Keeping track of things in the informational realm always implies keeping track of time
time is money -> money is time
How do you keep track of time as the system you are using becomes larger and larger?
To fix this - bitcoin's own time (block time or block height) can be used to solve this
There are two ways to keep track of things: tokens and ledgers
Tokens are physical ways of keeping track, thus it is distributed among the users
Ledgers are representations of that physical interaction, thus it is centralized
Double spending non-physical information is the root problem of using a ledger based currency system
[[quotes]] "If you have an apple and I have an apple, and we swap apples - we each end up with only one apple. But if you and I have an idea and we swap ideas - we each end up with two ideas" - Charles F. Brannan
Tokens are trustless and timeless, if you have them in your possession then you can spend them
Ledgers relies on man-made laws to be spent
The move from physical laws to man-made rules leads to the need to keep centralized ledgers from being fraud
This relies on timestamps so audits can reverse the entire history at anytime
==This distinction highlights the need for accurate time tracking==
Non-crypto currency solves the problem of double-spending by establishing a central agency - but the notion of cryptocurrency is to relinquish the need for centralized control
Instead of having accurate clocks to keep track of time, just use the order of events as blocks of time
==Time needs causality and unpredictability to flow==
Entropy-increasing functions are required to establish an arrow of time
Fibonacci Numbers are casual but not entropic, every number is caused by the previous two but because it is predictable it can't be used to tell the time
Bitcoin use two sources of unpredictability - transactions and proof-of-work
The proof-of-work puzzle will be randomly solved by a miner and no one can predict it in advance
Time adjustment difficulty is also key to build an internal rhythm to Bitcoin so it can be adjusted to more and more miners getting onto the network
Bitcoin managed to establish timekeeping without a centralized time-stamping company, physical medium as proof, and keeping the ticks of time more-or-less constant