Randomness in bitcoin

Some people say , Investing in bitcoin means buying low and selling high , Why read the white paper , Nakamoto Cong , Understand its technical principle ？ Even made an analogy , You don't need to know how the plane works , At such a time .

You bet , We really don't need to know how the inside of the plane works , But we probably know the principle that airplanes can fly , That is, the jet engine gives the aircraft a huge propulsive force , Let the air pass over the wing , It produces an upward lift . You bet , More people may not even understand these basic principles , And that doesn't affect them getting on the plane , terminus ad quem .

however , Investment is not about flying . Investors don't stop at users . To make the right investment in an aircraft company that claims to have adopted a new power system , I'm afraid we still need to do more homework .

As we learn more about bitcoin , The more I admire its ingenious design .

Peel layers from the outside to the inside , At first, we thought bitcoin was a medium of value . As for whether you define it as a currency or an asset , That's just a summary of its different properties . When this media action takes place in the spatial dimension , That is, from one person to another , We call it the medium of exchange ; When this media action takes place in the time dimension , That is, from today to tomorrow , We call it value storage .

Bitcoin can realize real transmission across the air , And the loss is minimal （ Measured on the bitcoin standard , The miner's fee is charged in bytes ）.

Then we need to understand how it does this .

Our first narrative is the public ledger .

The bitcoin system maintains a public ledger , Record all transfer transactions , So as to realize the transfer of value .

The reason for using public bookkeeping , Because the system needs to be decentralized . An authority center cannot keep an account book for everyone , So everyone needs to keep the same account book .

The question is how do we ensure that everyone can agree on an account book ？ There are always people for all kinds of purposes and interests , Challenge the records of the ledger , Even trying to tamper with .

This enters our second narrative , Proof of workload （PoW, Proof-of-Work）.

This double narrative is also known as the consensus mechanism . seeing the name of a thing one thinks of its function , Is a mechanism for all parties involved to reach an agreement .

The simplest way is to introduce central authority , But it also introduces vulnerability to the system . Or put the system in a greenhouse protected 、 Segregated 、 In a safe environment , Like the Internet IDC Like the computer room . If that's not possible , Then it becomes an open system , Good people and bad people can go in and out freely , This is in 1980 Computer scientist Leslie · The Byzantine system is called the Byzantine system .

Unfortunately , The problem of Byzantine system is difficult to solve . Especially under the condition of large-scale asynchronous network , unsolvable .

Until Nakamoto invented bitcoin , Put forward PoW Consensus mechanism , To solve this problem .

The solution is , Everyone only believes in PoW Calculated results of , And don't trust anyone .

PoW The calculation results of include the verification of the ledger , So as long as PoW The result is correct , The ledger is right .

PoW Why can't the calculation result be forged ？ Because you need to buy huge computing hardware first , Then it consumes a lot of electric energy to generate PoW.

In fact, before the second narrative , We should have another narrative , It's the time chain , Or the time stamp server mentioned in the bitcoin white paper . Bitcoin's ledger has order , Thus, it has the function of sorting transactions by time . But this time , It's not external time , It's the time generated in the bitcoin system . This is the source of time , In fact, it is the proof of workload PoW.

But between proof of work and the time chain , We have a lot of myths .

A considerable number of people believe that the workload can be removed , Time chain to achieve the same effect . image Solana This solution directly uses a centralized sequencer to determine the block sequence for the whole system , It can be said that we have grasped the key points of blockchain , It is also the greatest desecration of decentralization .

Of course, some people say , Endogenous sequencing is not a necessary condition for blockchain , Then such a blockchain will degenerate into a data structure with no time but only space , Just like all databases . Such a data structure , Can store data , But it is absolutely impossible to store value . Because of value , As for money , Its essence is time , Not something else .

When you record the timestamp from the outside , Not endogenous , There's no way to prove it , The historical record becomes completely unbelievable , Time is gone , The value is gone .

All alliance chains , They are all empty blockchain shapes （ data structure ）, Without blockchain （ Endogenous time ）.

Endogenous time of bitcoin , It's a time stamp , It's the order .1,2,3,4,…… Order of block height determination , Ticking like a clock . The order of self-evident , from PoW To prove .

How does bitcoin sequencing happen ？ This leads to our third narrative , Randomness .

We need an invisible hand of God , Pick a node randomly , And give it a proof , Everyone can believe the evidence , It is used to legally generate a new account book （ New area block ）.

Paxos Class's non BFT The algorithm requires external clock synchronization , To ensure that the voting will not be disordered .BFT Class algorithms also rely on voting , So if you lose the assistance of synchronous clock , Voting disorder will also occur . Synchronous clock , This means the need for external centralized providers and maintainers , Thus weakening the degree of decentralization . If you ask for node anonymity , Then it is almost impossible to achieve .

Bitcoin found the hand of God , That's math （ cryptography ）.

Because we have the most universal and firm consensus on numbers , So we can trust the correctness of the results calculated by anonymous calculators far away .

Cryptographic construction ensures , The result of this calculation is unpredictable , thus , Can't be guessed in advance .

The magic is ,PoW It's hashing , Hash computation is deterministic , It's not random .

Bitcoin uses a completely deterministic algorithm , The result of complete randomness is realized .

stay PoW Before being found , This result is highly uncertain . Once found , It is completely deterministic and verifiable . Like Schrodinger's cat , Life and death are uncertain before unpacking , After unpacking, the judge of life and death . I call it Schrodinger's randomness .

No matter who , Take the lead in calculating the result , It means gaining the recognition and consensus of global participants .

We don't need a God . Mathematics is our God .

( official account ： Liu Jiaolian . Knowledge of the planet ： The official account replied “ star ”)

( disclaimer ： Nothing in this document constitutes any investment advice . Cryptocurrency is a very high-risk variety , There is a risk of returning to zero at any time , Please participate carefully , Self responsibility .)