In our world today, energy and specifically electricity play crucial roles in our daily lives. We rely on electricity for communication, healthcare, transportation and financial transactions. In fact, we rely on electricity so much that it is difficult to imagine a world without it. That said, only a couple hundred years ago, people were just beginning to develop ways of integrating electricity into our lives. Nikola Tesla was one of these individuals who contributed a lot to the scientific advancements made around electricity, though he never received the recognition he deserved. Born in 1856 in present day Croatia, Tesla grew up a studious child with a special gift for inventing new machines. He attended college in Prague but dropped out before he graduated due to an addiction to gambling. Out of school and low on money, Tesla took a job working for an electric company called Edison Electric. He quickly worked his way up in the company and was soon traveling to different facilities to solve issues that even advanced electricians couldn’t solve. After a couple of years working for the company, he was offered an opportunity to work in the United States.
He accepted the offer and moved across the Atlantic Ocean with a couple dollars in his pocket. There he met Thomas Edison and though their relationship was initially cordial, they eventually became bitter enemies. A core issue between the two was the debate between using Alternating Currents vs Direct Currents. Edison insisted on Direct Currents but Tesla saw the potential for Alternating Currents and so he left the company to start his own. Unfortunately for Tesla, his company did not find the funding necessary to operate and so he resorted to working manual labor jobs to survive. After a couple of challenging years, Tesla was approached by George Westinghouse who saw the potential for Tesla’s Alternating Current. He funded Tesla and thus the battle between Direct Currents and Alternating Currents was reignited. Despite Thomas Edison organizing many schemes to discredit Tesla and his ideas, It eventually became clear that Alternating Currents were crucial for large scale energy transmissions. Today Alternating Current Systems are used to power larger electric devices like refrigerators, television and water heaters while Direct Current Systems are used to power small devices like flashlights. What’s better is that Alternating Current Systems are much cheaper to use and, in the long run, have made energy much more accessible for the entire world.
Another one of Tesla’s projects was the Wardenclyffe Tower which was a project that aimed to develop methods of communicating long distances along electrical currents. Tesla hoped to eventually develop methods of sending energy wirelessly as well. While this project showed promise, there was a devastating fire at the tower that led to the ultimate failure of the tower. In both instances, Tesla was working towards bringing energy to the people more efficiently and affordably.
Largely inspired by Tesla’s contributions to the world, the Alset Community is also working towards making our world more efficient and accessible for everyone. Although Alset is not bringing physical electricity to people’s homes (although it might one day), it is focused on giving people their time and energy back so they can live more meaningful lives. On a basic level, Human beings are energies that move about and interact with each other, often exchanging energies. Sometimes this energy is exchanged with a smile or conversation. Other times it is exchanged by trading or offering something to another person. Under our current system, our exchanges of energies have a lot of middlemen and are not very efficient. Our current system also stuffs the pockets of large corporations while the average individual is left gasping for an extra dollar. To counter this, the Alset app provides its users with a platform to exchange goods and services away from the traditional market. Here, value is created on the community’s terms and there is no middleman. Users can swap physical items as well as services so the possibilities are truly endless. Individuals are able to exchange and commune with others on their own terms and so Alset is making the world a more efficient, compassionate place.
At the end of his life, Nikola Tesla was a lonely man with very little money to his name. This was largely due to the fact that he forfeited his shares of the electric company that he started with Westinghouse in order to keep the operation going amidst financial difficulties. It is estimated that if he had held his shares and demanded payment, he would have been the richest man in the world and the first ever billionaire. Instead he opted to leave the money in favor of continuing the operation that was actively bringing electricity to the people more efficiently and affordably. Today, we have Tesla and his compassion to thank for so many aspects of our lives.
“Money does not represent such a value as men have placed upon it. All my money has been invested into experiments with which I have made new discoveries enabling mankind to have a little easier life.”
Nikola Tesla
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This post was written by Rc Diedrich. You can contact him at rcdiedrich@gmail.com.