This is a reflective report translated for non-specialists. The narrator is a detective who arrived long after the humans had left. Everything described as measured is based on the real Bitcoin mechanics: block intervals, difficulty/goal, timestamp rules, data available from block headers and the coinbase transaction.
We have arrived on a silent planet. The last hours that were still ticking were embedded in a ledger whose authors were gone.
Beginning of the report
a team: Scanning unit 3
Artifact: Global Ledger (“Bitcoin”)
technique: Analysis of a lightweight string (heads + coin base), set to solar time
road
We have analyzed the digital artifact known as Bitcoin using what we have identified Cluster headers (timestamp, target/’bits’, version) and each block Coinbase transaction (height, output value, and tag text).
From our previous initial review we built the following data points:
- expenses It was dealt with as follows: Coinbase Output – Programmatic Support (The fee actually claimed by the miner).
- The timestamps are calibrated to the day and solar year of the planet and are bounded to Bitcoin Mean Past Tense (MTP) a base.
- Evidence of Disagreement over advice (old blocks) was conclusion from timing irregularities and MTP edge effects; Where any Stale block archives Survived on isolated nodes, they confirmed those periods.
- There was difficulty retargeting every time Blocks 2016 with real_timespan It is fixed at 0.25×-4× of the two-week target, which implies that the difficulty change in each period is limited to at most 4× In both directions.
Results
Stop payments
We recorded ΔH (blocks before present) to be ≈ 86,000. Coinbase’s output was equal to programmed support, which implies Charges ≈ 0. During the same time period, the average block spacing stabilized near ~60-70 minutes With an average long clip ~65 minutes.
explanation: Human-directed payments have stopped. The mechanical version continued.
Dating: 86000pcs × ~65 min ≈ ~ 10.6 years Before we arrived.
Power supply timing signatures
Post-collapse block accesses were not memoryless. Circadian and seasonal rhythms encoded the unattended energy mix:
- Day groups with night gaps Recurred across low longitudes → unattended Solar With humiliating storage.
- Irregular bursts of several hours interspersed with multi-day voids At mid latitudes → winds Which malfunctioned during storms and was not reset.
- Continuous presence overnight At few longitudes → small Hydro or Geothermal energy Operating island.
We aligned repeated sets of timestamps during the day with local solar noon for estimation Longitude ranges Of the remaining sites. The strength of the seasonal variation in the numbers of arrivals was approximate Latitude ranges. The exact coordinates of the location were not recoverable.
Difficulty levels (fade, timing)
Immediately after the fragmentation shock, the average block time jumped from ~10 minutes to hours. Because the difficulty only redirects each of them Blocks 2016 Every era is change Bounded bythe chain was formed Terracesplateaus with a quasi-constant average interval separated by discrete steps.
The representative sequence observed in the global ledger:
- Balcony A: ~16-17 hours/block to Blocks 2016 → has passed ~ 3.8 years.
- Balcony B: ~4.1 hours/block to Blocks 2016 → ~0.95 years.
- Balcony C: ~62-65 minutes/block to Blocks 2016 → ~87-91 days.
- Balcony D: ~15-16 minutes/block to ~ 22 daysand then renewed hardware failures slowed the series down again.
where the remaining hashrate was ≈1% Before the event, Terrace A lies alone ~ 3.8 years At about 16.7 h/mas. In ≈0.1%the same era could have extended to 2016 ~38 years At about 167 hours/block, it is still within the scope of the protocol modification. The rhythm of one of the regions corresponded to a condition of ~16–17 h/block.
How to read taras (worked kalas):
Epoch length = 2016 pieces. If the observed time interval on the plateau is 16.7 hours, then the elapsed time for that epoch ≈ 2016 × 16.7 hours ≈ 3.84 years.
The decay of the network captured in the log
Once precise clocks disappeared, miners’ time stamps appeared I got carried away In coherent regional patterns. Bitcoin Medium term plan The rule limited the abuse of timestamps (each new block must be later than the average of the previous 11 blocks) but did not eliminate drifting signatures.
Interval variability and combined time progression limited by the MTP are detected Intermittent sections and Disagreement over advice; When any link (e.g., satellite, microwave) is resumed, the competing branches are reconciled and only the winning branch remains primary.
Without preserved ancient archives, the measured competition is a minimum.
Maker marks that outlive their makers
Coinbase Tag Chains (pool labels) and stable nonce/version Fingerprints persisted for years after the graphic activity ended. The default settings are never changed once the operators are up and running Software/hardware families They can be identified in the record. (Coinbase tags appear across a Coinbase transaction, and are not borne by addresses alone.)
Chronology of key events (practical examples)
- “Payments have ended.” window where Coinbase output = support He started on ΔH ≈ 86,000. Using ~65 min/block Note: ~ 10.6 years Before the present.
- The first post-shock retargeting was completed. The initial block reduction of 2016 has ended ~ 3.8 years After the hash rate collapses (plateauing at about 16.7 hours/block).
- The ultimate detectable aqueous rhythm. The heavy, almost constant signing stopped last night ~1.9 years before the present; The previous seven spring seasons showed an increase in multi-day power outages consistent with intake blockage and flood damage.
All conversions are used Notice Sectional averages, not the nominal 10-minute target.
Duration estimation (device operating time)
- Minimum certain: > 10 years After the cessation of economic activity (from the collapse of tariffs to the last rhythm similar to hydropower).
- Reasonable upper limit (regional): Multi-contract The process has a very low hashrate, where a One era of the 2016 block It spans decades due to the modification limit.
The only requirements were: (a) at least one power source and (b) an intermittent path for some blocks to reach the global network.
Summary report
Ultimately, the log shows when payments stopped, how power diminished, how networks shook, and how long unattended machines continued to write down time, enough to reconstruct the end of the activity from headers and coinbases alone.
End of report
What should readers take from this?
- Bitcoin behaves as a tool. Difficulty rules and timestamp constraints transform physical reality, power availability, operator absence, and network partitions into a permanent time series.
- Financial failure, not price, was what ended the writing process. Dust, clogged screens, tripped breakers, drifted clocks, broken links.
- These forensics apply today. Block spacing, fee compression (via coinbase delta), timestamp skew, and retargeting dynamics are actionable diagnostics of service outages and current partitions.
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- Longitudes were estimable. The exact locations were not. Latitude is only approximately inferred from seasonal strength.
- Completely isolated “shadow mining” may have produced blocks that never made it to the global ledger.
- Without archives of ancient blocks preserved, contention estimates are so-so Minimum limits; Some races leave no legal trace.
- Once concurrent time sources fail, the MTP is primarily maintained Relative rankinginaccurate civil time; Long-term calendar dates carry additional uncertainty even when the instantaneous/seasonal structure is clear.
- In very low hash rate systems dominated by a single living operator, timestamps can be walked within the limits of the MTP, partially obscuring daily signatures; Cross-validation using nonce patterns and Coinbase flags mitigates this but does not eliminate it.
- most OP_RETURN The payloads were not widely demountable and were not explained.
