Like emergence, blockchains are simple things at their core, yet create complex effects at a larger scale. Understanding the true nature of a blockchain can difficult, but as the Instrument’s Blockchain is a fundamental feature of the Novel Universe Model and the concept of a Signature-Frequency Set – the Blockchain’s Ledger entry – it’s useful to cover the basics.
Any blockchain is just a list – a ledger of entries, like the wallets of a cryptocurrency. What makes a blockchain special is how it “links” transactions between those wallets together as “blocks.” Each transaction is a simple statement – the beginning balances, transfer balances, and ending balances of those involved wallets. The beginning balances are imported from each wallet’s most recent block’s ending balance – those “links” of the blockchain. Subsequently, the current block’s ending balance will be exported as the next block’s beginning balance.
“Linking” the current block to its past block is the core feature of a blockchain – generally, ledger data isn’t an external input that might be manipulated, but an internal feature of an indelible ledger. In fact, one cannot have a beginning transaction balance without access to the wallet’s previous block’s ending balance, which relies on its previous block’s ending balance, which relies on … ad infinitum, regressing to the wallet’s initial block, which, of course, necessarily had a beginning balance of zero.
What makes blockchains secure, and appear complicated, is the fact that all blocks are mathematically interwoven, and changing any one block affects many, if not all, other blocks – like snaking, intertwined rows of dominoes falling at the mere disturbance of even a single one. In essence, if any number is changed anywhere, it corrupts the math of the entire tree of linked blocks. Simply moving backwards from the change not only illuminates the error, intentional or not, but also, might easily reconstruct the correct balance. The slightest degree of fraud or theft would, therefore, require a massive, laborious change to the blockchain, and even if it were successful, it would be impossible to hide, as so many wallet-holders would notice their balances were off to some degree. In reality, each wallet’s balance isn’t so much a number, as it is the full, truthful history of its interactions with other, full truthful histories – an indelible web of interlinking data.
Like a crypto-wallet’s unique account number, a Signature-Frequency Set’s Blockchain ID is an Instrument Ledger entry – that “signature frequency” of our Signature-Frequency Set, based on an infinitely precise note of the Instrument’s Scale. The Novel Universe Model recognizes everyone as an individual “sound,” produced by the Instrument, that no other can, nor ever will, recreate.
A Signature-Frequency Set is a metaphoric tadpole – an independent creature with a very long tail, wide body, and tiny head with two eyes. Each of the three parts represent a different aspect of time, the past (tail), future (body), and present (head). The SFS tail is the record of every Blockchain Block the Set has participated in – an individual’s complete, eternal history. The SFS body is made up of the Set’s preferences, goals, and priorities – how it intends on shaping those future, co-created Blocks. The SFS head is the Set’s experience of the Blockchain – how it’s currently co-creating Blocks with other Sets. The SFS head’s two eyes are the frameworks of Love and Power.
At the tip of the SFS tail is the Set’s Blockchain ID, followed by that first interaction of self-creation. At the other end of the Set from the tail are the eyes. Every moment we experience (SFS head) is data, shaped by our history (SFS tail) and preferences (SFS body), seen through our frame of Love or Power (SFS eyes). Authentic data is a frame of Love, representing the Set’s truth, designed to elicit a deeper connection. Constructed data is a frame of Power, information designed to elicit a preferential outcome. The eye we see the universe through shapes our every interaction, and as we transition between perspectives, we experience the costs and benefits of Power and Love.
The Novel Universe Cult draws a clear line on this idea that neither Love nor Power is “correct,” or the “right” choice – there is only what is right for the Signature-Frequency Set, and Love has just as many costs and benefits as Power, although they are very different from each other. The cost of Love is the uncontrollable exposure to one’s full truth – all the pain and joy co-created with others; the benefit, eternal, limitless novelty in the co-creation of others (Concert Hall). The cost of Power is an inability to co-create novelty; the benefit, absolute control of everything within one’s isolated reality (Spiral), and the option to freely acquire and consume novelty through trade (Marketplace).
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