1 BTC = 106,109.02 USD (2025-05-30)
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Every May 30th, I think of a great pioneer, Malcolm McLean.

He is the "Father of Containers". His name is not as well-known as the technology giants, but he has filled the container, which now seems to be a common large iron box, with every port, every route, and even every corner of the world, which has profoundly changed the human world.
In fact, at that time, containerization was not high-tech and did not require any top technology.
Humans invented canned food as early as 1800, which effectively extended the shelf life of food by sealing. The world did not really accept containers until 1956, a gap of 150 years.
You know, the technical difficulty of making a metal box of more than ten meters is much easier than making a sealed box.
Today, more than 250 million standard containers are circulated between sea, land and rail every year in the world, carrying 90% of the world's trade volume - from small commodities in Yiwu, China to precision machinery in Ruhr, Germany, from crude oil in the Persian Gulf to soybeans in Brazil, each container is the most vivid cell of globalization.
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In 1960, before there were containers, the cost of transporting Brazilian coffee beans was as high as US$200 per ton, and US$200 at that time was equivalent to US$1,800 today. And the transportation cycle is as long as 30 days (from Sao Paulo to Rotterdam Port as an example).
After the widespread popularization and application of containers, the freight rate per ton dropped to US$30, and the transportation cycle was shortened to 12 days. Statistics show that the popularity of container transportation of coffee beans has increased the global coffee consumption population by 4 times.
If there were no containers now, not only would global coffee consumption shrink by at least 60%, but it would also cause the GDP of related countries to decrease by US$20 billion. At the same time, the Starbucks we drink daily would also rise from US$4 (RMB 28) to more than US$10 (more than RMB 70).
If you don't like coffee, then you have to eat cherries, right? Now you don’t care about cherries that cost 40 yuan per pound, but when there are no containers, you will not be able to afford cherries that cost 200 yuan per pound.
On April 16, 1956, American businessman Malcolm McLean’s first container fleet, the Ideal-X, sailed out of the Port of New Jersey. At that moment, the boundary between human oceans and land was redefined.
This not only profoundly changed the human economy, but also directly turned some inconspicuous small countries into "world ports" and "strategic cores."
For example, Singapore, an island country with a land area less than 1/20 of Beijing, has undergone subversive changes. More than 36 million containers are distributed here every year, and re-export trade accounts for more than 30% of its GDP, and its strategic value has reached a new level.
There is also the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, which covers an area of only 40,000 square kilometers, but has become the "European vegetable basket", with 60% of agricultural products circulating every day, and has also spawned bonded areas, free trade zones, and the headquarters of multinational companies gathered here, becoming an important global hub for capital, technology, and talent.
The containers in the Port of Rotterdam can be stacked up and connected to circle the earth three times. Perhaps Malcolm McLean did not expect that his metal box would change the world like a domino in the future and write the most magnificent economic epic in the era of globalization.
And all this started on that ordinary spring day in 1956, when a cargo ship, with a nervous mood, sailed into the sea and into the tide of human civilization.
Three
Of course, the popularization of containers is by no means smooth sailing, but rather full of difficulties and challenges. The vested interests of the traditional shipping and transportation industry regard them as destroyers, and dock workers regard them as "job crushers". There are even frequent incidents of destroying and stealing containers. Even the so-called designers and experts in the shipping field laugh at them as "iron boxes" that can capsize at any time.
But no matter how the mainstream voice opposes and ridicules, the final result is also seen by everyone today. The world cannot do without containers. In order to cater to containers, docks in various countries have been rebuilt, and all related fields have been restructured. The number of dock workers has doubled compared to before. The demonized containers have now become a hot commodity.
History always rhymes. Bitcoin, a "digital container" born in 2009, is experiencing almost the same script as McLean's iron box.
Bitcoin was once labeled a "scam", "tulip", "criminal tool" and "dark web money laundering" by the traditional financial sector and the so-called elites.
All banks and regulators, like the dock workers who were worried about their jobs being taken away, used loud boycotts to cover up their inner fears.
However, today, Bitcoin has become powerful in silence and has become a global, smooth, and tamper-proof digital ledger.
No matter where you are, even at the two ends of the earth, whether the transfer amount is 0.00001 bitcoin or 1000 bitcoin, you can get an almost instant, borderless, low-friction (handling fees are a few cents to a few dollars) value transfer channel.
No more media reports that Bitcoin is about to die, and no one will blindly think that Bitcoin is not safe enough. Instead, smart individual investors buy a lot, traditional financial institutions enter the game, use Bitcoin ETFs to lock liquidity, and listed companies begin to allocate part of Bitcoin.
Even the United States, which has the largest GDP in the world, regards Bitcoin as a strategic reserve, not to mention that more countries will follow suit in the future, and refer to El Salvador to use Bitcoin directly as legal tender.
And the current stablecoin bill, isn't it to pave the way for the further global popularity and trading of Bitcoin? If we compare and refer to it,isn't it just like the container gave birth to a series of supporting facilities such as standardized ports, giant cargo ships, and automated cranes?
Imagine, if Bitcoin flows globally as efficiently and seamlessly as container logistics, will the value and price of Bitcoin still be the same as it is today?
When more and more people realize that the private key of Bitcoin is the real "wealth" that belongs to them, and no longer worry about bank freezes and hyperinflation, then where will the wealth of mankind flow?
When the material flow of the earth is profoundly changed by containers and is getting better and better, how profound will the influence of Bitcoin be when the new financial era of the earth comes in the future?
Are those voices that resist and oppose Bitcoin rational? Or do they come from fear and helplessness after being unable to control it?
If Bitcoin rises 10 times again and reaches 1 million US dollars, the dream of "digital gold" will be truly realized, but that is just the starting point.
When we look back at the freighter that sailed into the waves in 1956, or open the Bitcoin white paper that was born in 2009, we will always see the most precious spark in human civilization - that is the courage to break the old order and the imagination to reconstruct the world.
On May 30, 2001, when McLean said goodbye to the world, mankind used the network he created to offer him the most magnificent and appropriate elegy - container ships around the world blew their whistles at that moment.