What do a book, radio, and voice have in common? The answer to this question today is simple: they all contain information. But 100 years ago, people may not have been able to answer this question

What do a book, radio, and voice have in common? The answer to this question today is simple: they all contain information. But 100 years ago, people may not have been able to answer this question.

The modern concept of the recent invention of information. Although humans have created and used information technologies such as writing, printing, and telegraphy for hundreds or thousands of years, it was not until the last century that we clearly elucidated the commonalities of all these things and realized that they could be understood as a category.

In the decades since then, the concept of information has spread to popular culture. Today, most people know that voice, images, movies, text, DNA, and software are just different types of information.

I believe there is a similar situation in blockchain today.A new technology forces us to rethink what we believe we understand. But this time it's not books, phone calls, or sound, but money. Perhaps there is an abstract attribute hidden in the foundation of our civilization, once revealed, that may help us reshape our understanding of the world and clearly answer the questions that blockchain should solve.

01 Blockchain Issues to be Solved

Part of human civilization depends on our ability to make the future more certain in specific ways.

Events that span time are unpredictable, but it is precisely because of these uncertainties that we can coordinate on a large scale, and money begins to come into play. If there is no confidence and commitment from all parties, trade will be very dangerous.

Therefore, we have found certainty and stability across social relationships, money. One of the sources of money is the nature around us. We pick shells, rocks, and metals from the environment, own and defend them, and use them as a commercial foundation.

Over time, we have learned to create our own money, rather than just borrowing it from nature.

Recently, we have invented a new method for creating money: blockchain. With the perfect combination of Cryptography, network software and commercialized incentives, we can create software and digital records with a certain degree of permanence.

If law, money, and government are the infrastructure of our civilization, then the components, institutions, and blockchain are some of the raw materials for building this infrastructure.

Just as architects need to carefully plan not only the design of buildings, but also the materials used to construct the design, we must also carefully consider the materials used for our civilized infrastructure.

But it is becoming increasingly evident that its components and systems alone cannot support the global digital civilization we are striving to achieve. And this is the problem that blockchain needs to solve.

Three Things to Consider for Global Digital Civilization

Clarifying the global digital civilization is a challenge, as we do not have pre existing terminology.We are very accustomed to talking about certain things, such as institutions. We interweave terms such as trustworthiness, enforceability, or commitment, as well as the types of relationships that people can have.

But now humans can choose specific things that we hope to become reality in the future,But when choosing, we need to consider three things:
What is the 'something' that is highly likely to become a reality in the future?
What consensus can it achieve?
3. How do we measure difficulty?

• Firstly, what is the 'something' that is highly likely to become a reality in the future?

For example, an important 'prediction' about gold is that its supply will remain predictable in the future. We can accurately express it as' in the next 20 years, there will be X to Y kilograms of gold entering the market every year '.

Alternatively, consider a loan agreement. If Alice does not repay Bob $100 before July 1st, the relevant authorities will use severe threats and actions to force Alice to pay Bob.

As far as the digital assets on Ethereum are concerned, this prediction is that "this asset can be transferred only when the private key corresponding to the public key X is used to sign the transaction".

In practice, there are many interrelated predictions that are also importantPrediction of future gold supply, integrity of institutions holding gold, storage of vaults, strength of legal agreements between you and institutions, reliability of relevant systems in SF jurisdiction where you reside, and so on.

• Secondly, what is consensus?

Sometimes, our consensus comes from physical properties. For example, there is only a certain amount of gold on Earth, and our current technology can only obtain a portion of it. This is why it is difficult to predict the supply of gold.

In other cases, the source of consensus may be the system. A contract is only effective when there is a system in place. Lawyers, judges, and police officers share a common understanding of how to cooperate, and have proven for decades that they will act in a predictable manner.

Alternatively, the consensus source may be blockchain.Smart contracts operate according to their programming methods, providing incentives and punishments for people to maintain the network, thus providing a very high guarantee for this situation to occur.

• Thirdly, how do we measure the difficulty of implementation?

The difficulty is always measurable in theory, but not necessarily in practice.

For example, take gold as an example. Over the next 20 years, there will be X to Y kilograms of gold entering the market every year. This is something we are very familiar with. People spend a lot of time and money trying to predict how much gold will be extracted each year based on our understanding of the characteristics of the Earth, available technologies, and industries that extract gold from the Earth.

One method of measurement is to estimate the probability.If you have all the relevant data, you may come to the conclusion that the probability of X to Y kilograms of gold entering the market every year in the next 20 years is 80%.

Another measure is to estimate how much it costs if the Estimation theory is wrong.For example, can anyone afford to create a world where less than X or more than Y kilograms of gold enter the market? What if a country with abundant gold resources suddenly becomes more or less productive?

In the example of legal contracts, we can also measure difficulty based on probability and cost. If Alice doesn't repay Bob and Bob sues her for breach of contract, Bob's lawyer may tell him what his chances of winning are.

Like gold, we can also express this in terms of cost.What must Alice give in order to change the outcome? She can escape the SF jurisdiction, or she can spend a lot of money hiring expensive lawyers, which will reduce Bob's chances of success.

Remember, the contract itself cannot tell you whether you have the ability to hire a lawyer to enforce it, or whether the relevant system will act in a corrupt manner.

03 Components, institutions, and blockchain are different from each other

• constituent part

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The simplest example is early money. Humans have discovered objects with a series of useful features in our environment, such as shells, gemstones, rocks, metals, etc.

One characteristic is their scarcity; Another characteristic is that these items are small enough to be easily owned, transferred, and protected.

constituent partBut there are limitations:

-Firstly, we are limited by what nature providesWe cannot make it more evenly distributed within the country.

-Secondly, as time goes by, human beings have a need for complex Type conversion,For example, if Alice and Bob divorce, what should be the rules for dividing their assets? We cannot give specific instructions to nature about complex and delicate interpersonal relationships.

- constituent part. Although we have overcome many of these limitations with the advancement of human technology, they still exist.

Once a civilization extends beyond a certain ecosystem, their assumptions about difficulties may change. Humans may one day face gold

constituent part

• Blockchain

Satoshi Nakamoto's invention is a new source of consensus. This is the first new consensus source invented by humans for thousands of years.

Satoshi Nakamoto is remembered not as the inventor of Bitcoin, but as the more magnificent essence behind BitcoinBlockchain

Blockchain

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-BlockchainIf there is no human discretion (existing in the organization), small errors that are different from our intentions may be serious. On the other hand, anyone on Earth can have the opportunity to learn how to write and read software. Anyone can upload the contract to Ethereum, but actually no one can develop relevant procedures independently.

-Blockchain. Anyone can create an asset and define its parameters, which cannot be achieved through any other means.

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Blockchain

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