Bitcoin: micellar decentralized organism (mycelium)

Foreword

First, I have to give credit to Dan Held for publishing his four-part seriesarticles comparing originBitcoin with a tree planting. And although I really liked this cycle, I think that a more obvious analogy is a comparison of Bitcoin with mushrooms. If you are new to this topic, join us - it is a great honor for me to dedicate you to the fascinating world of mushrooms.

Polymatic duty: like Satoshi combined individualdisciplines to put Frankenstein-technology together, which we call Bitcoin ... I am sure that each of us has the duty to study the unique diversity of knowledge. I present to you my study of mushrooms and Bitcoin - you will see simply amazing parallels.

Introduction

At first glance, Bitcoin seems outwardly simple, but a true understanding of the entire system is an extremely difficult task.

On this path of knowledge, “intellectualtraps, forcing observers to make hasty assumptions. I compare the desire to understand Bitcoin with a climber constantly reaching the “false peaks” who for a moment deceive the climber, making him think that he has reached a real peak.

As soon as you think that you have figured out Bitcoin, you will immediately find out how little you really know (false peak).

Different ideas about Bitcoin, sometimescontradictory, confusing things even more ... “magical Internet money, speculative mania, a revolution in financial technology, Bitcoin boils the oceans, rat poison squared, libertarian idealism, digital gold, the supreme predator of money, Gordian knot of interconnected incentives, etc. . ".

To make things even harder - Bitcoin isliving system, which is constantly changing depending on the environmental impact on it. True understanding is like a moving target that is unlikely to ever be hit.

Trying to answer the question “what is Bitcoin”, I found that the study of parallels with the natural world will be especially clear.

In particular, some of Bitcoin's best features are simply a reflection of successful evolutionary strategies found in nature, mainly in the realm of mushrooms.

The fungi are mostly made up of "mycelium," an underground decentralized intelligence network that Paul Stamets has called "the earth's natural internet."

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"I believe that mycelium is nature's neurological network.These membranes are aware of the membranes that respondchanges and collectively take into account the long-term health of the host environment.Mycelium maintains a constant molecular bond with the environment, creating a variety of enzymatic and chemical reactions to complex problems."— Paul Stametz, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World"

In this series of four articles, I am going to explore the similarities between mushrooms and Bitcoin, each of the parts representing a separate stage in the life cycle of ordinary mushrooms.

Part 1. Bitcoin is a micellar decentralized organism – this article
Part 2. Bitcoin is a social creature (mushroom)
Part 3: Bitcoin Is an Antivirus Against Macro Uncertainty (Medicine)
Part 4: Bitcoin – Catalyst for Human Evolution (Space Money) – Coming Soon!

* Translation of the remaining parts will appear on BitNews soon *

Meet the mushrooms

Here is my favorite TED Talk video: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world (Paul Stamets)

Mushrooms are in their own separate kingdom, like plants and animals. There are more species of fungi than plant and animal species combined.

Animals are more closely associated with mushrooms than we are withby plants. Both mushrooms and animals inhale oxygen and emit carbon dioxide. Plants produce their own food through photosynthesis (autotrophic nutrition), while animals and fungi must find their own food (heterotrophic nutrition). Animals developed in such a way as to have internal stomachs / brain, while fungi pursued the goal of developing external stomachs / brain.

Mushroom Fact # 1: DNA of humans and fungi match more than 50%. Scientists have proposed combining mushrooms and animals into a new super-kingdom called the Opistoconts.

Mushrooms can take manyforms. Most of them organize an underground “root structure” called mycelium (mycelium), which is found almost everywhere on this planet.

Under favorable conditions, the mycelium produces fungi, which then release a huge number of spores(seeds) whose task is to establish a new colony in a nearby location.Mushrooms are to mycelium what apples are to an apple tree.

Mushrooms are extremely important for life on earth:

The largest organism on our planet is a fungal web;
Fungi are the best chemists on our planet, most of our medicines come fromotfungus;
Trees cannot survive without underground mushroom allies;
Mushrooms have been around for 1.1 billion years, surviving all 5 global mass extinctions;
Mushrooms can save bees.

Mushrooms are decentralized intelligence networks

Mushroom networks do not have a centralized “brain”. Instead, they are a unicellular “root system” called mycelium. This underground stomach and distributed intellectual network is capable of transmitting information in both directions over long distances and even along interspecific lines. These fungal networks are constantly evolving based on feedback from their environment.

At any given moment, the mushroom network containsmillions of endpoints, each looking for food, protecting its territory or inventing new molecules to undermine competition (other fungi, bacteria, etc.). These networks form a decentralized consensus on how to use resources, when to multiply, and which strategy best protects the entire body.

It is like decentralized consensus(social contract) formed in Bitcoin. The nodes determine which software they want to run and enforce the consensus rules that they maintain accordingly. Miners determine which transactions to include in the blocks. Exchanges, wallets and sellers serve large groups of users. Each Bitcoin participant voluntarily chooses a way to participate, and this collective consensus represents the entire network.

Decentralized networks are older than humanity

Decentralized networks existed long beforethe appearance of people. In fact, mushrooms have been successfully implementing such systems for 1.1 billion years, making them the most successful kingdom on our planet.

Besides mushrooms, there are several prototype examples.distributed networks found throughout nature (mycelium, dark matter, neurons, the Internet, etc.). Obviously, such a strategy works, otherwise nature itself would not insist on its replication.

In the context of this long history of the archetype of a decentralized network, the advent of decentralized digital money no longer seems to be a novelty, but rather an inevitability.

The archetype of the decentralized network is Lindy.

Over a billion years of evolution, mushrooms have become masters of survival

Mushrooms have unique adaptability and continue to survive, despite the mass extinction of species.

65 million years ago a giant asteroidcrashed to Earth, destroying almost all life (including dinosaurs) on our planet. As a result of such a colossal blow, such a thick cloud of smoke was formed that it did not allow sunlight to reach the earth's surface for many years. Without sunlight, plants died out, and with them most animals. Mushrooms do not need sunlight to survive, they can quickly adapt and themselves can get their own food.

After each mass extinction event, the mushrooms “inherit the earth” and are gradually restored until the conditions stabilize and life on the planet can revive again.

Bitcoin will be the most successful type of money, becausethat it is decentralized, quickly adapts (relatively), itself produces its own food (unmet demand) and does not need government support. In the event of the mass extinction of money, Bitcoin will "inherit the land."

The government of Japan against the simplest mucous mold

Whether it's central banks trying to run the economy or hierarchical corporations trying to maximize value in the information age... central planning hasThere are many drawbacks.

When making decisions in the "information economy"decentralized organizations or organizations with a flat management structure are more effective. They counter corruption, minimize bureaucracy, and take decision-making to such extremes that individuals (nodes) always have the latest information about the problem at hand.

Let's take a look at the Tokyo metro system to illustrate the effective capabilities of decentralized networks.

Scientists conducted an experiment in which the ancienta mushroom (mucous mold or mucus) was stimulated to recreate the Tokyo metro system. At each subway stop (node), a slice of favorite mucus food (oatmeal) was placed.

After a while, this mucous moldhas grown, connecting all nodes / stops in an even more efficient way than was done in a project provided by the central planning engineering committee hired by the government of Japan.

From the annotation: Transport networks are widespread in both social and biological systems. Reliable network performance requires a complex trade-off between cost, transport efficiency, and fault tolerance. Biological networks have been polished by many cycles of evolutionary selection pressure and are likely to lead to reasonable solutions to such combinatorial optimization problems. In addition, they evolve without centralized management and can be an easily scalable solution for growing networks in general. We show that the mucous mold of Physarum polycephalum forms networks with comparable efficiency, fault tolerance and cost, similar to networks of real infrastructure, in this case, the Tokyo railway system. The basic mechanisms necessary for adaptive network formation can be reflected in a biologically inspired mathematical model, which can be useful as a guideline in building networks in other areas.

When you think about the costs and challenges,associated with such an infrastructure project, it is quite sobering to realize that mucous mold can create a network better and in just one day.

Satoshi understood the power of mold mucus.

Bitcoin is not a sovereign monetary good that pushes complexity and decision-making to its limits like mushrooms.Over time, this free-market decentralization allows Bitcoin to outperform the various traditional financial systems that haveA little "selfish interest", the innovator's dilemmas suffer, become more fragile over time and often drownin bureaucracy (or worse).

Life without a central point of failure

Mycelium does not have a “central control point”. You can remove any part of it, but the system as a whole will survive.

Bitcoin works the same way: any developer, node, miner, exchange, or user may be vulnerable, but not critical to its survival. There is no one to put in jail, there are no offices that can be closed, important equipment for confiscation is missing. Every time someone attacks Bitcoin / mycelium, but does not kill him, the system only gets stronger.

"If you've decided to smash the king, you'd better not miss." – OmarLittle (The Wire)

National states and central banksface a paradoxical problem. If they try to destroy their competitors, they will first emphasize the urgent need for bitcoins. And yet, the longer they wait, the stronger Bitcoin becomes.

Fortified against adverse factors

Both mycelium and bitcoin exist in the mostcompetitive ecosystems on our planet and must constantly adapt in order to survive. They have a keen interest in becoming fortified against adverse factors.

Mushrooms are in a competitive environment 24/7, constantly waging small underground wars against various bacteria, germs and competing mushrooms.

If one mycelial "node" detectsa predator / prey, it sends information to the “mushroom scientists” who then create a new enzyme that targets this particular predator / prey. Then the mushroom network distributes the new enzyme to where it is needed.

Over time, mushrooms create a chemical library,which acts as a reliable immune system and improves its capabilities as a predator, thereby ensuring greater environmental success. It is not surprising that mushrooms can survive anywhere and continue to dominate our planet. Mushrooms are anti-fragile.

Mushroom Fact No. 2: As humans, we benefit from medicinalcompounds created by fungi. The most famous is penicillin, which was obtained as a result of a random discovery by Alexander Fleming. Penicillin has been used to combat bacterial epidemics that have historically destroyed the human population. Since the discovery of penicillin, the population of our planet has tripled.

Bitcoin reacts similarly to its environmentway. When errors / threats / opportunities are detected in the system, information is transmitted to “Bitcoin scientists” (developers) who create the “enzyme” (software patch), and then the update is distributed throughout the system. Bitcoin thereby ensures greater environmental success. Bitcoin is also anti-fragile.

Both mushrooms and Bitcoin strengthen theirdefense mechanisms and learn to consume new food sources. This has a combined effect, increasing antifragility, as well as longevity over time.

As exceptional (and astounding)As an example, let’s take a look at the largest organism on our planet, the dark honey agaric (Armillaria ostoyae). Found in the Blue Mountains in East Oregon, this single organism has a width of more than 3.8 km (2.4 miles). It is estimated that he is from 1900 to 8650 years old, and now his mycelium occupies an area of more than 880 hectares, and the whole forest serves him as food.

The fight against competition

Mushroom networks steal the competitive advantages of their neighbors in the form of genetic information, just like Bitcoin absorb the competitive advantages demonstrated by altcoins.

There is a (erroneous) belief in which people assume that altcoins will realize cool new features that will ultimately surpass Bitcoin.

The warring camp believes that Bitcoin isover time, it absorbs all the best features after they have been tested in the market, which makes alternative currencies incapable of competing in the long run. I am a supporter of this position.

Let's take a look at how mushrooms deal with their competitors...

First we need to understand some basic points of genetics. Genes are usually transmitted from parents to descendants in the process of so-called “vertical transfer”.

It is interesting to note that fungi carry out “horizontal gene transfer”, effectively absorbing genetic information from different species competing in the same ecosystem.

Mushrooms “take what works successfully” from othersspecies that compete in the same ecosystem. This phenomenon can be observed by examining “loving dung” (growing in dung), which are more closely related to each other than their genetic ancestors.

This process of horizontal gene transfer, demonstrated by mushrooms, portends a future state in which Bitcoin integrates any proven ideas created by altcoins in general.

for instance: Combining the Lightning Joule browser extension with a node (run your own node, use Casa or something else.editor's note: detailed instructions for starting a Lightning node) allows micro-transactions through your browser. This virtually eliminates the need for tokens like BAT.

It can even be argued that Bitcoin carries outhorizontal gene transfer ever since Satoshi first combined the technologies used in previous attempts to create electronic money systems such as Hash Cash, E-gold, etc.

Arbitration deals, stimulation and search of one’s ecological niche

Mushrooms fulfill two ecological roles on this planet: they process all substances into basic elements and act as the planet’s immune system.

"Mycelium is the great disassembler of nature" – Paul Stamets

Mushrooms spend their days decaying silentlyorganic matter. They turn stones, branches, fallen leaves, dead animals and oil spills into their basic elements (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, etc.). Then the fungi exchange these valuable elements with the organisms located nearby.

Mushroom Fact No. 3: our forests would be buried under a thick multimeter layer of leaves and branches, if the mushrooms did not decompose them and redistribute the nutrients.

In other words, mushrooms releaseunused resources. A tree cannot reuse its own leaves or branches, since carbon / nitrogen / phosphorus is enclosed in an unsuitable form for consumption. Mushrooms take advantage of arbitrage opportunities in their ecosystem.

In other words, mushrooms release “stuck” unused resources.

Bitcoin using PoW mechanism unlocks unused resources in the form of energy

Before tackling Bitcoin, let's turnto an entertaining historical example of how aluminum was used to “export unused renewable energy” from a country like Iceland.

Iceland produces renewable geothermalenergy, often in remote areas. This leads to excess supply that cannot satisfy demand (energy is poorly transported over long distances).

Iceland took advantage of the resultingexcess energy for the production of aluminum, it is a very energy-intensive process. Iceland effectively converts excess energy into a reliable value storage (aluminum) that can be exported.

Bitcoin does the same. Instead of letting excess energy “die in the bud,” its producers themselves can mine bitcoins (or simply sell excess energy to miners). It also allows you to turn excess energy production into a long-term storage of value. The second-order effect is that Bitcoin effectively subsidizes renewable energy projects.

For a deeper understanding of this concept, check out Dan Held's article: “The PoW Algorithm Is Effective”

Mushroom Fact No. 4: mushrooms eating rock arethe main reason for the appearance of the topsoil. The upper, fertile soil layer allows us to grow food. It took the mushrooms more than 1 billion years to produce about 45 centimeters of the topsoil available today.

Mushrooms (and Bitcoin) are ecological immune systems

Fungi are immune systems both for the ecosystems in which they live, and for the planet as a whole.

Mushrooms produce medicinal compounds andprotect their ecosystems through complex symbiotic relationships. Mushrooms underground broker resources (via the mycelium) between species to ensure the health of the entire ecosystem.

Video: How trees secretly talk to each other in the forest

The video demonstrates how mushrooms distribute resources between species.

Roughly speaking, mushrooms produce mineralsunderground for trees in exchange for sugar (food) that the tree produces during photosynthesis. Trees receive increased protection from invaders and the most important minerals that they cannot get on their own. Have you ever wondered why a small oak tree can survive in the forest more often, where it does not receive enough sunlight?

Each organism participating in this general system of stimuli improves the evolutionary state of the forest. I believe that forests are living superorganisms consisting of many different species.

Bitcoin has a similar environmental role.

The market sends signals to Bitcoin to create functionality that would satisfy the requested requirements or improve the security of the system as new threats appear.

* The need for block space rises above bandwidth - the Lightning Network is born.

* China is cracking down on cryptocurrency exchanges - LocalBitcoins and HodlHodl thrive.

* As Venezuela, Turkey and Argentina inflate their currencies (hyperinflation), Bitcoin acts as an sovereign repository of value.

* Blockstream launches satellites capable of transmitting Bitcoin transactions to reduce the consequences of catastrophic events.

You could even argue that Bitcoin is actingas the immune system of mankind - it helps to fight against malignant governments, extortion businesses, seigniorage of Central banks, depreciation of the money supply, and even one of the unfortunate shortcomings of mankind - greed.

Positive feedback loop

Bitcoin also benefits from consistentincentives between users, full nodes, miners, exchanges and sellers. As Bitcoin adapts better to the environment, it better meets the needs of its growing followers, which in turn attracts more network participants. This positive feedback loop contributes to sustainable network growth.

Like the black honey agaric that engulfs entire forests in Oregon, Bitcoin is becoming bigger and stronger over time.

Conclusion

Check out Part 2 where I look at Bitcoin as a social phenomenon.* (translation of the article into Russian will appear on BitNews soon) *

Bitcoin has a hard time finding a definition. Is this technology? Scheme for quick enrichment? Religion of the new century? Means of payment? Or is it primarily a social system (superorganism) consisting of individually replaceable cells that have the same stimuli? Join us when we examine these questions through the prism of mushrooms in the second part.

The fact about mushrooms No. 5: I wrote most of this essay using medicinal mushrooms that are used to improve cognitive function (blackberry comb, chaga and cordyceps).

Thanks for reading

Brandon