Europe’s Crypto Caution is America’s Gain

Europe’s Crypto Caution is America’s Gain

It was a golden era.

The Soviet Union’s space program was unmatched.

Astronauts were national heroes. Take a look at the beautiful mosaic below. You’ll find it at the last stop on the C-line in Prague’s Háje metro station. It was once famously known as “the station of the cosmonauts.”

Exiting the train, you’ll see a beautiful mosaic called “Kosmonauti.”

Just outside the station stand statues of Czech astronaut Vladimir Remek and Soviet astronaut Aleksei Gubarev. These once proud monuments pay homage to the 1978 Soyuz 28 spaceship mission.

It was a voyage that made Remek the first and only Czech to visit space.

Today, the mosaic is missing a few pieces. And the statue hides forgotten behind some bushes. There’s a McDonald’s near the station and rundown apartments across the street.

There are many monuments like these across Central and Eastern Europe – a reminder of a bygone era when the Soviet Union was on the cutting edge of technology.

As much as I would have loved to continue my treasure hunt and find more of these Soviet relics, that’s not the reason I (Houston) came to Prague.

It was just a short detour on my way to the largest bitcoin conference in Europe, which, just like the old Soviet space program, once had an edge over the United States when it came to crypto regulation.

But that edge, like that old mosaic, is missing a few pieces…

Putting Our Boots on the Ground for You