The ultimate mystery of Bitcoin: it is not code, but a 'time machine'. Bitcoin Review | Deep Thinking Do you really understand Bitcoin? When we discuss the security of Bitcoin, words like 'computing power', '51% consensus', and' decentralization 'often come to mind. But what if these are just the tip of the iceberg? Today, we will dive beneath the iceberg and reveal the true security foundation of Bitcoin from an almost philosophical perspective. Its greatest design is not its exquisite code, but its successful installation of the heart of the physical world - time. are you ready? This will be a journey of ideas that will overturn your cognition. 1、 The paradox that all software cannot avoid Firstly, we need to understand that all forms of systems (including computer programs) have an inherent 'ceiling'. In the world of computers, everything is computation. But there is one problem that computers cannot solve, which is the 'true or false questions involving themselves'. The most classic example is Bitcoin's' Double Spending 'problem. After a transaction (TX) is issued, it is in a "Schr ö dinger's cat" state: it "may have been confirmed" or "may not have been confirmed". How does the system determine which transaction is valid when someone attempts to initiate two transactions with the same amount of money? This constitutes an 'undecidable problem': the system cannot determine whether a transaction 'already exists in the chain' by calculating 100% within its own logic. This local 'uncertainty', when combined, becomes the 'incompleteness' of the entire system - also known as the' bifurcation problem '. Which version of the chain is the 'real' chain? This is also a self referential paradox. Paradoxical Chain: Double Flower Problem (Local) → State Uncertainty → Fork Problem (Global) Traditional systems attempt to plug this loophole with more complex rules, but they have never been able to eradicate this structural instability. 2、 Who will be the final judge? Since the system itself cannot make a final judgment, an "external force" must be introduced to break the deadlock. This is known as the Oracle in computer science - a divine perspective that can make "uncomputable choices". In Bitcoin, the role of this' oracle 'is assumed by miners. When facing double spending transactions: miners must choose one of them to package into the block. Note that this is not a calculation, but a one-time, subjective choice. When facing a fork, the choice of which chain the miner group will continue to work on is not the result of the algorithm, but a grand 'divine choice'. Behind the birth of each block stands a miner who makes a 'divine judgment'. This constitutes a decentralized oracle system, driving the entire system forward with countless local, uncomputable choices. 3、 Security comes from precision, not 'voting' Many people mistakenly believe that the security of Bitcoin comes from "voting consensus", believing that as long as more than 51% of people are good people, the system is secure. This is a huge misunderstanding. The security of Bitcoin is a byproduct of its pursuit of "precision". Accuracy problem: How to construct a system that is infinitely close to 100% accurate judgment? Security: It is the natural result presented by this system due to its sufficient precision. It's like building a bridge, we pursue the ultimate precision in engineering, rather than letting everyone vote on whether the bridge is sturdy. As long as the structure of the bridge is precise enough, its' safety 'is naturally guaranteed. By purchasing Bitcoin, you are essentially buying its commitment to the security of 'irreversible time'. This promise comes from a system designed to be extremely precise. 4、 Ultimate weapon: a physical cheat that can burn time Traditional consensus algorithms (such as BFT), whose irreversibility is only a logical agreement, like a gentleman's agreement, can theoretically be overturned at any time. Because all calculations within the Turing machine are essentially reversible. So, what is true, physically irreversible? The answer is time and energy. Broken eggs cannot be restored, and burning wood cannot return to its original state. This is the "dissipative structure" theory proposed by Nobel laureate Prigogin: An open system that is far from equilibrium, maintains a stable and orderly self-organizing structure by continuously consuming energy (dissipation) and exchanging matter and information with the environment. Life is the most typical dissipative structure. Bitcoin, for the first time, introduced this physical principle into the digital world. Proof of Work (PoW): This is not a waste of energy, but a real physical cost paid for every 'oracle choice'. It 'burns' the two irreversible physical dimensions of time and energy into the icy blockchain. Chain of Entropy Increase: The extension of blockchain is essentially an "entropy chain" driven by irreversible time. The confirmation of each new block is an irreversible 'time energy dissipation event'. Thus, the essence of Bitcoin is fully revealed: It is a living digital dissipative structure driven by thermodynamic time. 5、 Summary: The Great Leap from Logic to Physics Let's summarize the essential differences between Bitcoin and other systems using a graph: Does the irreversibility source of the structure type include the real time security source? Is the logical agreement computable by the Turing machine incomplete? Assuming the consensus path formed by BFT consensus voting? Is the majority of nodes trustworthy? Bitcoin's thermodynamic time dissipation is an accurate approximation of the real irreversibility time The conclusion is simple: all systems that do not include real time are ultimately inaccurate and unsafe. The greatness of Bitcoin lies in its failure to attempt to solve paradoxes within formal logic, but rather in using a 'physical cheat' - introducing real-world time and energy, forcing the system's evolution to become irreversible. This is no longer a logical deduction in the virtual world, but a continuous approach to "structural absolute precision" through the unidirectional flow of time and energy in the physical world. This is the ontological philosophical significance of Bitcoin: A dissipative time trust machine. A self consistent system that welds physical time onto formal logic.