The leaders of these empires were brilliant commanders and orators, but in those days the technologies that appeared at the beginning of the 21st century did not exist. One of the main factors in the conquest of territories is the rapid exchange of information and the mobility of troops, and the armies of the past were no different in this. In ancient times, campaigns took years, if not decades. The commanders died, and the soldiers, exhausted by long marches, lost their fighting spirit. Time, literally and figuratively, was not on their side. Only with the development of technology and the rapid exchange of data has it become possible to conquer other lands in a matter of months. There was no longer a need for a regular army – everything was done by drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, and combat robots, and specialists controlled them from another continent. They could turn off the Internet anywhere in the world, and the enemy troops would be left without communications, which made coordination of movements impossible, and the most technologically advanced army would quickly gain the upper hand.

      Students looked at the screens carefully, comparing the periods of greatest power of the great powers, as well as the size of the territories they conquered.

      After a short pause, the professor continued:

      – If we return to relatively recent history, to the confrontation between the democratic system and the communist one, then America, having studied the experience of previous empires, combined financial and ideological struggle. She proposed a new world order based not on military expansion, but on freedom, which they called democracy. All this was supported by a financial and economic model, focused primarily on achieving personal success, and then collective success, which is how they defeated communism. Until the disaster, the United States remained the leading economic power on the planet. And now we will move on to the causes of aging, that is, the collapse of the last civilization, and the onset of a new, our era.

      Mr. Graves walked around the pulpit and resumed his story:

      – The United States has practically realized that ancient prophecy thanks to technological progress. They swept away all obstacles on the way to their cherished dream – to rule a single world, investing huge amounts of money in advanced technologies. The desire for hegemony required large expenses, and when the global economic crisis began in 2007 and difficulties arose with financing new types of weapons, the intelligence services came up with blockchain technology, on the basis of which the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was created. This peer-to-peer payment system not only solved the issue of developing new types of weapons, including space weapons, but also helped destroy the economies of other powers without firing a single shot. In 2029, the global financial system collapsed. Independent states became unable to service their external debt, as well as fulfill social obligations to citizens, and one after another they abandoned their sovereignty. Another redistribution of the world has occurred.

      The professor again drew the students’ attention to the slide, and then continued:

      “All these countries, which followed the United States in launching dozens of their own blockchain platforms and cryptocurrency projects, both anonymous and public, managed to collect trillions of dollars for the hidden financing of military space programs. As a result, this technological race and the subsequent attempts to colonize the moon led in 2046 according to the old calendar to the third world war, which almost destroyed life on the entire planet. On the only habitable continent, called Vinland and retaining some of the technologies of the previous civilization, a new, post-Christian era began 26 years ago.

      – It turns out that the prophecy about a single world, equal and fair, never came true? – an inquisitive student asked a new question.

      Lost in thought, the professor answered with some annoyance:

      – Yes, that’s exactly how it is. In the remaining time we will talk about the main factor that served as the trigger for the collapse of the previous civilization. It is the emergence of Bitcoin that is significant in this chain. Before his appearance, there were about two hundred independent states in the world, and this helped maintain the balance of power. Many compared the hype around cryptocurrencies with the tulip mania that occurred in the 17th century in Holland or the dot-com boom at the end of the 20th century. At that time, few could have imagined that this phenomenon would surpass all of them combined in consequences.

      – How did religions react to the emergence of cryptocurrencies?

      – If among financiers and politicians there was a dual opinion regarding the investment attractiveness of cryptocurrencies, then among religious leaders there was unanimous condemnation, since it made some fabulously rich, while others deprived them of everything. Events developed so rapidly that denominations began to fear the approach of the apocalypse. Christianity, a very widespread religion of the time, saw in these events a prophecy from the gospels. It talks about four horsemen who will come to earth one after

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