Bit 2. The Global Spreadsheet, Information Theory, and Law
Bitcoin is exceptionally interdisciplinary. Many people who understand Bitcoin actually only understand part of it and are often unknowledgeable about areas outside of their area of expertise. My goal is to understand enough of the surrounding subject matter to create a PhD thesis where I prove or disprove whether Bitcoin is the only solution to digital cash up to arbitrary changes in parameters. I am doing this with with Craig's help in the Theory of Bitcoin interview series. Craig is my informal PhD thesis advisor.
In today's interview, we covered essentially three things:
- Bitcoin is a global, distributed spreadsheet. Bitcoin is a ledger into which everyone has a window. Two people can have a different window, and can have some entries that overlap. Script is more like the language that we use to update cells in the spreadsheet than it is like a "smart contract."
- Information theory can be used to conceptualize every field of study. In order to prove my thesis, that Bitcoin is the only solution to digital cash up to arbitrary changes in parameters, I first need to write down a clear definition of this that spans 16+ different disciplines. I am pursuing the path of using information theory as the underlying theory. In this video I motivate this direction and show an interesting result with the derivation of the Schrodinger equation from information theory.
- Questions about law from Craig's in-progress legal thesis. Bitcoin is property and this is why it is important that it is a token and not a floating point value. The cryptocurrency industry is almost certainly being investigated and we will see a giant, international shutdown when the investigation reaches that stage. Stay away from anything illegal or scammy or you risk getting caught up in the sweep.
Until today, I have enabled comments on the videos on YouTube. However, there is a bit of spam in the comments there which I would rather not have to moderate, so I am going to experiment with moving comments to PowPing instead. Today, the comments on this video are enabled only on PowPing and the comments on YouTube are disabled. Furthermore, I will continue to post draft material and other private information to metanet.icu in the #theory_of_bitcoin channel.
I am hoping we can spool up a positive community here. I will be following my principles of relationships and possibly adjusting them over time as I learn more.
