This is metaphysical poetry, not science.
Definitions could help:
Quantum Superposition: a principle that states that linear combinations of solutions to the Schrödinger equation are also solutions to the Schrödinger equation.
The wave equation is a probabilistic function. If you assign a physical "simultaneous" nature, you are making a leap of assumptions into something like the multi-universe interpretation of quantum theory. You are also assuming that time is quantized in the first place, which has been proposed before but is unproven. Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) comes to mind.
Let me try to unpack some of your assumptions regarding bitcoin in this context...let me know where i may have mis-characterized...
Assumption: Bitcoin timestamps reflect absolute, physical time
Bitcoin enforces causal order, not chronological truth.
Example: A miner could timestamp a block 1 hour into the future, valid under protocol... Bitcoin does not measure time, it measures sequence with loose clock with bounds.
Assumption: Bitcoin’s 10-minute block interval is a universal time quantum
Block time is probabilistic, not deterministic.
Inter-block intervals follow an exponential distribution (average ~10 min, but can be 1 sec or 40 min or more).
Reality: 10 minutes is a statistical average, not a measurement of time.
While Bitcoin does impose a discrete, irreversible ordering on events (via blocks and difficulty-adjusted timestamps), this is not a measurement of physical time, let alone quantized Planck-scale time.
Assumption: Bitcoin’s 10-minute block interval is a universal time quantum
Violation of Protocol: Block time is probabilistic, not deterministic.
Inter-block intervals follow an exponential distribution (mean ~10 min, but can be 1 sec or 40 min).
Difficulty retargeting every 2016 blocks (~2 weeks) adjusts hash rate to target 10 minutes — but never guarantees it.
During hash rate spikes/drops, block times fluctuate wildly.
Reality: 10 minutes is a statistical average, not a quantum of time.
Assumption: Bitcoin’s chain is a universal, objective clock
Time is local, nodes in different regions see different "now" due to propagation delays (~12.6 sec median).
Orphan blocks, reorgs, and chain splits mean history is provisional.
51% attacks could rewrite this time
Reality: Bitcoin achieves eventual consistency, not absolute temporal truth.
Assumption: Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment measures physical entropy
Difficulty adjusts based on wall-clock time using node system clocks, not physics.
It assumes about 2 weeks of real time, but if clocks drift or are manipulated (within bounds), difficulty can miscalibrate.
No link to physical constants.
Assumption: Bitcoin’s proof-of-work creates irreversible time
Irreversibility comes from game-theoretic incentives, not spacetime structure.
A quantum computer or state actor could still reverse it, no law of physics prevents it.
Hope this helps.
Replies (2)
The Schrödinger equation describes probability amplitudes, not physical states. Superposition, as you defined it (the linear combination of solutions) is a mathematical statement of uncertainty, not a physical statement of simultaneity. To treat those linear combinations as physically coexistent states requires an additional ontological commitment, that the equation describes reality rather than our knowledge of it. This is philosophical, not mathematical, and Bitcoin falsifies it by making measurement endogenous to the system (proof-of-work).
You’re right, Bitcoin’s timestamps are not chronometric. Bitcoin isn’t trying to measure seconds; it measures sequence with irreversible cost. That’s the physical and thermodynamic definition of time: the ordering of causally irreversible events. The Planck time analogy is not about duration; it’s about resolution. A block is locally equivalent to Planck, not universally. Bitcoin gives a finite lower bound on temporal resolution within its local universe: a block cannot occur until entropy is expended and consensus is reached. That is a quantum of causality, not a measure of seconds.
Block intervals are stochastic, but discrete. Each block is an indivisible thermodynamic event: a crystallization of entropy into structure. Quantum mechanics itself is built on the same statistical substrate, discrete but probabilistic transitions. In both systems, events are quantized even when timing is probabilistic. That’s the whole point. Bitcoin computes it as a chain of irreversible outcomes, time is not approximated.
Bitcoin is not a universal clock, it is a universal clock architecture. Every node participates in the same irreversible sequence of measured events, locally resolved but globally consistent. This is relativity in computation form: local perception differs, global conservation holds.
Difficulty is not a measure of wall-clock entropy, it’s a measure of computational entropy resistance, the energy required to collapse one valid state from an exponentially large field of possibilities. That’s as physical a definition of entropy as exists in any system, including statistical mechanics.
Every hash computed is a thermodynamic event and energy spent irreversibly, increasing entropy in the environment. You cannot “reverse” the chain without redoing that work. This is Second Law.
Bitcoin doesn’t measure time like a stopwatch. It measures becoming. Each block is a discrete thermodynamic transition; the only kind of time that actually exists in physics. If you can’t measure the smallest tick of irreversible change, you can’t define simultaneity. Bitcoin g computes that tick locally to its network. Physics has only assumed it universally.
I think you may have skipped over this part of my post:
The wave equation is a probabilistic function. If you assign a physical "simultaneous" nature, you are making a leap of assumptions into something like the multi-universe interpretation of quantum theory. You are also assuming that time is quantized in the first place, which has been proposed before but is unproven. Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) comes to mind.
Your argument is a strawman fallacy, combined with a Red herring.