Bitcoin Conspiracy, Time Travel and Aliens... oh my!

This Bitcoin conspiracy has everything: time travel, quantum computing, and terminator level AI, and craziest of all, some of it could be true.

Let me explain. I’ve been trying to understand the crypto market and in doing so have been doing daily reading on some of the most respected industry sites. I’m getting used to some crackpot theories, but what I read on Thursday was too amazing and far fetched not to share.

Let me start with a question. Does the following mean anything to you?

Probably not and quite honestly, what the heck should it? But to people who follow Bitcoin closely, this string started blowing minds.

So what is happening here? Is it a Bitcoin consipiracy? The weird string of characters above is something called block hash which is essentially just a randomly created string of numbers and letters that help keep track of each new block that that is mined via an algorithm and subsequently is added to the blockchain ledger. Still with me? Wednesday night things took a strange turn and a brand new mystery block appeared in the general ledger with the hash of 00000000000000000021e800c1e8df51b22c1588e5a624bea17e9faa34b2dc4a.

So why are people screaming time travel, aliens and everything in between? Well, turns out the number of zeros at the very start of that code is crazy similar to the block hash for the very first block ever created, affectionately dubbed “genesis block.” The part of the code with 21e8 in it that is after all those zeros is best explained via Medium by user coop_soup “21e8 is important because it signifies an exceptionally simple theory of everything. Often referred to as E8 Theory, it’s a physics preprint proposing a basis for a unified field theory, which attempts to describe all known fundamental interactions in physics and to stand as a possible theory of everything.”

If all this sounds like another language you aren’t alone. What is important to know is that this new code created a super important identifier and the combination of character is super rare and subsequently pretty important.

Copyright NBC/Broadway Video

Bitcoin Conspiracy or More?

So now for the fun part. What caused this? There are some insane theories going around. Futurism summarized them best.

• “Time travel. A block with this particular code (and assuming the codes that new blocks are assigned functions in a predictable pattern) is so improbable that you’d need a lot of time to achieve it. So it’s an indication that some bitcoin aficionado has mined in the future.
• Quantum computing. Like the point above, this explanation rests on the idea that you need a lot of time to arrive at this block hash. One way to cut down the amount of time needed? To operate several mining algorithms simultaneously, which quantum computing allows people to do. But who has the quantum computer? That part is still unclear.
• Satoshi himself. The mathematical coincidences (see the Medium post if you care to learn what they are) are too strong to think that this could be anyone other than Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of the Bitcoin blockchain. Some users think it could be the same computer, if not the same person (or people) who created Bitcoin.
• Someone hacked the Bitcoin architecture. Satoshi’s true identity has never been revealed. Why would they do so in such a confusing way, and why now? It’s gotta be someone pretending to be Satoshi. And that could only mean one thing: hackers have taken control of the Bitcoin architecture.
• Random chance. “0”s happen. So does the combo of 21e8. They don’t mean anything.”

So there you have it. I promised time travel and AI. While I don’t buy any of this and attribute the string to crazy coincidence what will be interested to see is what value will this have on Bitcoin, which has been on quite the downward trend in recent months.