Bitcoin is inherently hard to describe. It is
a new thing, and any attempt to draw a
comparison to previous concepts — be it by calling it digital gold
or the internet of money — is bound to fall short of the whole.
Whatever your favorite analogy might be, two aspects of Bitcoin are
absolutely essential: decentralization and immutability.
One way to think about Bitcoin is as an
href="https://medium.com/@hasufly/bitcoins-social-contract-1f8b05ee24a9">automated
social contract. The software is just one piece of the puzzle, and
hoping to change Bitcoin by changing the software is an exercise in
futility. One would have to convince the rest of the network to adopt the
changes, which is more a psychological effort than a software engineering
one.
The following might sound absurd at first, like so many other
things in this space, but I believe that it is profoundly true nonetheless:
You won’t change Bitcoin, but Bitcoin will change you.
“Bitcoin will change us more than we will
change it.”
href="https://twitter.com/martybent">Marty
Bent
It took me a long time to realize the profundity of this. Since
Bitcoin is just software and all of it is open-source, you can simply change
things at will, right?
Wrong. Very wrong. Unsurprisingly,
Bitcoin’s creator knew this all too well.
The nature of Bitcoin is such that once version 0.1 was
released, the core design was set in stone for the rest of its
lifetime.
href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195.msg1611#msg1611">Satoshi
Nakamoto
Many people have attempted to change Bitcoin’s nature. So
far all of them have failed. While there is an endless sea of forks and
altcoins, the Bitcoin network still does its thing, just as it did when the
first node went online. The altcoins won’t matter in the long run.
The forks will eventually starve to death. Bitcoin is what matters. As long
as our fundamental understanding of mathematics and/or physics
doesn’t change, the Bitcoin honeybadger will continue to not
care.
“Bitcoin is the first example of a new form of
life. It lives and breathes on the internet. It lives because it can pay
people to keep it alive. […] It can’t be changed. It
can’t be argued with. It can’t be tampered with. It
can’t be corrupted. It can’t be stopped. […]
If nuclear war destroyed half of our planet, it would continue to live,
uncorrupted. “
href="http://merkle.com/papers/DAOdemocracyDraft.pdf">Ralph
Merkle
The heartbeat of the Bitcoin network will outlast all of
ours.
Realizing the above changed me way more than the past blocks of the
Bitcoin blockchain ever will. It changed my time preference, my
understanding of economics, my political views, and so much more. Hell, it
is even
href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ne74nw/inside-the-world-of-the-bitcoin-carnivores">changing
people’s diets. If all of this sounds crazy to you,
you’re in good company. All of this is crazy, and yet it is
happening.
Bitcoin taught me that it won’t change. I will.
Through the Looking-Glass
🔍
Follow-up articles that expand upon ideas discussed in this
lesson:
href="https://dergigi.com/2018/06/10/bitcoin-s-energy-consumption/">🔍
Bitcoin's Gravity - How idea-value feedback loops are pulling people
in
href="https://dergigi.com/2019/08/07/proof-of-life/">🔍 Proof
of Life - Why Bitcoin is a Living Organism
href="https://dergigi.com/2020/06/15/the-bitcoin-journey/">🔍
The Bitcoin Journey
Down the Rabbit
Hole
href="http://www.contravex.com/2014/03/19/there-is-no-bitcoin-2-0"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">There is no Bitcoin
2.0 by Pete Dushenski
href="https://alcor.org/cryonics/Cryonics2016-4.pdf#page=28"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">DAOs, Democracy and
Governance by Ralph C. Merkle
href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ne74nw/inside-the-world-of-the-bitcoin-carnivores"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Inside the World of
the Bitcoin Carnivores - Why a small community of Bitcoin users is eating
meat exclusively by Jordan Pearson
href="https://medium.com/s/story/bitcoins-social-contract-1f8b05ee24a9"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unpacking
Bitcoin’s Social Contract by Hasu
href="https://medium.com/@BrandonQuittem/bitcoin-is-a-decentralized-organism-mycelium-part-1-3-6ec58cdcfaa6"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bitcoin is a
Decentralized Organism by Brandon Quittem
href="https://medium.com/@BrandonQuittem/bitcoin-is-a-social-creature-mushroom-part-2-3-6a05c3abe8f0"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bitcoin is a Social
Creature by Brandon Quittem
href="https://hugonguyen.medium.com/bitcoin-two-parts-math-one-part-biology-b45ef48a0422"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bitcoin - Two Parts
Math, One Part Biology by Hugo Nguyen
href="https://medium.com/@nic__carter/its-the-settlement-assurances-stupid-5dcd1c3f4e41"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">It’s the
settlement assurances, stupid by Nic Carter
href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195.msg1611#msg1611"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Technical Discussion
on Bitcoin’s Transactions and Scripts by
Satoshi Nakamoto, Gavin Andresen, and others
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marty’s Bent
- A daily newsletter highlighting signal in Bitcoin by
Marty Bent
target="_blank" rel="noopener">🎧 Tales From the
Crypt by Marty Bent
🎧
href="https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/podcast/s4e40/">John
Vallis & Richard James & Gigi Der & Robert Breedlove
on Bitcoin as The Future of Money
JBP#440 hosted by
Jordan B. Peterson
📚
href="https://amzn.to/2w4MtRI">Antifragile - Things That Gain
From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
