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Descartes and a Cryptocurrency


 I wrote something brilliant recently that was cut from the piece of which it was a part. 

The piece as a whole concerned a certain blockchain named Cartesi and the related token, known as CRTA.

One of the distinctive things about Cartesi is that it allows programmers to do some of their work "off blockchain," that is, in a way that will be opaque to other programmers working on the same system.

Developers of "smart contracts" on Ethereum use "on chain" virtual machines. But developers on Cartesi generally use Linux to create the contracts rather than using blockchain-specific VMs. 

So: what about the name?

The term "Cartesi" pays honor to the philosopher Rene Descartes, founder of modern philosophy.

This much was covered in the story that I wrote recently for Breaking Daily News. 

What was cut was a bit in which I believe I identified specifically WHY Descartes received this honor. Yes, the nerdish types who invent refinements to Ethereum's blockchain might well recognize Descartes' greatness as a geometer. Other outstanding figures in the history of mathematics have been similarly honored. There is a blockchain named after Cardano, for example -- and Cardano is renowned both as the inventor of the combination lock and as the first mathematician in the west to make systematic use of negative numbers. He even acknowledged the existence of imaginary numbers.

There is no reason not to pay hommage to Cardano for those achievements. 

So: why not regard "Cartesi" simply as a similar homage?

Because in doing so we lose sight of a closer connection. Consider "cogito, ergo sum." The Cartesian thought of "I think" is inherently private, even subjective. It is the thought of someone who for all he can tell at this point in his reasonings might be the plaything of an evil demon. There is nothing public about "I think." 

The Cartesian "cogito," then, is an offchain computation. Akin to the sidechains of Cartesi.

Aaaaaahhhhhhh. 


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