Pretend an alien spaceship, in the very far future landed on planet Earth and wanted to trade with Humans.
Kind of like how the Europeans traded with the Native Americans in the 16th century (OK BAD example it didn't turn out well for the Native Americans but this is Stacker News :D )
Would the trade take place with beads? No, no utility. Artwork? Cars? NY property or real estate? No way. Too bulky. Not practical.
And Humans could just make more of these things... and there is no way you could take Real Estate back in the Spaceship! (plus if the Aliens really wanted the Real Estate they would just Take It! ;)
In any case the other aliens would laugh at those Aliens for being on the other end of a bad trade. On the other end with this crap!
So what is something the other Aliens would want too? That they could mathematically understand? That the Humans couldn't make more of?! That required large amounts of energy to create and was provably, mathematically scarce?
  • That was easily transportable over long distances?
  • That was small and light, even in a small spaceship?
  • That was valuable, but also digital (and easily saved)?
Gold (even if it were universally scarce) would be heavy and by the time you saw the Humans again WHO KNOWS how much the Humans would have mined! Wouldn't you showing up in a space ship, asking for Gold, other than being a bad meme just increase the rate at which Gold is mined (inflating the supply)!
So what about a technology trade? Probably not :(
The Humans don't have the technology the aliens want anyway... (The Aliens have a badass spaceship) and why give technology to the Humans? Which the Humans might use against their enemy at some point? (Can't trust those Humans!)
No, the trade and the asset would have to be trust-less.
OK then precious metals - Gold Silver maybe Uranium?
Radioactive isotopes maybe... but they would probably be too heavy for the spaceship. Or damage it, or be impractical to take back to the 'home planet' such a long distance.
  • And isn't uranium abundant on the asteroids and planets the aliens traveled by anyway? Why not make a 'pit stop' to pick up Uranium on an asteroid... just to trade with the Humans for... more Uranium? It doesn't make sense anyway and for Gold cough cough and Silver it would be even dumber.
No, the aliens would take all the precious metals, minerals, and isotopes naturally occurring in space, and if they are going to trade with Humans it would not be for something they could just as easily mine and accumulate themselves.
The Plan:
  1. Get spaceship.
  2. Get asteroid.
  3. Trade with Humans for... more of the same?
  4. Profit???
So what would the Aliens trade for that THEY KNEW was scarce, would remain scare, with a provably mathematical inflationary rate for the next thousand years while they took A LONG TRIP in their space ship?
  • Through inter-dimensions?
  • Through time and space?
  • While other Alien civilizations Rose and Fell.
Well if it's NOT precious metals or extractable minerals...
And it's NOT paper money (Why wouldn't the Humans just make MORE of that? Doesn't it usually become worthless over a few decades anyway?)
And if it NEEDS to be something you could come back in your spaceship, and prove at any time was created according to the rules of Software, Physics, Math, and Scarcity...
That you could Mathematically understand and that the Humans couldn't CHEAT YOU ON!!
What would that Asset and Medium of Exchange be?
What is timeless, theoretically lasts forever when stamped into titanium, cannot be hacked, cannot be confiscated, that is provably scarce and is mined with predictable frequency... that is lightweight of infinite economic density. That's also digital and can be broadcasted from very long distances and lasts theoretically a very very long time?
It's Bitcoin.
And Aliens may not understand Art, may not understand Culture, and will never understand Human Governments (I don't either) but they can understand Math [~8/21 Million]
800 Billion Billion SHA-256 operations a second, mathematically provable, for the next 1000 years is a currency an Alien Civilization could tender.
Bitcoin is something that the Aliens can trade for (if they wanted to trade). And the moment that the Humans figured that out the network Hash Rate would jump... making Bitcoin more secure, increasing the current exchange rate, making it more likely not less that the perfect medium of exchange over very-long distances and over very long time periods is Bitcoin and would survive forever.
  • If Star Trek had a money it would be Bitcoin.
  • And the Money of Intergalactic Trade, with an Alien Civilization, will probably be Bitcoin.
It is the only provable, trustless, neutral, Medium of Exchange that meets a minimum threshold for Commerce with Alien Civilizations.
It is the Ultimate Medium of Exchange.
41 sats \ 3 replies \ @Golu 20 Oct
When do you think ali ns are gonna hit the Earth for trade?
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No idea. But think of it this way... If a billion alien civilizations flipped a billion quarters 256 times and generated a billion seed phrases...
Would they necessarily overlap? Statistically I think not?
If the aliens did show up and think of something to use for trade, something neutral which was valuable, but small, but portable, inflation-resistant, and would go up in value the moment they said they wanted it...
That was neutral to actually trade with the Humans - why not Bitcoin?
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @nym 20 Oct
I haven’t thought about aliens breaking encryption.
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Assuming quantum computers were impossible, impractical, or Bitcoin soft-forked to QC resistant addresses (it's just a thought experiment).
If the aliens had mastered Q Computers the Humans would be ****** anyway lol.
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You're making a 'may be' projection for 30th century. I think we should first focus on making Bitcoin easier to use for humans. After 15 years Bitcoin is still only used by a very small percentage.
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If it's good enough for significant space and time... it should be good enough for people (in my opinion at least).
Obviously humans don't have space ships, and this is just a thought experiment. But like I commented elsewhere... 'the credits' you saw on 4x games - Galactic Civilizations, Stellaris, and Master of Orion... look eerily like Sats.
In some games they even had the lightning bolts as 'universal energy credits'. Isn't that essentially what Bitcoin is?
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @senf 20 Oct
Aliens wouldn't give a shit about Bitcoin.
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Maybe not. But if they didn't care about Bitcoin, they sure wouldn't care about anything else (or understand why we cared about it)
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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 20 Oct
this article about The Law of Hash Horizons might interest you
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Wow I will check this out. Very cool ty
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They will trade energy for Bitcoin
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Bingo Remember those 'energy credits' you had in the 4x space video games? Stellaris? Galactic Civilizations? Masters of Orion? Gee I wonder what those energy credits could be... ;)
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From past history, might they be interested in YOU? Could they also be interested in adrenochrome? It seems that in the past they made bargains for a percentage of the population in return for military technology. How did those deals go? Remember, 800K children go missing in America, alone, every year. Also, we are importing many more children that go missing.
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Once everyone realizes that the aliens are here to buy bitcoin, satoshis will need to be divided to 100,000,000 somethings.
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A colonizer never trades... he exploits. If an alien "race" arrived on Earth, it is assumed that they are technologically much more advanced. Rationalizing aliens from our human minds, we would be obliterated
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10 sats \ 3 replies \ @drlh 22 Oct
This is assuming the alien has the same human mind as ours. Because we have never seen other intellect besides ours, and if was found this might be so foreign we could not understand.
Same with AI and machine revolution. Chatgpt is a imitation of intellect btw.
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It's a thought experiment. Bitcoin all things considered lasts longer and goes the distance farther than maybe anything else of value.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @drlh 22 Oct
To the moon they say :))
A chapter from bitcoin astronomy was posted before here. Wait till muskcoin appeares in mars because they could not mine with 20 minutes signal ping.
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i was reading that article (about the center of hash) it's amazing
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you got that right. Still, it's an interesting thought experiment.
As an alien 'wanting something' from the Humans... Bitcoin seems like a prime candidate to me.
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The Annunakis only want gold and slaves....
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Human souls, unfortunately...........
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stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.