Bitcoin Network: From the Byzantine Problem to the Evolution of Entropy-Reducing Living Entities

One of the core innovations of blockchain technology is its solution to the Byzantine Fault, a long-standing issue that has troubled the computer science community. The essence of this problem is how to reach consensus in an untrusted network, and Satoshi Nakamoto cleverly addressed this challenge through the Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism.

The Byzantine Fault can be simplified as: how to coordinate a unified attack plan among a group of generals who may have traitors. Abstractly, this problem is about establishing order and consensus in a chaotic environment. From a thermodynamic perspective, this is a process of decreasing entropy, that is, moving from disorder to order.

The PoW mechanism solves this problem by incentivizing miners to participate in a computing power competition. Miners achieve network consensus by searching for specific hash values, creating an ever-expanding entropy reduction system in the process. In the universe, most systems follow the law of increasing entropy, ultimately tending towards chaos. However, life is an exception, able to create order by absorbing negative entropy, thus achieving entropy reduction.

From this perspective, the Bitcoin system is essentially a constantly growing organism. It sustains its own development through a mechanical consensus mechanism that utilizes global computing power. Bitcoin (BTC), as the reward symbol within this system, drives the operation of the entire ecosystem, but it is not equivalent to the entire Bitcoin network.

The Bitcoin network, as an independent entity, not only possesses autonomy but also has social characteristics. It can extend its energy beyond Bitcoin into other fields, collaborating with other systems to create greater value. This understanding breaks through the limiting mindset of equating BTC with the Bitcoin network.

After 16 years of development, Bitcoin continues to maintain a strong growth momentum, while many imitators have gradually faded away. After Ethereum transitioned to Proof of Stake (PoS), it abandoned the mechanism of leveraging global computing power to drive system growth and instead relies on a limited ETH staking rate to maintain consensus. This mechanism's upper limit may be one of the deep-seated reasons why Ethereum is gradually falling behind Bitcoin.

In the future, a more meaningful exploration direction in the field of cryptocurrency may be: how to better integrate Bitcoin, a living entity driven by mechanical consensus, into human society, especially in the digital civilization, to unleash its greater social value and life energy. This may be an important direction for innovation and entrepreneurship in the next stage of the Crypto field.