, 9 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
1/ While the Pyramids of Giza were built for religious reasons, they essentially acted as time capsules transporting information through thousands of years. While we don't exactly know how they were built, we know that they required a massive amount of work.
2/ Think about the structures we erect today. Barely anything will last for centuries, let alone millenia. We don't build to last, we build to rebuild because it's cheaper in the short run. The way humans handle information has also radically changed in recent decades.
3/ Most information is digital and contrary to popular belief, the internet forgets. Servers storing and providing information via the internet go down. Huge corporations and centralized entities storing huge amounts of data will not last.
4/ This begs the questions: What megastructure will we build to last? How will historians in a far distant future look back at our time? Will they find anything significant or will this epoch be forgotten?
5/ One answer doesn't lie in the physical world but the digital one. Actually, the two are linked together through a process called proof of work. Yes, the same principle which made the Pyramids of Giza withstand harshest of conditions while preserving a window to the past.
6/ We're talking about Bitcoin and the way information in its public ledger is made immutable. A new block of information is only accepted if the creator provably burnt a massive amount of energy. This may seem wasteful at first glance, but it's actually a useful megastructure.
7/ The wall of energy around every block of information ensures that anyone trying to alter something in a past block, has to burn at least the same amount in addition to all the "stored" energy of all subsequent blocks. Energy acting as protection instead of thick stones.
8/ In contrast to many megastructures of the past, the Bitcoin megastructure doesn't require slave labor for the massive amounts of work. Quite the contrary is the case. It's a system of voluntarily participating individuals looking out for their own benefit.
9/ The Bitcoin megastructure and all of the information embedded in it will likely last long into the future due to it's globally distributed nature and strong incentive system keeping it together. It will serve as a source of unaltered information for generations to come.
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