1. A series of increasingly harebrained blockchain schemes…
Down the Rabbit Hole:
Dhruv Bansal
Refactor Camp 2018I’m a physicist & entrepreneur.
Minutes through this talk
Bullshit
Tolerance

2. What Did Bitcoin Get Right?
IANA Bitcoin Maximalist but…
I believe Bitcoin is sound money and will
become the basis of the global economy.
“Money” is a shared hallucination.
People are eager to own the “means of production”.
The right abstractions remake the world.
Stateless-Socialism
Hallucination
Bits Move Atoms
Three Lessons of Bitcoin

3. Scheme 1: Nakamoto Point
http://nakamotoinstitute.org/mempool/hyperbitcoinization/

4. $160B
50x
https://howmuch.net/articles/worlds-money-in-perspective
Bitcoin is a small fraction of the world’s money.
Bitcoin would have to grow by
100-1000x to be an appreciable
fraction of world money.

5. Bitcoin Energy Usage
https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption
Bitcoin is a small fraction of the world’s energy usage.
Bitcoin would have to grow by 100-
1000x to be an appreciable fraction
of world energy usage.
~1 Nuclear Power Plant
Global Electricity Production
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation
Data centers currently use ~10x
more energy.

6. Bitcoin is an Arms Race
When does it stop?
Bitcoin Network Hashrate
https://blockchain.info/charts/hash-rate

7. Generation
Transmission
Distribution
https://www.e-education.psu.edu/ebf200/node/151
10¢
7¢
25¢
Bitcoin mining can earn 20-30¢ /
kWh (more if you HODL).
https://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-prices-in-selected-countries/
Worldwide Electricity Prices
Marginal revenue from PoW mining can be greater than selling kWh.

8. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/prognosis-negative-how-california-is-dealing-with-below-zero-power-market/442130/
California (CAISO) Negative Power Prices
Not just in China, either.

9. http://www.energyinsights.net/cgi-script/csarticles/articles/000000/000085.htm
$1T
$2T
$3T
$4T
$5T
$365k
$3.65M
$365M
$36.5B
$3.65T
Bitcoin Mining Revenues
https://blockchain.info/charts/miners-revenue
Oil Revenues
Bitcoin is a small fraction of the world’s energy revenues.
Bitcoin would have to grow by 100-1000x
for the money spent on electricity during
PoW mining to be an appreciable fraction
of world energy revenues.
$6B/yr @ $10k/BTC

10. Nakamoto Ratio: fraction of world electricity used in PoW to secure the money supply.
0.0 1.0
I
I PoW mining is separate from energy production.
II
II PoW mining and energy production start to merge.
Saturation point: Marginal revenue from PoW =
marginal revenue from selling energy
III
III
0.001
$10k/BTC
2018
0.01?
$100k/BTC?
2021?
<0.1?
$1M/BTC?
>2025?
2009
Conjecture: Once the Nakamoto Ratio reaches the saturation point, it will not change.

11. Scheme 2:
Chain Lightning
Why is it important that we
build a blockchain mesh
network?
Why is it important that we
build a blockchain mesh
network?
Oh! It has future
applications in identity,
social networking, private
data transmission, you
name it!
https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2088
Blockchain Advocates
Blockchain Engineers

12. Transaction ID Output Index Script Amount
abc 0 1ab 1
def 2 1ab 2
bef 0 3de 3.5
bef 1 1ab 0.99…
What is Bitcoin?
A shared ledger of title to a transferrable token. Uses PoW to achieve consensus (slow).
What is the Lightning Network?
Lightning
Bi-directional payment channel. In-
channel transactions are fast, settled in
Bitcoin transactions.
Network
A network of channels.

13. What is the right measure of
centralization?
If hubs are inevitable, will users have
choice, control?
What incentives/algorithms/data can
we adopt to shape the network?
Engineering & experimentation required.

14. $ traceroute -aS baidu.net
traceroute to baidu.net (118.244.196.96), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 [AS0] 192.168.0.1 8.891 ms (0% loss)
3 [AS11427] tge0-0-12.ausbtx5202h.texas.rr.com 66.68.2.13 39.522 ms (0% loss)
4 [AS11427] agg25.ausxtxir02r.texas.rr.com 24.175.43.227 17.679 ms (0% loss)
5 [AS11427] agg22.hstqtxl301r.texas.rr.com 24.175.41.48 22.915 ms (0% loss)
6 [AS19548] bu-ether16.hstqtx0209w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com 66.109.6.108 27.960 ms
7 [AS19548] bu-ether12.dllstx976iw-bcr00.tbone.rr.com 66.109.6.39 68.114 ms
8 [AS19548] bu-ether12.tustca4200w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com 66.109.6.0 71.902 ms (0% loss)
9 [AS7843] be4.clmkohpe01r.midwest.rr.com 107.14.19.37 69.852 ms (0% loss)
10 [AS7843] 0.ae4.pr0.lax00.tbone.rr.com 107.14.19.86 88.256 ms
11 [AS0] 218.30.54.157 70.450 ms
13 [AS0] 202.97.57.245 348.071 ms (0% loss)
14 [AS0] 202.97.14.213 233.010 ms (0% loss)
15 [AS0] 202.97.34.73 284.980 ms (66% loss)
17 [AS0] bj141-130-94.bjtelecom.net 219.141.130.94 234.750 ms (66% loss)
The Internet is built from multiple connected networks (autonomous
systems), but it’s much more centralized than a mesh network.
https://visual.ly/community/infographic/technology/internet-topology-autonomous-systems
What is a mesh network?
https://blogs.cisco.com/cloud/an-osi-model-for-cloud
What about an economic layer?
A new, blockchain-settled economic layer in the networking
stack would allow us to incentivize (more) decentralized
telecommunications.
Content
Messaging
Knowledge bases
Social networks
Marketplaces

15. EO1602 (FDR, 1933) &
EO11615 (Nixon, 1971)
2008 Financial Crisis,
Bailouts & QE
Snowden,
2016 Election,
Cambridge Analytics
Why is it important that we build a blockchain mesh network?
Robustness, privacy, and censorship-resistance are as
important for telecommunications as they are for sound
money.
A blockchain-based mesh network may be required to
preserve blockchain-based money.
Bitcoin “The Mesh”
Instigating
Actions
Predictable
Outcome
Paranoiac’s
Solution
Patriot Act (Bush, 2001)
Citizens United (Obama, 2010)

16. Lightning Network
The mesh works similarly to the Lightning Network:
• Efficient yet private routing inside an adversarial network
• Micro-accounting, external settlement
• Must be scalable
• Centralization concerns
How to integrate blockchains & networking?
(Expect to see many variations after the first successful one.)
Like blockchains, lightning networks are a new kind of technology.

17. I heard you like settlement layers…
The mesh must achieve the speed of current centralized
networking.
Bitcoin transaction
LN transaction
Networking
minutes - hours
second?
milliseconds!
A lightning network transaction for each
mesh packet is probably not scalable.
Lightning Network
Mesh networking is Layer 3
Client opens network
connection to server.
Route resolved between
client & server on LN
<=>

18. Chain Lightning
ETH is doing this backwards
Mesh (Data, Comms)
Bitcoin (Value)
LN (Payments)
Apps (CPU)
Time
A chain of settlement layers
anchored in a PoW blockchain.
Can the mesh be self-hosting?
Anchoring to value prevents externalization of costs in the mesh & app layers.
Personal Data Collection DDOS
Bloat Security

19. Scheme 3: Humanity
https://imgur.com/gallery/ZOdKRs0

20. What is my identity?
029506048384
20640737ccde
146df596a28ae
9dd68872fcc39
63c048baa487
d926
10/10!
Dhruv Bansal
Austin, TX
34 yrs old
Me My Identifiers
Attestations
About MeMy Reputation My NetworkMy Data
There’s no mystery or money in identifiers.

21. Why do you need a token to do ID?
https://w3c-ccg.github.io/did-spec/
Public/private keys are sufficient for authentication
& delegated authorization.
PGP
OpenID
OAuth
DID

22. What about lost private keys?
If you lose a private key, you lose:
Data: You can no longer decrypt anything
previously encrypted with that key
Identifier: You can no longer prove you
own the corresponding public key
Not fixable
Fixable
Identifier reassignment:
Centralized
Identity provider issues a new
identifier.
Distributed
Nope (Bitcoin)
Can blockchains provide an economic context in which
to perform distributed identifier reassignment?

23. abc def50 HUM 25 HUM
1. Identities can send HUM to each other in transactions.
Links cost HUM and grant rekeying
power so users are incentivized to be
judicious in creating them.
02a395c03341276df2fc94889667e744b7372
891c75366b094ac86c5a6eaba8615
0385e252a2cc94a7907d5381e73986cab1c9
34f08013fe940dda7493a5889e5eba
2. Identities can spend HUM to update their public key.
3. Identities can spend HUM to become (un)linked.
4. Rekey: Identities linked to a given identity can spend HUM to
update that identity’s public key
Presenting HUMANITY

24. More on Rekeys
Modified by neighborhood?
Unrecoverable cost?
Trust domains

25. Once more, with HUMANITY:
10/10!
Dhruv Bansal
Austin, TX
34 yrs old
Me My Identifier
Attestations
About MeMy Reputation My NetworkMy Data
Decentralized, self-sovereign identity is the foundation
for future models of political representation.
db 50 HUM
02a395c03341276df2fc94889667e744b7372
891c75366b094ac86c5a6eaba8615

26. Scheme 4: Latinum

27. What is Latinum made of?
No physical substance is likely to be worth
transporting between the stars.
Latinum is made of information.
Any system of information-based wealth transfer across large
distances must contend with the finite speed of light.

28. Finite Speed of Light Allows Double Spending

29. Relativity of Simultaneity Screws w/Consensus

30. Blockchains Can Into Space!
Extreme scales
Years for a transaction to get mined
Decades for a transaction to fully confirm
Hashpower on the Kardashev Scale
Faster throughput cannot come from bigger blocks, it must
come from layering.
Long timescales characterize and may be required for
spreading through space.

31. Scheme 5: Hash to the Future

32. How does basically all of physics work?
Noether’s Theorem: To every symmetry
corresponds a conservation law.
Symmetry Conserved Quantity
Translation in space Linear momentum
Translation in time Energy
Rotation in space Angular momentum
Rotation in spacetime
(boost)
Center of mass
Rotation in U(1) Electric charge
Rotation in SU(2) Isospin
Rotation in SU(3) Color charge
Feynman’s Sum Over Paths: Reality is the mutual
interference of every possible thing happening at
once.
Nature is an adversarial system with a
consensus algorithm designed to prevent
double-spending.

33. Space
Time
Spooky Action at a Distance
Time Entanglement
Allowed States: Conservation Law:
must
balance
Here There
Now
Later
The future can be known with certainty, just like the past.

34. Quantum Transactions

35. Hash to the future?
Today’s blocks are secure because they are the tip of a
long, heavy PoW chain of blocks going into the past…
…what if each block constrained all future blocks?

36. END