Dhruv Bansal Profile picture
Aug 16, 2018 7 tweets 5 min read Read on X
1\ I gave a weird talk (even for me) at the incredible #RefactorCamp2018.

I presented five schemes, each increasingly crazy, requiring more bullshit tolerance. My title slide below should give an idea of what this talk was like.

Read on for short desc. & links to each scheme. Image
2\ The first scheme I call the "Nakamoto Point":

The share of global energy used by PoW mining will increase until the marginal revenue from burning 1 kWh of PoW mining = revenue from selling that same kWh on the grid (currently PoW is a >10x premium!)

3\ The second scheme I call "Chain Lightning":

Layer 1 : #Bitcoin (value)
Layer 2: #LightningNetwork (value => payments)
Layer 3: Dist. data & bandwidth markets (payments => infrastructure)
Layer 4: dApps (infrastructure => world computer)

Sorry ETH.

4\ The 3rd is a distributed identity project I call"Humanity" (inspired by @DarkSoulsGame).

Most dist. identity projs. are attribution, attestation, reputation - not identity.

Yet blockchains are still the best way to build dist. identity. See how.

5\ The fourth scheme ("Latinum") is where it starts to get really weird.

If there's money in space, what is it made of?

Blockchains are the perfect tool for building distributed, information-based money, the only kind that will work between the stars.

6\ The 5th scheme, "Hash to the Future", is crazy.

Blockchains are secure b/c each block is constrained by all prior blocks.

Can we use quantum mechanics to constrain each block by all *future* blocks?

Perhaps if the universe is itself a blockchain...

7\ The whole #RefactorCamp2018 conference was amazing. Thanks @vgr @TaylorPearsonMe @josephkelly @platformpapi & others for organizing, and thanks to all the attendees & speakers for making it weird.

Check out Taylor's post-mortem & all the other talks:

ribbonfarm.com/2018/08/16/ref…

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More from @dhruvbansal

Aug 3, 2020
\1 Try this one on:

#Bitcoin is a distributed, append-only, eventually-consistent, content-addressable key-value store written to by public auction.

Multisig UTXOs are stateful synchronization primitives enabling "database transactions" for client applications at higher layers.
\2 Congrats if you made it past tweet #1! (Phew)

This thread explains the tweet above by comparing bitcoin to NoSQL databases.

To be clear, bitcoin is *much* more than "just" a database. But we might learn something from thinking about it like one.

First, a little history...
\3 At one time, "database" generally meant "relational database": a program with a sophisticated model for storing data and a general-purpose (sometimes Turing-complete) language for querying data ("SQL").

There were other types of databases, but "SQL databases" were ubiquitous.
Read 25 tweets
Mar 3, 2020
\1 "#Bitcoin is a game we play where we can easily tell when someone is cheating."

When I first saw this (in some ELI5 bitcoin Tweet) I thought it just some pithy phrase.

But over time this simple sentence has come to resonate with me as a profound summary of the bitcoin ethos.
\2 Bitcoin IS a game, but an *infinite* one, where the goal is to keep playing -- not a finite game where the goal is to win.

"Finite games are theatrical, necessitating an audience; infinite ones are dramatic, involving participants"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_an…
\3 Like any game, bitcoin is an opt-in set of rules devised by its players.

Once the game has begun, changing rules is tough. Only rules which help players continue playing will survive. And no one is in charge of making changes.

So, like the game of culture, Bitcoin evolves.
Read 6 tweets
Sep 13, 2019
\1 Ready to get weird?

I'm excited to announce a new speculative series "Bitcoin Astronomy" about hyperbitcoinized humanity colonizing space.

Part 1 "The Law of Hash Horizons" follows the Muskcoin Revolution of 2140 and its consequences for bitcoin.

unchained-capital.com/blog/law-of-ha…
\2 Assume hyperbitcoinization on Earth.

Lightning & mesh networks, PoW merging with energy production, the fracturing of nation states & global corporations, environmental degradation & mega-engineering marvels -- hyperbitcoinization delivers it all.

What happens on Mars?
\3 Martians will be able to use bitcoin and its higher layers just fine. They can HODL, transact, make lightning channels, &c.

They'll suffer some disadvantages because Mars is a long way from Earth, but they'll compensate.

Bitcoin on Mars works, but not as well as on Earth.
Read 11 tweets
Jul 22, 2018
1\ Do any other Bitcoiners like the book "The Once & Future King" by T. H. White?

It's one of my favorites and I've been revisiting it recently, thinking about cryptocurrency, political representation, & blockchains.
2\ It opens with Merlyn teaching a young King Arthur (Wart) about different forms of government, the fallacy of "might makes right", all through a series of adventuresome allegories.

Disney's "The Sword in the Stone", is a cute (if imperfect) adaptation of this part of the book.
3\ But "The Once & Future King" is ultimately a tragedy.

With the help of his storied Knights of the Round, Arthur builds Camelot, the fairest kingdom.

But Arthur is manipulated into self-conflict, his personal desires at odds with the principals he must uphold.

Camelot falls.
Read 10 tweets
Jul 10, 2018
\1 I continue to struggle with @ParityTech's software design decisions. My #Parity node keeps dropping peers. The advice I get is "upgrade to the latest unstable version". Parity is even configured to auto-update itself by default. Why do I have to run at the edge just to work?
2\ Parity is either (a) consumer software or (b) bad software.

It's (sometimes) OK when consumer software forces you to upgrade b/c, as a consumer, you're dumb & insecure. Business (or prosumer) software achieves a higher level of security & control by sacrificing ease of use.
3\ Consider: if Parity upgrades itself automatically that means /usr/bin/parity can edit itself. I have to completely trust that the Parity code, DNS, &c. prevents any peer from causing my Parity to change to something unintended. I hate this "feature", so I turned it off.
Read 6 tweets
Feb 8, 2018
1\ A thought experiment: The year is 2277. You're the bartender at a spaceport in a faraway Earth colony on a planet orbiting α-Centauri: a distance of ~4 light years. Guy walks into your bar, slams down a credit chit, and asks for a drink.

How do you know his money is any good?
2\ If the credit chit were guaranteed by a bank or a blockchain or something local to α-Centauri it'd be easy, just like it is here on Earth in 2018.

But say this guy is fresh-thawed after his long journey from Earth aboard a lighthugger. What kind of wealth could he even have?
3\ He's unlikely to be carrying base metals. Like natural resources, they'd still be valuable, but too heavy to transport from Earth. Physical fiat (bank notes) wouldn't be accepted either: too easy to 3D-print forgeries.

So what form of wealth survives interstellar voyages?
Read 17 tweets

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