Entropy-Based Evidence for Bitcoin's Discrete Time Mechanism
Fuente:
arXiv
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866914315950358528 |
|---|---|
| author | Chen, Bin Feng, Pan |
| author_facet | Chen, Bin Feng, Pan |
| contents | Bitcoin derives a verifiable temporal order from probabilistic block discovery and cumulative proof-of-work rather than from a trusted global clock. We show that block arrivals exhibit stable exponential behavior across difficulty epochs, and that the proof-of-work process maintains a high-entropy search state that collapses discretely upon the discovery of a valid block. This entropy-based interpretation provides a mechanistic account of Bitcoin's non-continuous temporal structure. In a distributed network, however, entropy collapse is not completed instantaneously across all participants. Using empirical observations of temporary forks, we show that collapse completion unfolds over a finite propagation-bounded interval, while remaining rapid in practice. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_09027 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Entropy-Based Evidence for Bitcoin's Discrete Time Mechanism Chen, Bin Feng, Pan Information Theory Bitcoin derives a verifiable temporal order from probabilistic block discovery and cumulative proof-of-work rather than from a trusted global clock. We show that block arrivals exhibit stable exponential behavior across difficulty epochs, and that the proof-of-work process maintains a high-entropy search state that collapses discretely upon the discovery of a valid block. This entropy-based interpretation provides a mechanistic account of Bitcoin's non-continuous temporal structure. In a distributed network, however, entropy collapse is not completed instantaneously across all participants. Using empirical observations of temporary forks, we show that collapse completion unfolds over a finite propagation-bounded interval, while remaining rapid in practice. |
| title | Entropy-Based Evidence for Bitcoin's Discrete Time Mechanism |
| topic | Information Theory |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.09027 |