In July 2020, the Department of Defense operated a wargame scenario where a Gen Z rebellion uses bitcoin to undermine and evade “the establishment.” The wargame is set in 2025; with Gen Z, seeing themselves “as agents for social change” and believe the “system is rigged” against them, beginning a “global cyber campaign to expose injustice and corruption and to support causes they deem beneficial. They funnel stolen cash into bitcoin and donate it to ‘worthy recipients’.”

DoD would not have created such a wargame if bitcoin was merely a fringe outlier.

Shortly afterward, in August 2020, the U.S. Marine Corps, which gives Marines iPhones and iPads, issued a directive prohibiting Marines from using their devices to mine for bitcoin. Marines were already prohibited from using the devices to download apps, play games, gamble or date.

Nobody issues prohibitions against actions that aren’t frequently occurring.

Our nation’s military gets it. So do the commercial, education and non-profit sectors. In 2019, global spending on blockchain hit $2.9 billion, a $38% increase over 2018, according to International Data Corporation.

No wonder then, that in 2018, blockchain-related job postings were up 3x from 2017, reported yourtechdiet.com. Blockchain engineers now earn $150,000 to $175,000–the highest pay in software development, says Hired. And Coinbase reports that half of the nation’s top 50 universities offer courses on digital assets or blockchain technology.

The nation’s non-profits are in on digital assets, too: Charities big and small, including the Red Cross, accept charitable donations in bitcoin. Some 15,000 businesses worldwide do too, including 3,000 in the U.S, says fundera.com.

The military. Corporate America. Higher education. Non-profits. They’re in on digital assets. It’s time you are, too.