Computing Infinity: Artificial Singularity
H.A.B. (Humanity After Blockchain)
Supplying Curiosity
Collecting things is something I enjoy doing. I have done it for as long as I can remember. From shiny rocks to posters, cards to skateboards. Like any person, my lust for objects has different meanings. Depending on what it is, I may be more or less interested in what it stands for as a whole. Perhaps more interested in it as a piece. For example, ancient relics or antiquities. My fascination for historical items is immense.
I would buy an old desolate brick building. To say I own a piece of history, especially if the particular building has character. Curiosity has drawn me to most objects. Although, after the initial spike of concern, something more always seems to draw me closer. In my own belief, it is a hardwired instinct inside of me, ingrained from evolution and millennia of early adaptation and survival of early humans. It is a notion of needing to acquire value or objects of worth in grandiose amounts, with the idea to live more comfortably. To fit in and to get ahead of my fellow man in the competition of life. It is egomaniacal at worst and what makes us human at best.
As a child, I collected rocks and other simple objects that had worth in my own eyes, according to my own beliefs. As an adult, I still collect many things of worth. More objects now that are seen as valuable in the eyes of others so I can sell or trade my item. At one point, we had just a few objects to choose from that everyone felt were valuable. Now we have many opportunities to trade, many things with liquidity.
Being young allows for naivety to cast illusions of reality. Value is heavily skewed to a child because they do not have much experience trading their time for anything other than whims. As we age, we face rigours and tests that constrain our perspectives and allow us to easily misconstrue the concept of time, money, knowledge and power.
For a young person, there is an infinite ability to spend time. They have a lack of being heavily subjected to it under constrained conditions. In essence, the younger you are, the freer you are to roam and explore. An infinite supply of curiosity exists. The demand to explore only gets hindered by determination, energy and focus.
King of Value: Cash Money
Gold and gems for a long time were standard items of value. We now regard paper money as a valuable replacement for gold. Large companies can be viewed metaphorically as gems as even small fractions or whole chunks of companies are purchasable through the stock market. We have never strayed far from trading items between each other. One person’s belief of value in an object. One person’s belief in value over an object.
The king of all valuables is currency, the ultimate evolution of the belief in the value system. Currency is the regulator of the objects we regard as valuable. When a government issues money, it is called fiat currency. Fiat gets regulated by the governments that mint it. Contrary to popular belief, the legal tender issued by a country may not have support from commodities like gold, oil or rocks. Instead, it is propped in value by creditworthiness. Nearly every country has a credit rating. The same as you or I, it depends on our reliability of repaying debts/outstanding balances.
The more useful my currency and the strength of its origins/beliefs dictate how transferable the value can be from cash to object and object to object or vice versa. It can carry a vast amount of power or a tiny amount. It varies by country and is not dependent on size. The power supporting a currency gets backed by the people that hold and use it, the strength of a country that creates it (both human effort and resource) and the amount of that currency issued legitimately from the source. These are by far the most important factors affecting whether or not currency is valuable.
An underlying fundamental that affects all currencies of equal issuance is distribution and usability. Ease of use and fair distribution is primary for any money to be available to the masses. Access and usability start to generate the main value factors as more and more people can use them during their day-to-day activities. In part, this creates value to the item in question currency.
Not Far from the Jungle, Monkeys Manage Trillions: Bananas for 0’s
With a delicate global monetary system at play, the flaw here, we rely on the sanctity of establishment and regulations to keep us safe. We have entrusted people in superior positions to manage the resources of sovereign nations. Perhaps, we have outgrown this need. Globalization is pushing the boundaries of effective and practical management.
Can we effectively manage the trillions of dollars attributed to nations?
We have seen fiat currencies rise in dominance and collapse before. Rome is a prime example of rampant inflation/debasement. After the first world war, Germany saw exuberant inflation. Modern Venezuela is a more recent victim, and we may soon see more of this in ‘developed’ nations. America has enjoyed a protected monopoly for a long time. A dominant global currency comes with consequences, and it is hard to say if we can effectively allow one country to control value exchange. As we become more connected, we need to consider a globalized monetary system.
Thus far, we stimulate global markets with artificial controls. Countries adjust for inflation according to each other. Specific countries hold United States dollars within their treasury to ensure economic stability. Countries produce things for everyone to use. Global exchange leads to import and export markets. Goods and services getting exchanged around the world for different currencies. Eventually, values for goods stabilize as the demand for resources gets met by human effort on a combined scale.
In short, the law of supply and demand. A principle of economics propelled by mathematics. Supply always catches up with demand and vice versa. The cost of extracting a resource is nearly equal to its price, or it’s profitable to obtain it with calculated effort. Higher interest equals higher value. Low interest equals lower values. The supply of something is a reaction to human needs. No more, no less. It’s hard to imagine. But, everything from salt to basic things like milk started with skewed values as supply eventually reaches demand via efficiency. And when everyone wants something, we all work towards finding a way to make that a reality. Think about it from the perspective of an assembly line. Combining humans creates a biological machine in itself, with much more brain power at play. Everyone who gets better at spinning a wheel or working their station — is best for everyone else.
Extracting whatever we need from the earth or artificially creating what we need is normal human behaviour. We have long gathered sustenance from the jungles and oceans. In most cases, we are only miles away from our closest ancestors. Simply monkeys that evolved to manage trillions. (For reference: 1 trillion= 10¹² or 1e+12)
HBB: Humanity Before Blockchains
If the demand for an item were to cease to exist, then the supply would be either infinite or null — existing amounts would be available for whatever eventually demands and consumes it. It could get naturally destroyed, or the next thing that requires it needs only a fraction of the prior consumer. We combine human effort. It compounds into a biologically propelled singularity. The number of connections between people plus the energy humans exude drives the entire species as a whole.
Human demand is what provides value for anything. The measure of supply is ultimately infinite unless otherwise measured or calculated to be less. In nature, we know nothing that has a definitive supply end. We may be able to make predictions of the near certainty of available resources, items or objects. But, we can only make a calculated assumption for the supply of resources, objects or things. The calculation gets enforced by regulations, environmental restrictions/limitations or other reasons. When supply is finite over demand, it can lead to innovations in the supply chain, whether artificially or naturally.
Cryptocurrency is the first item of value in human history that has an enforced limit on supply, which cannot get tampered with or counterfeited. It fits the same category of demand as other currencies and can get distributed across the globe in a matter of minutes, carrying almost no fees (Depending on the blockchain). Before this, we have guessed or used trust in one another to have a guarantee of supplies and real value.
It may not be a prude statement to suggest we have rapidly entered an age that has revolutionized human beings similar to other notable advancements. The difference being, for the first time in our existence — at least in our recorded history — a technology exists that allows us to store value securely and transmit it across the globe.
The conditions are enforced by a global network of computers and allow for borderless settlements. Farmers can exchange goods with each other with no person in the middle. A settlement on-chain ensures they both get paid, and they can always reference their history of transactions — a virtual bank open for everyone.
The main difference between cryptocurrency and typical fiat currency (currency backed and regulated by a government) is more than the word ‘crypto’ at the beginning of currency. The easiest way to explain cryptocurrency is by thinking about it differently. Instead of the word cryptocurrency — which sounds ominous and dark — instead, think secure cash.
Cash is the obvious replacement for the word currency. I find looking at cryptocurrency as a secure-cash as a way to add relief to the complex topic. It seems a lot more fitting of a term, way more understandable and breaking down words into parts can make it a lot easier to understand more complex concepts as a whole. For example, with big words breaking them down into simpler terms can make for a much easier understanding.
Big English words almost always have one or more simple origin words known as roots. When thinking of words in parts, you can establish an understanding faster by simplifying the origin words. Secure precedes cash because the word ‘crypto’ in cryptocurrency gets rooted in the word cryptography in both terms and technology.
Dawn of Trustworthy Internet
Cryptography itself is a core component in the foundation for personal protection over the internet. We presently live in a time where technology grows swiftly. See Moore’s law for a look into semiconductors and the rate of innovation. After modern advancements in message transmission, thanks to cryptography, we have regarded modern times as the Information age.
I found an interesting podcast featuring Nick Szabo & Naval Ravikant. I heard a powerful phrase; “We have reached the dawn of trustworthy internet.”
If that does not excite you, it should because the internet has never been very trustworthy. In fact, until now, the early ages of the internet have been somewhat of a battleground, strewn with different weapons and types of attacks compared to conventional warfare. We keep a ton of private information on the internet.
It has taken us quite some time to realize the calibre of the web. It has faults within it and how dangerous it may be in its current state is unknown. Our invisible metamesh, blanketing the earth, could strangle us if kept on this path.
A web is the best terminology to use and think of when considering the internet as a whole. We still have a lot to learn. The faster the web grows and advances, the faster the innovations to use the web grow, and the risk of attacks on the web increases. Cryptography was developed to protect us on the web by securing identities or data with phrases/passcodes.
It gets used to transfer private records in several ways. Almost all are rooted deep into computer programming away from prying eyes and computed faster than human fingers and eyes can keep up or even fathom.
A critical component of cryptocurrencies is the integration of cryptography and accompanying tools such as cryptographic signatures. Crypto signatures get used by many institutions varying from banks to intelligence contractors.
A cryptographic hash function is another crucial tool in the belt for cryptography. With computers, it is a lot easier to calculate unprecedented amounts of data and information. This exceptional ability to process information makes a computer vastly more efficient at cracking codes than any human that ever lived. Adding computers together to form a cluster of devices or computations (blockchains, supercomputers, multi-kernel etc.) quickly outpaces all of humanity’s ability to process information. A cryptographic hash function is a mathematical algorithm that produces a one-way function, typically a phrase that is infeasible to reconstruct.
Hash functions are any functions used to map data. Cryptographic hash functions get set to protect the data with encryption. So, the phrase looks useless to us but corresponds with data structures within computer software. In other words, vulnerable data that would otherwise easily get viewed or decoded gets hidden with Cryptography. Without security functions for anonymizing/protecting data, modern computers set up to process information solely could easily get used for stealing data or passcodes to gain entry to bank accounts or private institutions like hospitals. (See the Enigma Machine for a history lesson in cryptography.)
Bitcoin: The Advent of Secure Cash
The first implementation for cryptography combined with another technology called blockchain or DDL (Distributed Digital Ledger) created what we know now as Bitcoin or the first peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
Designed by a group of early cypherpunks, Bitcoin has gained tremendous popularity among its proponents and shows decentralized peer-to-peer exchange is more than possible. Hal Finney & Gavin Andresen notably contributed to the early stages. But, the primary creator is known as Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi is anonymous, and no one knows who they are. (Whitepaper — Oct. 31st, 2008)
In a simple sense — blockchains are massively distributed accounting. I will expand more on that later. Twelve years since the creation of Bitcoin, thousands of cryptocurrencies are getting issued on different blockchains. We now have more than a few thousand cryptocurrencies running various algorithms. Algorithms are a part of every cryptocurrency. They can have the same algorithm as Bitcoin or a completely different algorithm.
An algorithm is what controls components of different cryptocurrencies. Without the algorithm, Bitcoin and any other cryptocurrency would be the same as fiat currencies backed by governments, other forms of cash or items for trade. What makes Bitcoin unique and cryptos like Ether (The currency of the Ethereum network) is the decentralized nature of the currency by default. Typically currency is regulated by a Federal Reserve and printed accordingly. In other words, a Federal Reserve says what goes with the money of its nation. Rates rise, and the Fed, a government and financial institutions compensate with measures for lowering.
Real crypto, what I like to call secure cash, fits the criteria for being trustworthy. Crypto is arguably the same as government-backed cash. Secure cash is a cryptographically protected digital form of money that is safe to use and is distributed digitally across the globe.
Crypto can get used in a variety of ways, the same as digital usage of fiat cash. A primary reason for the popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is because they are a form of digital money. Except crypto is regulated by a computer network, not by a government.
Fiat currency runs the risk of collapse as the majority must trust a minority to distribute the money fairly. The less trust the majority has in the minority, the more likely the majority will choose to use something other than the currency vouched for by the minority — when the majority sees little to no benefit to the continued usage of the fiat currency.
“In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and there after declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power, and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. […] This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists antagonism toward the gold standard.”
– Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve (1966) –
A strong cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin has components in its algorithm that make it a potential form of digital gold. Bitcoin uses a very respected set of cryptographic hash functions called SHA-256. An algorithm developed by the NSA. (National Security Agency — SHA-256)
SHA stands for Secure Hash Algorithms — first published by the NIST. (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
The NIST oversees cryptographic standards in the United States. The NSA has designed SHA functions further. They are in use today to protect the distribution of data. It goes without saying that if our private information gets disseminated through intelligence agencies with few leaks/compromises, then it is sufficient to say that the hashing component of the algorithm is secure in regards to the Bitcoin network. Along with other factors involved in Bitcoin, security increases with the network size and overall blockchain data density. (Distributed Digital Ledger)
The average person usually maintains at least one password for usage on the internet. That could be a run-of-the-mill social media password, online banking password or email password. Most are good at keeping their passwords secret. But, there are a couple of problems with passwords. A person runs the risk of losing track of said password, or it falls into the hands of someone else, either directly or indirectly. Passwords are subjected to a certain level of exposure when used on the internet. Possibly, your sensitive data or information gets compromised when a password gets leaked.
The advantage of Bitcoin is the SHA-256 hash. It creates a set of keys. One key is private, and the other key is public. Keys cannot work without each other. The private key needs to get kept safe and secure, the same as any passcode you would use for the internet. Think of your private key as the password to your Bitcoin account. The other half of the key which completes the passcode gets given to the network as a public key. Everyone can see your public key to verify transactions and funds across the blockchain, and anyone with your private key can send them on your behalf.
Sometimes, a wallet creates a seed phrase (often 12–24 words) that corresponds to a private key for that wallet. Treat these words the same as a passcode.
NEVER SHOW ANYONE YOUR PRIVATE KEY/SEED PHRASE
Bitcoin works as a consensus network. Meaning as long as 51% of the network nodes are in consensus, the blockchain keeps functioning as a whole without compromise. We call it block propagation, and the network of computers running Bitcoin software agree to the same rules, essentially verifying that the network is in the correct configuration. A new batch of transactions gets included in every block. Blocks are added one after another to the chain. And this is where the term blockchain comes from when speaking about Bitcoin.
Blockchain technology is a foundational component of the structure of Bitcoin. Although, I believe thinking about it as a chain is counterproductive for understanding the Bitcoin network. There is no physical chain. The chain is entirely virtual. Think — completely open, endless and secure digital safe box.
Imagine a long virtual assembly line with puzzle pieces, the pieces line up to one another, but nothing connects them aside from the fact they are valid Bitcoin transactions. Each piece configures with the next, and as long as the previous one matches the old minus the new cuts for the additional segment, the part gets included in the virtual puzzle. In other words, granted transactions that have already happened get maintained by the ledger and balances are updated accordingly per block, then the system works as intended. Every 10 minutes, Bitcoin updates and the ledger changes. In computer science, this is called a state.
Whenever the network processes a block, a reward gets included. The verifiers of the transactions receive newly ‘minted’ Bitcoins and any fees included with the transactions to persuade the computers to verify the block. We call them miners, but there is no physical act of mining. It is computers solving puzzles with computations. Computers will compete to solve problems for new Bitcoins until the year 2140. The Bitcoin network is a hard-coded, computerized monetary policy that we cannot change for more than one hundred years.
BTC VS FIAT (1:1)
So far, here are some pictures of Bitcoins life:
1 BTC for X USD (Max time line)
It’s easy to get caught up in the headline that the price of Bitcoin is exorbitant. It may well be a bubble. However, one thing is clear, the majority of these claims hail from a specific perspective.
Everyone considers the exchange rate of 1 BTC for X USD. (or rate of exchange with their countries currency)
With the network running as a consensus, a critical fact about Bitcoin arises. A supply cap.
Only 21 million Bitcoins will ever get released by the network for usage. After 2140 the processors of transactions will get paid with the block fees.
FIAT VS BTC (1:1)
What about the purchasing power of 1 dollar compared to Bitcoin. A fair exchange of one to one.
1 USD for X BTC (Max Timeline)
How does Bitcoin hold up? Or how has USD held?
It becomes clear, the power of government dollars pales in comparison to the distributive and enforced consensus of the monetary policy for Bitcoin. A blockchain like Bitcoin creates a virtual storage system for global value.
It took less than four years after distribution for Bitcoin to rapidly outpace the exchange rate of 1 USD for 1 BTC. Micro Bitcoin has been the only thing you could exchange for one USD for over a decade.
Mind you — we are comparing ‘magic internet money’ to the global reserve currency.
1 USD for X BTC (Last 5 years)
The trend continues in 2021. Every year, you can purchase less Bitcoin for a single dollar. Meaning, you have saved your money against inflation — effectively storing value.
BTC VS THE WORLD (1:1)
How do world currencies stack up to the exchange rate for Bitcoin?
Venezuela’s Sovereign Bolivar (Recently suffered hyperinflation)
Iranian Rial (Cheapest currency at the time of writing)
Britain’s Pound Sterling (Strong world currency)
Kuwaiti Dinar (Most expensive currency at the time of writing)
One of the most brilliant minds in the world once said:
“The special commodity or medium that we call money has a long and interesting history. And since we are so dependent on our use of it and so much controlled and motivated by the wish to have more of it or not to lose what we have we may become irrational in thinking about it and fail to be able to reason about it like about a technology, such as radio, to be used more or less efficiently.”
— Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money, John F. Nash Jr. (1995) —
In my research into economics and money as a concept, I couldn’t help but appreciate this takeaway after looking at the time scale of advancements in cash as a technology.
Ex; Bitcoin as peer-to-peer cash
A term used to describe a potential future where everyone will need to use Bitcoin is called Hyperbitcoinization. There is an interesting correlation for global currencies exchanged for Bitcoin. It appears that their purchase power is rapidly decreasing, at nearly the same rate. One sovereign-issued note by a country buys less and less Bitcoin every year.
“When all major currencies’ purchasing power changes at the same rate that would signal the advent of Ideal Money (Nashification).”
“In regard to hyperbitcoinization as an end in which bitcoin serves as a global currency, this would be a comparable ‘for all intents and purposes’ end as Nashification.”
— Nashification Vs. Hyperbitcoinization, Juice (2017) —
Are we entering an era of Ideal Money?
Ethereum: The Future is Turing Complete
Alan Turing arguably contributed some of the most profound concepts and theories. His acts during wartime are not nearly acknowledged enough. If it were not for cracking the German enigma code, the allies might not have succeeded when they did — to some, it was the reason for the outcome. After the war, Turing envisioned the computer before it got invented.
Nearly seven centuries later, and a few years after Bitcoin, Ethereum exists and thrives as a dominant blockchain that runs a virtual machine environment. The development of Ethereum is a communal effort, although the one who conceived this system is Vitalik Buterin. (2013)
Ethereum is Turing complete. The majority of computer languages are Turing complete. But, the distinguisher — blockchains are run by distributed computers. Ultimately, Ethereum is a network of computers running one program, and so are most other blockchains. These networks will expand forever unless global communications or the internet cease to exist. Alan’s wildest dreams are a modern reality.
“A system that can simulate a universal Turing machine is called Turing complete.” (UTM)
When humans cluster their computers/devices and run blockchain software like Ethereum and Bitcoin, they power the network individually. It amounts to a large amount of power. The suspicion was that a universal Turing machine is one device. However, perhaps in honesty, it is the cluster, the community effort, which is formidable and fits the same conditions.
“A computer with access to an infinite tape of data may be more powerful than a Turing machine: for instance, the tape might contain the solution to the halting problem or some other Turing-undecidable problem.”
An infinite data tape is called a Turing Oracle. I assume when decentralized oracles like Chain Link connect data feeds to blockchains like Ethereum, they compound to form the final UTM. Humans will continue to enhance modern technology, and this includes dominant blockchains.
Currently, an immense amount of brainpower is building Ethereum. Some of the most intelligent people in the world gravitate towards blockchains, and the need for skilled builders is always high. Many people are greatly concerned about the cost and environmental impact of blockchains. Although, I suspect these are the same people who would protest against the development of the steam engine. In hindsight, what they said did not stop the advancement of trains.
Maybe, the steam engine is why modern humans are where we are. The movement across the world with more than horsepower revolutionized global trade. No one today complains about the steam engine — merely the effects of the industrial revolution. However, the advantage of having engineered the modern train to run mainly on electricity is not a coincidence of development and our current standards. Modern trains are the by-product of humans catering to demand and optimizing for efficiency.
Trains are less environmentally devastating than their ancestors, and the cost for anyone to take a local train is typically cheap — imagine the cost of riding the first train with a steam-powered engine. It was likely similar to playing with the most advanced technology of our time; blockchains, large hadron colliders, observatories and other massive technological networks/projects.
The first trains had many quirks, downsides and inefficiencies. The majority get addressed with time. We need to give blockchains a chance, let them grow.
Who are we to deny this technology now and not let future generations discuss this advancement?
Would you travel back in time to blow out the first fire? Crush the first light bulb? Cut the first phone lines? Probably not.
If we do not give technology a chance, great humans like Alan Turing, Satoshi Nakamoto (whoever they are) and Vitalik Buterin would only be sand in the hourglass.
HAB: Humanity After Blockchain
The paradox of the equation — HBB, humanity before blockchains.
Have human beings or any other organic organisms ever existed if not logged somewhere?
Can they get verified by another species at some point? As being a living organism and not a myth?
Stephen Hawking granted us an opinion about the complexity of black holes. He suggests that information gets trapped in the rings and eventually gets stored at the event horizon. Each time matter enters a black hole, the ripples created across the surface get recorded. Quantum mechanics says that all matter and energy get described with 1s and 0s — the fundamental language of a computer and consequently the perception of reality.
Are we overstepping boundaries by describing what we cannot touch? We do not know. We cannot touch them.
How many unknowns exist? It is not known.
Perhaps we are confined too much by traditional mechanics and viewing objects/things in a state. Our natural observations suggest nearly all human-made items deteriorate over time. It takes a lot less time than we may think for all we know to get lost to environmental disasters.
According to the Simulation Hypothesis, we may be on track for a crucial decision for our species. If Nick Bostrom’s musings are correct, then this takeaway may seem clairvoyant at best.
Nick Bostrom’s premise:
“Many works of science fiction as well as some forecasts by serious technologists and futurologists predict that enormous amounts of computing power will be available in the future. Let us suppose for a moment that these predictions are correct. One thing that later generations might do with their super-powerful computers, is run detailed simulations of their forebears or of people like their forebears. Because their computers would be so powerful, they could run a great many such simulations. Suppose that these simulated people are conscious (as they would be if the simulations were sufficiently fine-grained and if a certain quite widely accepted position in the philosophy of mind is correct). Then it could be the case that the vast majority of minds like ours do not belong to the original race but rather to people simulated by the advanced descendants of an original race.”
Nick Bostrom’s conclusion:
“It is then possible to argue that, if this were the case, we would be rational to think that we are likely among the simulated minds rather than among the original biological ones. Therefore, if we don’t think that we are currently living in a computer simulation, we are not entitled to believe that we will have descendants who will run lots of such simulations of their forebears.”
— Nick Bostrom, Are You Living in a Computer Simulation? (2003) —
On the scale of time, we may have entered a new epoch of technological evolution, one that puts human beings on track to write their names in the stars like our ancestors describing the gods themselves. In theory, this is true. If we can record our history from here on out, with a consensus and it can get interpreted by traditional computers. Then the mathematicians and physicists — given enough time — will figure out the information.
The internet is a phenomenal creation, and many of us recognize that now. But, this is a general first for us as an informative species that thrives on having the advantage of interpreting information. For humans, we solely rely on correct information, not false truths, half-truths or lies. And that is why many theories are disproved or enhanced — more facts come to light. Facts are why we iterate over centuries. Efficiencies, inventions and new things get found when interpreting the many hidden truths.
For humanity, after blockchains, history is recorded differently. The repercussions of our actions mean that at least with our standards, future generations can interpret the on-chain data on public blockchains for eternity — with a lot less guesswork when compared to traditional historical analysis. Hieroglyphics are infinitely less interpretable than numbers for human beings. On average, a lot more people can do math or comprehend numbers. Few people understand archaic symbology and traditions.
If we could talk with our ancestors, we would learn thousands of things lost to time. Now, future generations can reference it with accuracy.
Conclusion
In my mind, a blockchain is similar to an ominous blob. These blobs are miniature universe with galaxies, stardust and clusters. From our perspective, the internal workings of a blockchain are invisible other than inputs and outputs. So, it is a different type of structure, and we cannot easily measure it. Similar to ultraviolet wavelengths. We do not see those either. Keep in mind, until we advanced far enough, we never knew they existed.
So, perhaps a different category of matter needs to be prepared for the inevitable magnitude of dominant blockchains. Their density and computational effort will make a palpable superintelligence in their own right. Consider the constant expansion of storage. In this essence, a blockchain becomes infinitely dense — with information encoded in bytes — with 1s and 0s.
A singularity event of information, computations and data — akin to black holes, ambiguous and otherwise not perfectly described. But, definitely powerful, on a large time scale. If you work in blockchain ecosystems, you feel the pull, the warp in space-time. Nothing escapes, many say rabbit hole, but I lean towards string theory or many-verses.
We have potentially achieved infinite storage and computational power. We only need to maintain the machine. Increase efficiency, scale the beast as we always have and increase value for the participants, humans. Blockchain technology equates to possibly the best invention created thus far, ushering in a time of universal Turing computers. Distributed and accessible by anyone in the world. Willing and able to execute arbitrary code that renders everything that can ever get imagined.
When the sheer magnitude of blockchains is recognized, a flurry of innovation will put humans directly on the trajectory of solving life itself.
Specifically, we only need the computations, time and shadowy-super-coders. Someone will code the spark that ignites the block, then bang.
My question for you is, does it start again? Is the chain reset, or does it roll back?
References
- Moore’s Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law
- Information Age: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Age
- Fiat Currency: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money
- Fractional Reserve Banking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking
- Shelling Out: The Origins of Money by Nick Szabo: https://nakamotoinstitute.org/shelling-out/
- List of Countries by credit rating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_credit_rating
- Bitcoin Whitepaper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
- Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain
- SHA 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-2
- Secure Hash Algorithms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Hash_Algorithms
- Ethereum Whitepaper: https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/
- Turing completeness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_completeness
- Simulation Hypothesis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis#Simulation_hypothesis_in_philosophy
- Black hole information paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole_information_paradox#Recent_developments
- Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money: https://fermatslibrary.com/s/ideal-money-and-asymptotically-ideal-money
- Nashification Vs. Hyperbitcoinization: https://rextar4444.medium.com/nashification-vs-bitcoinization-d8ec9b8bce3f
