We are inherently part of the physical universe, making it impossible to step outside of time to measure it. Bitcoin, as a human-made system that produces its own discrete time via blocks, offers a novel external perspective, allowing us to observe the mechanics of time from the outside in.
Related Insights
While Bitcoin's code can be copied, its core innovation—verifiable absolute scarcity—cannot be replicated. It was a one-time discovery, like the number zero. Any subsequent digital asset lacks the pristine origin and established network effect, making Bitcoin a unique, non-disruptable phenomenon rather than just another technology.
In physics, the observer is often conflated with the measurer. Bitcoin provides a model where measurement is an objective, internal process—the mining of a block. Observation is the separate, subsequent act of verification by a node. This clarifies a long-standing ambiguity in physics.
Bitcoin's finite supply is presented as a necessary boundary for a complete logical system, without which measurements become meaningless. This is analogous to physical constants like Planck temperature, which act as boundaries for physical laws, suggesting boundaries are essential for defining reality.
By converting energy (joules, Boltzmann entropy) into a specific configuration of Satoshis (bits, Shannon entropy) through mining, Bitcoin provides an operational bridge between the physical and information worlds. This resolves the long-standing disconnect between the two forms of entropy.
The mempool, containing all possible but unconfirmed transactions, acts as an analogy for quantum superposition. It represents a pre-measured state of potential. The mining of a block serves as the "measurement" that collapses this potential into a single, deterministic, classical reality.
Unlike traditional markets with fixed hours, Bitcoin trades continuously, allowing it to react instantly to global news like the Japanese bond market sell-off, which occurred while US markets were closed. Its price action can serve as an early, real-time indicator for broader market sentiment and events.
The fundamental dynamics of consciousness may be timeless, without increasing entropy. Our linear experience of time is an emergent property created by the loss of information when that timeless reality is projected into our limited human interface.
Quantum mechanics relies on the assumption of continuous time. If time is discrete, as Bitcoin's architecture suggests, the foundational math for quantum computing is invalid. This means quantum computers may never pose an existential threat to Bitcoin's encryption, making the two models fundamentally incompatible.
The paper posits that Bitcoin blocks represent discrete, indivisible units of time. This provides a real-world, observable model that challenges the long-held assumption in physics that time is a continuous, infinitely divisible parameter, thus solving the double-spend problem logically.
Instead of viewing time as a fourth dimension appended to space (spacetime), the authors propose "time-space." Here, time, as an ordered sequence of thermodynamic commitments (blocks), is the foundational constraint from which spatial and causal order emerge as derivative properties.