From e464af5862b366bc3fd6a2d7b2cb9d89a9c61569 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: marc Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2024 15:41:07 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] added a section --- BitcoinIsPoetry.md | 16 +++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/BitcoinIsPoetry.md b/BitcoinIsPoetry.md index ff5ee88..7f0cbf2 100644 --- a/BitcoinIsPoetry.md +++ b/BitcoinIsPoetry.md @@ -51,5 +51,19 @@ Notice how each line from a from an instance of mepool that I run from a [Start9 ![shakespere sonnet 18](https://i.nostr.build/LFKPOX9jwC2a2l6W.png) Look at those last two lines. Like zerobits repeated in the bitcoin timechain, the words So long are repeated in the begining of lines 13 and 14. Bitcoin looks like poetry because bitcoin is poetry. -### Poetic Justice +### The Difficulty Adjustment Is Poetic Justice + +Whenever a miner produces a hash with the required amount of zerobits to send the transactions from the mempool purgetory to the place where the chosen math spirits hang out in the p2p distributed networking cloud, one more block is added to the time chain. It is called a "chain" because the transaction are also hashed with the block header from the previous block. This verifies that each transaction is valid and easily verifiable with a single calculation which means it can be validated on cheap computers like raspberry pi's, but to be honest, you're better off with a better computer if you don't like pulling your hair out. The problem is money has an infinite demand. This is why the axiom, "you can never be too rich or too skinny" exists so how did Satoshi make sure bitcoin is for everybody and not just the OG Cypherpunk nerds? He discovered the difficulty adjustment. + +At this point in history, most people have heard the story about Lazzlo buying two pizzas for 10,000 whole Bitcoin. It is often touted as the worst investment in history by the mainstream media, but journalists focus on the sensational and miss the subtleties of this story since they are experts in journalsism, but not so good at cryptography, a branch of mathematics that no one is taught in high school and only the nerdiest of nerds tend to learn it in college. The lesser known part of the story is Lazzlo was also the first person to mine Bitcoin using ASICS ASICS were used well by IT professionals well before bitcoin was discovered, but Lazzlo learned he could mine bitcoin much faster with these spcialized chips than with a laptop. As the first person to figure this out, he must have had an extremely unfair advantage, so why couldn't he just mine all 21 Bitcoin in a matter of months? He was limited by the Difficulty Adjustment. + +Here is how it works:- Every hour we can expect 6 blocks- Every Day we can expect 24x6 blocks or 144 blocks- Every week, we can expect 1008 blocks- Every two weeks, we can expect 2016 blocks +At the end of 2016 blocks, if blocks are mined faster than this, the math problem miners try to solves becomes more difficult to slow them back down to ten minutes. When Lazzlo ramped up Bitcoin production, he could only have an unfair advantage for 2016 blocks. Let's say he mined 90% of the blocks within a week. Good for him, but now his ASICS mining slows down because the blocks become much more difficult to mine. His fancy miner essentially must find more zerobits. It's a little more complex than this, but that's the non-boring gist of the story. + +Without Satoshi's discovery of the difficulty adjustment, the Cypherpunks like Lazzlo would have mined all 21 million bitcoin before the first 210,000 blocks. The difficulty adjustment makes the distribution fair. + +"Total circulation will be 21,000,000 coins. It'll be distributed to network nodes when they make blocks, with the amount cut in half every 4 years. first 4 years: 10,500,000 coins next 4 years: 5,250,000 coins next 4 years: 2,625,000 coins next 4 years: 1,312,500 coins etc... When that runs out, the system can support transaction fees if needed. It's based on open market competition, and there will probably always be nodes willing to process transactions for free." + +-Satoshi Nakamoto +