Why blockchain is by no means just another form of database system?

Written by: 0x76

Just read Why do I dare to assert that blockchain technology is at least as important as Internet technology? ", I found that recently Jianshuo (I heard that he doesn't like to be called "Jianshuo teacher", so we will call him Jianshuo in the following) is indeed relatively productive, so that he said some things I wanted to say in advance . I used to feel that some opinions were too deviant, or I simply wanted to save enough material before writing, but now I think it is better to send it out in the form of essays for everyone to discuss.

Then, in the first part of the essay, let’s talk about why the blockchain must never be simply Understand it as a database system?

Yes, it is indeed helpful to compare the blockchain to a special form of database, especially Explain concepts to people from technical backgrounds. But this kind of metaphor can never answer a question, that is: Compared with traditional databases, what are the special comparative advantages of this new type of "database system" with obvious defects in efficiency?

In my opinion, the most significant difference between these two database systems is that they handle time completely different.

In traditional databases, time is often only one of many data fields, which is not significantly compared with other fields difference in status. However, in the blockchain version of the database, time no longer exists in the form of simple data, but is directly upgraded from a member of ordinary data to a "dimension" in this system.

Yes, the blockchain is the first database that truly has a time dimension. In this database, any other form of data, whether it is a transaction, asset minting, or deployment of a new smart contract, is bound to be assigned a point in this unidirectional and never-ending time dimension. And this point is what we often call the block height.

In this world, there are countless systems that have information about time, but the systems that really have the dimension of time, at present, Only two classes may exist. One is the blockchain system we just mentioned, and the other is the universe we actually live in.

This is what Jianshuo said in his article: "Blockchain is created by human beings, imitating God a rough imitation of time.”

In this sense, if we take the matter of the real universe It can also be understood as a kind of information that exists in a special form, so this universe can actually be understood as a blockchain data recording system that moves in one direction in the time dimension and never stops.

Furthermore, if we re-examine the concept of "metaverse" that was constantly hyped last year from this perspective, then the metaverse The real core definition should be "a brand new world that records data and the most basic operating rules of the universe in the blockchain, and keeps evolving according to its established rules and can never be stopped by external forces." As for visual effects such as VR and AR, they have nothing to do with the core definition of the Metaverse.

Just as the core definition of a computer should not be a GUI, the core definition of the metaverse should never be What visual effects. All those metaverse projects that engage in AR and 3D modeling should be swept into the dustbin of history as soon as possible.

The most important thing now is to continuously improve the transaction processing capability of the underlying public chain system in order to better Expand the capacity of this system that can carry the information of the new universe. And constantly strengthen the security of the public chain to prevent the basic assumption of this new universe, that is, "time cannot be rolled back and history cannot be tampered with", to be destroyed by the powers in the real world.

Based on the same idea, we can think about it further. For a blockchain system with time as the dimension, the most What are the core competencies?

If you fully agree with all the previous discussions, then you should agree that for a blockchain system It can be said that the most unbearable accident is that the time dimension of the blockchain is destroyed. Including but not limited to downtime (time is suspended), 51% attack (time is reversed), hard fork rollback transaction (history is tampered with).

Of course, if the above three most stringent criteria are used to evaluate, except that the real universe can fully meet the above three One condition, other mainstream public chains may only be able to pass through Bitcoin (it seems that hard forks have tampered with history in the early years, I can’t remember).

Finally, based on the overall thinking above, let’s briefly evaluate the high-performance public chains represented by Solana in the past two years .

Why am I not optimistic about the long-term value of these high-performance public chains?

Because these public chain projects have never understood that blockchain is not a simple Database system, so the core value of its existence has never been transaction speed. Therefore, in the design of these systems, from the very beginning, the protection of the time dimension is not terminated and irreversible as the core design goal.

The end result is the frequent shutdowns and restarts we can see. But the problem is that if a public chain system does not prioritize the time dimension of protecting itself, just like a life system that does not regard survival as its primary goal, its final outcome will inevitably be eliminated by evolution.

My own comments on my articles

This article uses a more deterministic tone in the narrative to express opinions. But to be honest, some of the viewpoints may be a bit deviant even in my opinion (such as comparing the blockchain system to the universe), which makes me often wonder whether I am also caught in the bull market fanaticism. A state of mindless fanaticism about the industry, which has not been attempted to express publicly for a long time.

After reading Jianshuo’s article this time, it gave me courage, so in the middle of the night, I wrote a lot of previous articles Viewpoints sorted out. (Of course, I am also afraid that if these assumptions are proved to be correct in the end, I will barely make an original.) In addition, in the next essay, I am going to comment on Jianshuo's "Blockchain is a centralized watch" View.

Finally, I would like to say a few words. Although Jianshuo is still a beginner in terms of the time he entered the circle, he is my I have seen one of the rare, in this industry full of new concepts and pseudo-innovations, one whose brain is not so easy to get water.

I recommend to follow his official account again: Wang Jianshuo, and recommend listening to several podcasts he has participated in (in vernacular chat about Web3, etc.). I hope that his simple and clear exposition can pull more people back from the completely wrong direction of efforts. I also hope that our industry can finally make some meaningful contributions to human civilization (currently speaking, there are too few).

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