“Who am I?” This is a question that quietly surfaces in countless late nights. We are always inclined to look inward, trying to find a stable, pure, eternal “core,” and call it the “true self.”
But what if this core does not exist at all?
In today’s world, where numbers and algorithms have become the underlying logic, a concept originating from Bitcoin may provide us with a subversive answer: The self is not a static entity, but a narrative chain—like Bitcoin’s “longest chain”—constantly verified and reinforced by your choices, actions, and the witness of others.
This perspective may sound a bit hardcore, but give me 3 minutes. It will completely refresh your understanding of the past, present, and future.
Imagine that our complex neural network has always been following an underlying logic similar to Bitcoin’s longest chain:
Every day, your mind is full of countless thoughts, inspirations, and impulses. They are like transactions waiting to be packed in the Bitcoin network—chaotic, noisy, full of possibilities, but not yet reality.
You cannot execute all thoughts. You must devote your most precious resources—attention, time, and energy—to put one idea into practice. This is like miners investing computing power to compete for the right to record: every action requires a real cost.
When you complete an action—whether it’s having a difficult conversation or finishing a five-kilometer run—you successfully “pack” a block. This action, big or small, becomes a minimal unit of your life’s narrative.
These blocks accumulate over time, connected one after another, eventually forming a unique chain. This chain is the “self” that can be traced back and verified.
If the future has endless possibilities, then what is the “present”?
The present = An eternal forking space.
At every moment before making a choice, we stand at the crossroads of countless parallel universes. Only when you truly invest energy, make a choice, and complete an action does a specific branch get “solidified” into a block, formally written into your personal narrative chain, becoming history.
Over time, these blocks are continuously reinforced through your own reflection (self-verification) and the witness of others (external verification), eventually forming a stable and hard-to-tamper “historical self.”
The strength of this mechanism is just like Bitcoin’s consensus rules: Any “narrative block” that severely contradicts your history will be “rejected” by both your memory network and the social network formed by others.
You cannot easily deny your past, just as Bitcoin cannot easily alter historical transactions.
Not all memories carry the same weight. Some are vague, others remain vivid. This difference can be likened to a block’s “number of confirmations”:
The more frequently you recall or retell an experience, the more confirmations this “memory block” gains. Each recollection is another reinforcement.
If an experience involved others’ participation and witness (e.g., a wedding, a trip), that block gains powerful validation from external nodes, and its stability increases exponentially. The higher the number of confirmations, the harder it is to rewrite memory.
Although brief regret or reinterpretation can be seen as a small-scale “chain reorganization (reorg),” as time passes, reversing a history with high confirmations requires enormous psychological and energetic cost—almost impossible.
From the framework of “the self as the longest chain,” we can draw three profound insights:
(1) Identity is not an entity, but a process
Stop obsessing over finding that “eternal, unchanging” true self. The self is not some hidden core within you, but the very narrative chain reinforced by energy and witness. You are the sum of all your choices and actions.
(2) Freedom and responsibility are two sides of the same coin
Freedom = The forking space of the present
Responsibility = The confirmation cost already paid
You always have the power to choose, but you must bear the consequences that once a choice is made, history becomes hard to roll back.
(3) Beware of two mental traps
Understanding “the self as the longest chain” allows us to face life with a calmer mindset:
Because the true self is not a static answer to be found, but a chain created by your own hands, constantly extending as time flows. History is already verifiable, the present is forking, and the future remains undecided. And you are the sole shaper of this chain.
