BeWater Investment Zen One: Life is Like a Chain

In the blink of an eye, I have been in Crypto for 12 years.

In ancient times, people referred to 12 years as a period, while in the cryptocurrency world, a period feels like a lifetime. Twelve years ago, Bitcoin was still a cyber toy, and twelve years later, it has become a reserve of the United States. I want to write some insights from these 12 years into a book as a record. However, as a yearly blogger, where I write and when I finish is completely up to fate, haha.

The cycle of crypto comes in waves, just like the tides, and this book is called “Be Water Investment Zen.” Investing is like rising and falling with the tides; it truly requires to Be Water, to go with the flow, to be flexible and formless, to move and be still like the current, with moderation in advance and retreat. Be formless, shapeless, like water.

Life is like water and also like a chain. Where should I start the first discussion?

1. Life is like a chain

Many people may not know that blockchain was not originally called blockchain.

Satoshi Nakamoto referred to his invention as “timechain” in the earlier source code:

“When nodes solve the proof of work, they broadcast the block to everyone and add the block to the time chain.” - Satoshi Nakamoto

Image: Extracted from Satoshi Nakamoto’s early code

When I first saw this time chain, I felt it was wonderful.

It turns out that Satoshi Nakamoto’s original idea was a “time chain” for recording time and history, and to this day, I still believe that “time chain” is a more appropriate name than “blockchain.”

Wikipedia’s definition of time: “Time is a measure through which the sequence of events can be determined according to the past-present-future order, and it can also measure the duration of events as well as the lengths of intervals between events.”

How did Satoshi Nakamoto implement the time chain?

He said, “To achieve a distributed timestamp on a peer-to-peer basis, we need to use a proof of work similar to Adam Back’s Hashcash.”

Satoshi Nakamoto uses proof of work to determine the sequence of events (blocks), timestamps (time points), and intervals between events (block time), with global nodes collectively maintaining and reaching consensus on a data-meaningful “time.”

In other words, Satoshi Nakamoto created a time that is purely data in meaning…

Wait a moment, take a good taste…

Satoshi Nakamoto created a purely data-driven concept of time.

Imagine, if you were AI, how would you understand the concept of time? How could humans create a form of time that machines can understand?

That’s right, data and machines don’t know what “time” is. Human time is nothing more than a consensus based on Greenwich Mean standards. However, Satoshi Nakamoto has created a kind of machine-understandable “time” through proof-of-work, which is verified by all nodes to form a consensus, and is connected by blocks according to the past-present-future sequence to form a “time chain”, which is maintained by the computing power of all nodes, does not need to be trusted, cannot be tampered with, and can be traced back indefinitely.

Since then, Satoshi Nakamoto has created his own time.

Satoshi Nakamoto connected the created data time into a time chain, maintained by the energy of the physical world, and formed a consensus in the data world, everyone in the physical world and the data world abide by this time, add events according to time, record the ledger and history of time, and no one can delete it. No one can change the time of Bitcoin, because the time of Bitcoin is protected by the computing energy of the whole network, unless 51% of the energy is mastered.

From a different perspective, does the real world we live in also have a “time chain”?

Are we also protected by the energy of the entire universe during our time in the universe?

Why can’t we reverse time? Why can’t we go back to the past? Does the universe’s time also obey the 51% universal energy law?

Image: In the movie “Back to the Future,” the time machine can travel through time by reaching 88 miles per hour.

Yes, life is like a chain.

As Wang Jian Shuo said:

We have the ability to write any byte of information into the global ledger and cannot change it. This kind of ability, which was previously only possessed by God, is called “time.” Over time, every second that passes, everything that happens in this universe is pressed into a God’s blockchain called “History”. Humanity, at least until now, has not found the ability to decipher this arrangement of God and change what has happened in the last second.

Satoshi Nakamoto created “time” in imitation of God, and within the framework of Buddhist discourse, the chain of life also resonates with Nakamoto’s time chain. Life is like a chain; every second of ours is, in a mysterious way, recorded in the ledger of time.

In Buddhism, there is the concept of “Alayavijñāna” ( Alayavijñāna ), which refers to the eight types of consciousness: visual consciousness, auditory consciousness, olfactory consciousness, gustatory consciousness, tactile consciousness, mental consciousness, manas consciousness, and Alayavijñāna. The first seven types of consciousness can be destroyed by death, but the eighth, Alayavijñāna, is the true self of a person. It can flow through the six realms of reincarnation and is eternal and indestructible.

The Alaya Consciousness is essentially the “time chain” of our countless lifetimes. Every thought, word, and deed of sentient beings in each moment is inscribed like data in the ledger of the Alaya Consciousness. The momentary birth and death of sentient beings are like timestamps on a blockchain—each moment of karmic data is compressed into a block, permanently recorded in the Alaya Consciousness, allowing for all of history to be traced back over countless eons.

The Alaya consciousness is like the thread of a rosary, stringing together each bead, connecting our lives from one phase to the next, just like individual blocks. In the life that flows through the three realms, even though people do not know their past and future lives, the karmic flow of life, every little bit, is all recorded in the Alaya consciousness. Therefore, in Buddhism:

1. Alaya consciousness is like a field: whatever seeds are sown will bear fruit. Alaya consciousness carries the karma created by the first six consciousnesses, whether good or bad, and will accept them one by one. Then, as the karma grows, it is like seeds sprouting, resulting in retribution.

2. Alaya-vijnana is like a chain: this chain is the main body of human life, with each life being a closed loop, one link connected to another. Although Zhang San, Li Si, pigs, horses, cows, and sheep have different forms of life, they are all like eternal blocks that continue to exist. We circulate in the six realms, aiming to continue the karmic results of past lives, just like the chain that keeps revolving.

Three, the Alaya consciousness is like a ledger: it records the results of good and evil, greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt. In this ledger, the records will not be lost and cannot be tampered with. Once the conditions are mature, the karmic retribution will manifest, which is the reason why people create causes and effects in the world.

So, life is like a chain.

Every thought, every word, every action is a piece of data, engraved on your “time chain”. Alaya consciousness is like a cosmic ledger, storing every detail of your countless lifetimes, whether good thoughts or bad deeds, accumulating countless data since the beginning of time, recording your reincarnation trajectory. Despite the trials and tribulations, it can still be traced back, unable to be deleted or denied.

Satoshi Nakamoto created the time of the digital world, while the Buddha had long revealed the causal chain of life. One is a chain secured by computing power, and the other is a chain maintained by karma—both remind us: cherish every moment, because every second you experience is recorded on the chain, not only forming your “present” but also having already determined your “future.”

The “Avataṃsaka Sūtra” says: “In a single mote of dust, one can see all worlds.” Each hash value in the time chain of the Alaya consciousness compresses infinite causes and effects; life is like a chain.