TEN years after Elon Musk, the indescribably brilliant tech visionary and the greatest entrepreneur in human history, astonished the world by publishing an 'alpha paper' detailing what he called a 'fifth form' of transportation called the Hyperloop, the company he founded to develop this groundbreaking technology has finally reaped what all of its hard work and nearly $500 million in investment has sown.

In a quiet announcement three days before Christmas, the aforementioned company, Hyperloop One, announced that it was closing its offices, liquidating its remaining assets, discharging its workforce and that its intellectual property would be turned over to its major shareholder, Dubai-based port developer and operator DP World. While there are a handful of startups still trying to develop hyperloop systems — one such project is at DP World's home port in Dubai — the flop of the original likely means these others will soon fade away as well.