What is an atom?

The concept of atom can be traced back to ancient Greece, when philosopher Democritus first proposed the term "atom" to describe indivisible tiny particles. In modern science, we have a deeper understanding of atoms, which are considered to be complex structures composed of smaller elementary particles, among which protons and neutrons are composed of quarks, and electrons are one of the elementary particles.

In a sense, atoms are the "bricks" of matter, which combine in various ways to form all the matter we see. The interactions between atoms determine the physical and chemical properties of matter, thus affecting the shape, color, hardness and other characteristics of matter.

The concept of atom is important not only because it is the basic unit of matter, but also because it symbolizes indivisibility and independence. The English name of atom is derived from Greek, and its original meaning is "indivisible". Analogously to Bitcoin, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, "Satoshi", is also a basic unit that cannot be further divided. Similarly, it also meets multiple characteristics such as independence, basicity, immutability, and wide application. Therefore, we can think that Bitcoin is "atomic".

Bitcoin’s atomicity

Just as atoms constitute all matter in our physical world, Satoshi, as the smallest unit of Bitcoin, builds the technical and cultural foundation from Bitcoin to the entire Crypto.

Today, Bitcoin is no longer just "gold". Satoshi is no longer just a fraction of a token, but the basic unit of Bitcoin's application ecosystem. You can attach any metadata tags to Satoshi, you can enter the era of smart contracts by operating Satoshi, you can define the state of Satoshi, and let the interaction between Satoshi and Satoshi ultimately create "physical reactions" and "chemical reactions" on Bitcoin.

At this time, the intelligence which originally possesses "atomicity" has truly realized the value of "atoms".

If the entire physical world is constructed from atoms, then the original intention of Bitcoin may be to use Satoshi as the starting point to construct the entire Web3 era and the entire Bitcoin universe.

However, not only is Satoshi the "atom" of Bitcoin, but Bitcoin is also the "atom" of the future digital society.

Quote @404lambert: "I always wondered why @atomicalsxyz was named Atomicals until I read the book Being Digital, which said: When we live digitally, bits will coexist with atoms."

We can refer to Digital Matter Theory (DMT), which argues that digital information can be viewed as a digital substance, similar to physical matter (such as wood or metal), and in the future, the application of digital information may exceed that of atoms. This is a framework that connects the physical world to the digital world, and it argues that information (bits) plays a role in the digital world similar to that of matter (atoms) in the physical world. This theory attempts to show how, in a highly digital society, information can become the basis for building digital reality, just as atoms form the basis of the physical world.

In the future, Bitcoin will not only be a financial tool, but also a part of the digital social infrastructure. As the "atom" of the future digital society, Bitcoin is preparing for the next prosperity of the global economy, society and culture.

Atomicals inherit atomicity

The existence of Atomicals inherits the atomicity of Bitcoin.

ARC-20 is the token standard of Atomicals, also known as the colored coin standard. It is a faithful inheritance and practice of the core concept of Bitcoin's "atomicity". By practicing the original logic of "one coin, one satoshi", Atomicals uses the independent and indivisible characteristics of satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, to lay the foundation for building a more complex and diverse native economic framework within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

There is no modification to Bitcoin itself, no sidechain, no second layer, and the transfer and calculation are completely handled by the Bitcoin network. Under this premise, the responsibility and goal of the Atomic Protocol is to bring Bitcoin into the atomic age, maximize the utility of atomicity, and allow Bitcoin to be flexibly expanded and applied based on Satoshi.

The Atomicals protocol also defines a special term "Atomical digital object" (Atomical for short). The first sentence in the entire protocol white paper is: "The Atomicals protocol turns digital objects into reality on Bitcoin and PoW-based blockchains."

For ease of understanding, the white paper describes it this way: ERC721 defines digital collectibles, Ordinals define digital artifacts, and Atomicals define the purest digital objects. In this comparison, we can initially feel the value proposition of the atomic protocol. It does not invent an additional value carrier, but uses the simplest and purest way to show Bitcoin itself - every Bitcoin can be a digital object. The transfer of Bitcoin defines the transfer of digital objects; the transaction history of Bitcoin defines the historical changes of digital objects; Bitcoin itself is the ontology of digital objects.

Digital age, digital society, digital future, among these three concepts, Bitcoin is likely to become a core of digital culture. So, in such a future setting, how to control "satoshi" can control digital life. Therefore, the Atomicals white paper also released such a sentence: "It's time to take back control of our digital life - forever."

Atomicals truly provides a set of theories and methods to control Satoshi. To some extent, we can think of it as introducing "physics" and "chemistry" into Bitcoin, allowing Satoshi to function as "atoms".

The future significance of atoms

The ultimate solution to the atomic age is the bit age, and the root of the bit age is the atomic age. The reason why human society has Bitcoin today is that the origin of everything is air, water, and everything that is made up of atoms; and the reason why Bitcoin has the future is that everything originated from Satoshi, the "atoms" in Bitcoin; looking at the future of human society, Bitcoin may become an important source of digital culture.

The atomic protocol finally allows Bitcoin to realize the "atomicity" of the digital world. Many people do not realize what the "atoms" of the future society are, so Atomicals will give BTC a name.

#Atomicals #ARC20 #Quark #比特币生态 #原子协议