Can 🍄MUSHROOMS🍄 help us understand Bitcoin?
Let’s explore some of the surprising parallels between #fungi and the #Bitcoin network:
[THREAD👇]
Let’s explore some of the surprising parallels between #fungi and the #Bitcoin network:
[THREAD👇]
1/
In “Bitcoin is the Mycelium of Money,” @BQuittem theorizes that the key characteristics of the Bitcoin network (decentralized, resilient, and adaptable) echo the evolutionary strategies that fungi have used successfully for over 1.3 billion years. 🍄
In “Bitcoin is the Mycelium of Money,” @BQuittem theorizes that the key characteristics of the Bitcoin network (decentralized, resilient, and adaptable) echo the evolutionary strategies that fungi have used successfully for over 1.3 billion years. 🍄
2/
Fungi are classified as an independent kingdom of life, just like plants and animals.
Scientists estimate that between 2.2 and 3.8 million species of fungi exist on #Earth – as many as 10x the estimated number of plant species!
Fungi are classified as an independent kingdom of life, just like plants and animals.
Scientists estimate that between 2.2 and 3.8 million species of fungi exist on #Earth – as many as 10x the estimated number of plant species!
3/
Fungi are essential to life on Earth — they generate and enrich soil, digest pollutants and organic waste, nourish plants, secure and link tree roots, produce food and medicinal compounds, manipulate animal behavior, and influence the composition of the atmosphere.
Fungi are essential to life on Earth — they generate and enrich soil, digest pollutants and organic waste, nourish plants, secure and link tree roots, produce food and medicinal compounds, manipulate animal behavior, and influence the composition of the atmosphere.
4/
The mushrooms found in grocery stores are the temporary “fruiting bodies” of a fungus, but the living organism is actually a root system called mycelium.
Mycelium is an intricate underground intelligence network that @PaulStamets has described as “Earth’s natural internet.”
The mushrooms found in grocery stores are the temporary “fruiting bodies” of a fungus, but the living organism is actually a root system called mycelium.
Mycelium is an intricate underground intelligence network that @PaulStamets has described as “Earth’s natural internet.”
5/
Mycelium networks can transit information to millions of endpoints over great distances. 🍄
Earth's largest living inhabitant isn’t a redwood tree or a blue whale, but a fungal network (the “Humongous Fungus”) that covers ~3.5 sq miles in Oregon’s Malheur National Forest.
Mycelium networks can transit information to millions of endpoints over great distances. 🍄
Earth's largest living inhabitant isn’t a redwood tree or a blue whale, but a fungal network (the “Humongous Fungus”) that covers ~3.5 sq miles in Oregon’s Malheur National Forest.
6/
So, why is Bitcoin the "mycelium of money"?
Both networks are:
🍄 Decentralized
🍄 Resilient
🍄 Adaptable
So, why is Bitcoin the "mycelium of money"?
Both networks are:
🍄 Decentralized
🍄 Resilient
🍄 Adaptable
7/
Decentralized: Fungi don’t have a brain acting as a “control center.”
Mycelium networks form a decentralized consensus on the best strategies to distribute nutrients, reproduce, and defend the organism. If any individual endpoint is destroyed, the fungus as a whole survives.
Decentralized: Fungi don’t have a brain acting as a “control center.”
Mycelium networks form a decentralized consensus on the best strategies to distribute nutrients, reproduce, and defend the organism. If any individual endpoint is destroyed, the fungus as a whole survives.
8/
Decentralized: No single entity controls the Bitcoin network.
Participants (miners, nodes, HODLers, etc) independently choose how they wish to participate, and the aggregate consensus represents the network.
If one participant is removed, the network continues to function.
Decentralized: No single entity controls the Bitcoin network.
Participants (miners, nodes, HODLers, etc) independently choose how they wish to participate, and the aggregate consensus represents the network.
If one participant is removed, the network continues to function.
9/
Resilient: Fungi have prevailed through at least 5 “mass extinction events," including the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
After each catastrophe, fungi “inherit the Earth” and adapt their networks until conditions stabilize and other types of life can thrive again.
Resilient: Fungi have prevailed through at least 5 “mass extinction events," including the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
After each catastrophe, fungi “inherit the Earth” and adapt their networks until conditions stabilize and other types of life can thrive again.
10/
Resilient: Bitcoin has survived government bans, wild price volatility, disasters like Mt. Gox, and relentless criticism from economists, academics, and the media.
In the event of a mass monetary extinction event, @BQuittem believes that Bitcoin will “inherit the Earth.”
Resilient: Bitcoin has survived government bans, wild price volatility, disasters like Mt. Gox, and relentless criticism from economists, academics, and the media.
In the event of a mass monetary extinction event, @BQuittem believes that Bitcoin will “inherit the Earth.”
11/
Adaptable: Fungi exist in incredibly competitive ecosystems, constantly battling microbes, bacteria and other fungal networks for resources.
Fungi evolve by absorbing genetic information from their neighbors, allowing them to replicate their competitors' advantages.
Adaptable: Fungi exist in incredibly competitive ecosystems, constantly battling microbes, bacteria and other fungal networks for resources.
Fungi evolve by absorbing genetic information from their neighbors, allowing them to replicate their competitors' advantages.
12/
Adaptable: The crypto market is as crowded as the forest floor.
Bitcoin has demonstrated an ability to integrate the competitive advantages displayed by #altcoins (i.e. speed + scalability through @lightning, privacy upgrades + smart contract capability via #Taproot).
Adaptable: The crypto market is as crowded as the forest floor.
Bitcoin has demonstrated an ability to integrate the competitive advantages displayed by #altcoins (i.e. speed + scalability through @lightning, privacy upgrades + smart contract capability via #Taproot).
13/
Additional parallels can be drawn between the Bitcoin protocol and fungal networks:
Both exist as positive feedback loops that:
🍄 promote efficiency
🍄 unlock and distribute stranded energy
🍄 enable resource and value transfer across DNA protocols (species or monetary)
Additional parallels can be drawn between the Bitcoin protocol and fungal networks:
Both exist as positive feedback loops that:
🍄 promote efficiency
🍄 unlock and distribute stranded energy
🍄 enable resource and value transfer across DNA protocols (species or monetary)
14/
#Bitcoin is poised to form the base layer of our global monetary system, just as fungal networks act as the base layer of life on Earth.
#Bitcoin is poised to form the base layer of our global monetary system, just as fungal networks act as the base layer of life on Earth.
15/
@BQuittem wrote “Bitcoin is the Mycelium of Money” while consuming mushrooms intended for cognitive enhancement!
Read his full essay here: brandonquittem.com/bitcoin-is-the…
@BQuittem wrote “Bitcoin is the Mycelium of Money” while consuming mushrooms intended for cognitive enhancement!
Read his full essay here: brandonquittem.com/bitcoin-is-the…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
