Bitcoin is the first fully 'man-made' 'public good' after human beings enter the digital age.

This article, written by Lilin Sun, the founder of PlatON, at the historic moment of BTC breaking through the $100,000 mark, profoundly analyzes the unique value of BTC as a common memory of the natural evolution of human society, as well as its innovative significance in payment and value storage.

Author: Lilin Sun, Founder of PlatON

Introduction*: Gold is the collective memory of the Earth's natural evolution, inherited and cherished by humanity as a creation of the Earth. BTC, on the other hand, is the collective memory of human social evolution, born from the wisdom of our shared journey.

This article was written by PlatON founder Lilin Sun on the historic moment when BTC broke through the $100,000 mark, deeply analyzing the unique value of BTC as a common memory of human social natural evolution, as well as its innovative significance in payment and value storage.



The full text is as follows:

From reading the Bitcoin White Paper in 2013, there have always been people asking what its value is. Is it a new eyewash or digital gold? Different periods have different thoughts, practices, and answers. But no one expected this moment to come so quickly.

In October, I did such a decomposition for the internal: Bitcoin is the first completely 'artificial' 'public good' for humanity to enter the digital age.

The so-called "artificial": it is easy to distinguish from other public supplies, such as air, water, oil, coal, rare earths, land, precious metals, especially gold that people like to compare. They are all public goods constructed by the evolution of nature on this integrated body of the earth through long-time convolution, that is, "res nullius". Humans, through various forms of accumulation and struggle, rely on specific legitimacy and legality to own some of these items and transfer the supply offered by the "earth" into public goods controlled by humans and serving human society.

Some of it is completely privatized, while the other part retains enough 'publicness' and is returned to the operation and management of governments at all levels or their designated licensed institutions, making its utility open to the public at low cost, to prove and restore its legitimacy and legality.

But all of these public goods are generally provided by the creators of the Earth in a natural form, without a clear controller, and all value comes from 'creating something out of nothing.' And all of these supplies fundamentally originate from the memory of the Earth, which is the result of the Earth 'calculating' in natural evolution, and also the product of this memory ledger in the calculation process.

The accounting tools and currency tools used by human beings in the past are all derived from the "borrowing" and secondary creation of public goods created by nature. Whether it is shells, gold, or even the initial "Token" invented by the Mesopotamians, they are all secondary use and reassignment of natural computing products.

Only Bitcoin, created by humans, is the closest thing to a divine creation or a natural artifact. Although we probably know who Satoshi is, he has long departed from this world, and 'unowned' and 'public goods' have been constructed by strangers who are universally unrelated and unfamiliar, relying on the common White Paper text and code.

Is this public nature eyewash? Then we don't need to discuss the utility of other 'public goods' too much; Is this public nature digital gold? It can only be said that this comparison is not comprehensive enough. Gold, as a natural creation and result of calculation, does not have a clear White Paper as a Bible. It can only be said to be a random structure formed by obeying physical laws and geographical distribution, and it is regarded as a symbol of the primitive republic and order by humans, and then evolved into a currency tool.

Since the birth of Bitcoin, it has been explicitly designed to be the first complete solution to the payment problem: for the first time, payment, settlement, and settlement have been integrated into a unified delivery. After Satoshi permanently left, the entire human race gradually expanded it into a large-scale computing process based on the text of the White Paper.

Satoshi's permanent departure sets it apart from all other blockchain networks and the construction of crypto; it is a unique 'common property'. All public goods that humans can utilize, touch, and transfer their legitimacy and legality are great creations of 'creating something out of nothing', and they are also the 'collective memory' of human society.

I don't want to call Bitcoin a 'currency,' or even a 'regular asset.' Every time I passed through the escalator at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport to the lounge, there were huge advertisements for Patek Philippe on both sides, roughly meaning: 'You never really own a Patek Philippe, you're just keeping it for the next generation.'

I think this sentence is already very close to the true, deep-rooted intention: 'Money is a form of memory.'

If this is supplemented, then gold is the common memory of the natural evolution of the earth, inherited and borrowed by the human creation of this earth; while Bitcoin is the common memory of the natural evolution of human society.

Surrounding the above content, Lilin Sun also had interesting conversations and thoughts with senior industry professionals, and now shares them with everyone.

@LEOZC: BTC is indeed a 'public good', but how to prevent the sustained occupation or destruction of public goods?

Lilin Sun: The natural evolution of the Earth, which relies on physical laws and time accumulation, has inherent legitimacy and legality. Therefore, the more primitive the natural creation is, the more it possesses inalienable legitimacy. For example, air. The foolish attempt to profit from the original creation will lose its legitimacy.

The closer it is to the late stage of evolution, the more likely it is that public goods will be redeveloped and utilized by humans through layer-by-layer iteration, and will be fully or partially privatized through the struggle of different forces. The privatized part also means long-term possession; while the so-called 'public utilities' constitute a part of social public governance, meaning that the public entrusts them to the corresponding institutions to operate.

To some extent, various types of governments of human beings are also a "public service", of course, different public services have evolved into different models, which was discussed by Plato and Socrates long ago. The so-called tyrant is to occupy and even deprive certain groups of part or all of their "natural rights", of course, it is the most corrupt institutional arrangement, and correspondingly cannot provide sufficient, complete, and proper public governance services, that is, the so-called loss of "justice".

Bitcoin is a public good with a specific purpose and scope. Although it is the original creation of human digitalization, its legitimacy cannot be compared with other natural creations on Earth. Therefore, the corresponding risks of being attacked and deprived are much higher. In other words, human creations themselves are not essential items for humans, and certainly not essential items for the Earth. From this perspective, they can also be naturally eradicated and destroyed.

All human constructs, in a sense, are insufficient in legitimacy. No matter what kind of combination, it cannot withstand the erosion of time. It can only be said that, compared to the increasingly emerging digital public goods of human constructs in the future, Bitcoin possesses sufficient primitive legitimacy, enough to crush other various emerging 'created out of nothing' products in the name of 'science', 'technology', 'innovation', or the people 😄.

But it is already a creation of human society that has abstracted itself from the natural essence of the Earth. Unless it becomes a multi-planetary species, relying on a new interstellar legal system and legitimacy, it will still be polished and suppressed by the Earth in terms of legal system.

@LEOZC：I have said before, a measure of human civilization is the efficiency of converting energy into Computing Power, BTC is the storage of Computing Power, and the price inflates with the efficiency of converting energy into Computing Power, that is, the level of human civilization.

Lilin Sun: It is the calculation process of crustal movement, far from the core; while the calculation objectives and uncertainties of the core are hidden in the deepest secrets of the earth. Bitcoin and AI are just iterative encapsulations of this calculation process. The most likely ultimate goal is to depart from and ignore the problems of this earth and move towards more planets.

@LEOZC: The essence of calculation may have revealed the essence of the universe as a simulator.

**@Jindouyun: When you say Satoshi has permanently left, in what sense do you mean left?

Lilin Sun: I guess Satoshi himself is the person we once knew. Only he can have such a path and accumulation to construct Bitcoin, which has too much evidence to support it; and only he can say goodbye in such a way, leaving the world with a public good that actually has a clear path dependence but will be erased from collective memory.