The biggest use is that of a high fidelity record. Bitcoin is excellent at storing information, theoretically, for as long as it exists with true fidelity. This means it's an excellent source for recording and studying history. I think one of the problems with society is that recorded history is so easily forgotten or manipulated over long periods of time. If the records had better fidelity then maybe society would be better equipped to build upon itself rather than continuing to rise and fall.
Discussion
Yeah I agree regarding fidelity if info over time. Do you see ordinals as part of that?
The first thing that comes to mind is the general quality of information seems to be going down fast. Soon we may not know what video evidence is true and what isn't unless we are physically present at an event.
I'm not sure if an immutable record will provide any greater certainty about the information it holds once AI fully takes off.
I don't know if the inscription technique will be the dominant way to keep records on Bitcoin. I think there are plenty of other more simple ways to do it. One idea would be to hash a file and put the hash in the op return of a transaction. Now you can prove the files fidelity from this reference point forward. The sender and receiver could also have some role in the validity of the information to have more confidence it wasn't fake or wildly inaccurate. The cost of transaction fees would also create an incentive to put information that was as valuable or more valuable than the fee of the transaction. So there's three elements at play, the hash of the file, the key holders of the the transaction and the fees of the transaction that could all be used together to help verify the integrity of trustworthiness of information.
I think a tithe-like practice might emerge where people wanting to record information will send a transaction the burns some Bitcoin to the Genesis address for example. They would be sacrificing purchasing power for the small benefit of everyone else in the network, they would be paying a fee too which they could also choose to be generous with, and record a ceremonious event like a birth, marriage, death, ect. This could also be a way to make informational donations to the network forming a library of sorts. It could be called the museum of satoshi.
Interesting concept. If creates demand for bitcoin and doesn't disrupt the monetary network I'm all for it I suppose
Why use Bitcoin for this and not an independent blockchain dedicated to the task?
Bitcoins use as global money means it will be the only blockchain which has the potential to last forever. That’s why it’s called the “TimeChain”
Personally I’m not a fan of any of the inscription shit but to think that another chain could do it better is also silly. Bitcoin is far superior to anything else, even for monkey JPegs.
If people value a library of this kind, why wouldn’t it also last forever?
I'm not sure I understand your question. It will last forever by proxy of the incentive to maintain the monetary aspect of Bitcoin. Because Bitcoin is also money, all participants have a high incentive to continue using and maintaining it.
Other libraries can be burned, lost, and forgotten, bitcoin is more resilient.
“If people value a library of this kind, why wouldn’t it also last forever?” was responding to Zach who was saying that a blockchain for the specific purpose of having an incorruptible library, separate from Bitcoin, was a doomed idea.
I get why Bitcoin will last forever. I just don’t get why an incorruptible library wouldn’t also last forever as its own blockchain separate from Bitcoin, since it’s also a good and valuable idea.
I run a Bitcoin node. I don’t run an incorruptible library node. The economic incentives of sound money are perfect for immutability and permanent storage, and we haven’t seen any model as robust without there being some form of monetary unit involved.
But I was wrong to say it’s impossible, it could happen. It would be a cool project, especially if you could somehow incorporate Bitcoin to secure it without having to take up so much blockspace.
I’ll walk it back a bit - they might, and maybe it could. However, Bitcoin is guaranteed to be around as long as people continue to find it to be valuable as money, so it’s much more certain that messages inscribed into it also last forever.
We haven’t seen a very good competitor free market product for long term truth storage yet. Everyone deep down knows all the shitcoins won’t last, even the biggest shitcoiner.