If You Control the Digital Ocean, You Control Commerce

tl;dr: a historical look at control of the world’s oceans provides guidelines for how to think about protecting the trade in our digital oceans. The Crypto Navy.

I’m reading a book called Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World’s Oceans by Admiral James Stavridis.

Now retired, Admiral Stavridis held many important commands over his 40 year career, most notably that of NATO Supreme Allied Commander.

Each chapter in the book covers a different ocean, beginning with the largest (Pacific) in descending order.

As he takes us through the maritime history of each of the oceans, Admiral Stavridis highlights the two prevailing themes of each ocean- trade and military supremacy.

I just finished the section on the Indian Ocean, one that the Admiral points out has a history that, when compared to the Atlantic and Pacific, is relatively peaceful.

He suspects that is going to change as India seeks to assert itself, China continues its efforts to develop a “deep water” Navy, and Arabian Gulf continues to see tensions rise.

If you look at a map, you’ll see that there are a few notable potential chokepoints for access to the Indian Ocean.

The Straits of Malacca, Hormuz, and Tiran.

Given their relative importance for securing the free flow of commerce Malacca (between the East Asia and South Asia side) and Hormuz (access to Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and others), whoever controls/ensures the safety of these straits determines the fates of many, many people.

Other oceans have chokepoints of access (e.g. Straits of Gibraltar) so this isn’t unique to the Indian Ocean, but given the amount of trade and the commodities that comprise that trade, they may be even more important.

Regardless, the point was clear. Naval power matters.

Free Flows of Commerce
Physical commerce will continue to matter, of course, but the world of the 21st century will be marked by an amount of digital, intangible commerce that dwarfs the material counterpart.

Pick your theme– “dematerialization,” “software eating the world,” or the reintroduction of local manufacturing because of 3d printing, all of them (and much more) are part of the “intangible economy” that conducts its trade across digital oceans.

Not to be confused with the company, Digital Ocean, these oceans are where commerce gets done.

And, you can probably guess where this is going, there are a number of digital straits that control access to the broader ocean.

ISPs, hosting providers, Google, banks and fiat systems, are all chokepoints preventing people from the free flow of commerce between each other and making everyone in the system more vulnerable.

Guaranteeing Safety of the Oceans
We face a choice as a global society, where everyone borders the digital ocean.

We can hope for a benevolent power, like the US Navy, to safeguard free passage for all.

That’s an expensive proposition for the power that takes on the role, if it can even be done.

It’s also a risky proposition for everyone else.

This is why I think that the best way to guarantee the safety of the digital ocean is to do whatever we can to make sure that there are as a few chokepoints as possible and the security of the oceans doesn’t rest with one power.

It rests with all of us.

Centralized tech systems simply cannot provide this security or guarantee of benevolence (“don’t be evil,” right?)

Decentralized networks may be flawed, but they have a better chance of ensuring that “Sea Power” doesn’t reside with one entity.

Call it the “Crypto Navy.”

I think Admiral Stavridis would appreciate crypto once he understands it.