I’ve been noticing a strange signal in the noise lately. A tiny, recurring pattern that most people would dismiss as pure coincidence. The acronym “SX” keeps popping up on my feeds, but it’s pointing to three wildly different worlds. One moment, it’s about a radical new betting protocol on the blockchain. The next, it’s the roar of engines at an AMA Supercross event. Then, it’s a press release about a breakthrough in copper mining technology in the Arizona desert.
Most people would just scroll past. Three different industries, three different stories. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I think it’s a symptom of something much larger, a quiet hum beneath the surface of our daily lives.
What if these aren’t separate stories at all? What if they are three distinct, parallel examples of the same fundamental human activity happening right now, all around us? We’re not just building apps or watching races or digging mines. We are, in this very moment, laying the foundational infrastructure for the next chapter of civilization. We are building the scaffolding for a future that is more decentralized, more electrified, and more connected than anything that has come before.
The New Digital Rails
Let’s start with the most abstract: SX Bet launching on a new blockchain called Berachain. It’s easy to see the headline and think, "Oh, another crypto gambling site." But that’s like looking at the invention of the railroad and saying, "Oh, a new way to move coal." You’d be missing the entire point.
SX Bet isn’t just an app; the creators call it a "betting protocol." This is a critical distinction. It’s a base layer, a global liquidity hub that anyone can build on. Think about what HTTP—the protocol for the web—did. It wasn’t a website itself; it was the set of rules that allowed millions of websites to be built. SX Bet is aiming for the same paradigm shift in the world of online betting and finance. They’ve already processed over $675 million in wagers, proving the model works. Now, by expanding to a new chain (SX Bet Bets Big on Berachain: Bringing Web3 Sports Betting to Bera), they’re laying down more track. They are creating a shared pool of capital—in this case, for betting—that can be accessed from multiple blockchains.
This is a move from a closed system to an open one. It’s a shift from a single company owning the entire experience to a community building countless experiences on a shared foundation. In simpler terms, it’s the difference between a private corporate database and a public library. One serves its owner; the other serves everyone. What happens when any developer with a good idea can tap into that deep, shared liquidity to create their own custom front-end or betting market without needing to build the entire financial backend from scratch? What new forms of markets and risk management become possible? This is the kind of foundational work that enables explosions of innovation down the road.
The Physical Matter of Tomorrow
Of course, a future built on bits and bytes still has to exist in the world of atoms. And this brings me to the second "SX": the Solvent Extraction (SX) plant at the Johnson Camp Mine in Arizona. This story is just as profound, but its importance is measured in tons of copper, not terabytes of data.
When I read that Gunnison Copper, funded by a Rio Tinto venture called Nuton, was starting up a new SX-EW plant (Gunnison Copper Announces Johnson Camp SX Plant Start-Up with First Copper Sales in September), I honestly felt a surge of hope. This is the kind of smart, responsible engineering we desperately need. We are standing at the precipice of a global energy transition. Electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, the entire grid that will power our future—it all runs on copper. It is the metal of electrification. But traditional mining is incredibly energy- and water-intensive.
The SX technology Gunnison is deploying, especially with Nuton’s proprietary leaching process, represents a fundamental re-thinking of how we get this critical material. It aims to pull copper from ore with a much lighter environmental footprint. Seeing the images of the green, copper-rich solution being pumped from the leach pads, ready to be transformed into pure copper cathodes, feels like watching the future being forged in real-time. This isn’t just another mine. This is a crucial node in the supply chain for our sustainable future, a source of "Made-in-America" copper that’s essential for our technological independence and environmental goals.
This reminds me of the invention of the Bessemer process for steel in the 19th century. It wasn't just a new way to make a metal; it was the breakthrough that unlocked the era of skyscrapers, massive bridges, and transcontinental railroads. This new generation of SX technology feels like a similar inflection point for the 21st century. Of course, any extraction comes with a profound responsibility to the land and the community, a debt that must be paid with careful stewardship. But are we willing to do the hard, physical work of building a cleaner world? This project in Arizona says yes.
The Cultural Operating System
So we have the digital rails and the physical materials. But what runs on top of all that infrastructure? People. Culture. Shared experience. And that brings us to the third, and perhaps most surprising, "SX": AMA Supercross.
It seems like the odd one out, doesn’t it? A high-octane motorsport event in a stadium filled with roaring crowds. But I argue it’s just as foundational as the other two. Think about it—you have this massive logistical operation with Feld Entertainment running Monster Jam and Supercross back-to-back in the same stadium, a complex media ecosystem with Peacock and NBC broadcasting to millions, and a global fanbase all tuned in to watch these athletes perform at the absolute peak of human and mechanical ability—it’s a stunningly complex system designed purely to generate shared human experience.
This is the cultural infrastructure. It’s the software that creates tribes, heroes, and narratives. It’s the organized spectacle that gives us a reason to gather, to cheer, to feel something collectively. In a world that often feels increasingly fragmented, these large-scale cultural events are the glue. They are the platforms where community is built, where passion is ignited, and where the boundaries of what’s possible are pushed in front of our very eyes. The SuperMotocross World Championship isn't just a series of races; it's a traveling, roaring testament to our need for connection and our love for spectacle. It’s the human energy that gives all the other infrastructure its purpose.
These three SX worlds—the protocol, the plant, and the spectacle—are not random. They are the blueprint of the world we are building. One is laying the tracks for a new, open digital economy. Another is responsibly sourcing the raw materials for a sustainable physical world. And the third is powering the cultural engine that makes it all worthwhile.
The Blueprint is Being Drawn
We are living in an age of foundation-laying. It’s easy to get lost in the daily noise, to see only the finished products, the political squabbles, or the fleeting headlines. But if you look closer, you can see the patterns. You can see the scaffolding going up all around you. The next world isn’t coming someday in the future; it's being built, piece by piece, right now. And the blueprint is more magnificent than we can possibly imagine.
