The simple lesson Ayahuasca taught me about bitcoin

I’m sure like a lot of non-techies who are obsessed with the concept of bitcoin, I have areas of bitcoin’s technology that I haven’t studied or have just taken on faith.

After doing 200 plus hours of organic, enjoyable research on bitcoin, I made the plunge and sunk a lot of cash (I had just sold a house) into bitcoin. It caused me a little stress, but surprisingly little considering the volatility.

During covid I lost two people close to me and felt an unbearable weight of grief. As cheesy as this sounds, a lifelong friend had become a ayahuasca shaman 15 years ago. He is independently wealthy, so there is no financial motive for him to do this.

I decided to deal with this grief by partaking in a 3 day ayahuasca ceremony. When you do this, you are supposed to come in with “intentions,” —-questions for the ayahuasca, that you want to focus on. Most of my questions were about my personal life, grief, and history, but I added an open-ended question about bitcoin.

At some point, maybe night two, I asked my question. “What do you think about bitcoin?” The ayahuasca answered in the way it does, which is not through English words but by putting fully formed concepts into your brain. It said, “proof of work is how nature works. It IS nature.” And then the ayahuasca would not elaborate.

Of course, my materialistic mind (before the ceremony) was hoping for an answer like “it is really cool and will bring you untold riches…”. But no, it just identified perhaps the key feature of bitcoin and stressed it to me. “Proof of work” was one of those tech features that I just took on faith, without truly appreciating.

There is a parallel with bitcoin, ayahuasca, and proof of work too. Ayahuasca gives you great insight and healing. But there is a physical cost. You vomit, have diarrhea, and occasionally frightening visions in order to “earn” your healing. There is no “fiat” ayahuasca—your illuminations are backed by the work, the effort, and the calories you literally expend through every orifice.

I asked ChatGPT to summarize how bitcoin reflects nature and will post it here. Perhaps this is why bitcoin follows the “power laws” that exist in nature. From ChatGPT:

Proof of Work (PoW) in Bitcoin has striking parallels with processes in nature, particularly in terms of energy expenditure, competition, and evolution. Here are a few ways they are similar:

1. Survival of the Fittest (Competition for Resources) 

Just as species in nature compete for limited resources (like food, mates, and territory), Bitcoin miners compete to solve cryptographic puzzles to add blocks to the blockchain. Only the miner who solves the puzzle first gets rewarded, similar to how the strongest or most adapted individuals in nature survive and pass on their genes.

2. Energy Expenditure and Thermodynamics 

In nature, every living organism must expend energy to survive—whether it’s hunting, gathering, or maintaining bodily functions. Likewise, PoW requires miners to expend electrical and computational energy to validate transactions and secure the network. This aligns with the second law of thermodynamics, where order (blockchain security) is maintained through the dissipation of energy.

3. Randomness and Probabilistic Success 

Many natural processes rely on randomness and probability, such as genetic mutations in evolution or the way predators randomly succeed in catching prey. Similarly, PoW is probabilistic—miners do not know which hash will solve the puzzle, and success depends on chance, just as in natural selection.

4. Decentralization and Emergent Order 

Ecosystems are decentralized, with no central authority dictating how species interact, yet order emerges through natural selection. Similarly, Bitcoin’s PoW creates a decentralized system where security and consensus emerge without a central authority, driven purely by competition and energy input.

5. Irreversibility and Costliness 

In nature, evolutionary adaptations and natural processes (such as fossilization or tree growth) are costly and irreversible. Once energy is spent, it cannot be recovered. Similarly, PoW ensures that altering Bitcoin’s blockchain requires an impractical amount of energy, making it nearly irreversible.

By mimicking these natural principles, PoW creates a robust, decentralized, and secure system that aligns with the fundamental laws governing life and energy in the natural world.