KEY POINTS
- Saylor urged the Bitcoin community to "trust the timechain" Sunday, gaining much engagement from his followers
- Many agreed with Saylor and even posted tributes for Bitcoin's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto
- Timechain is basically a record of all Bitcoin transactions – the groundwork for blockchain technology
Prominent Bitcoin maximalist Michael Saylor once again kept the cryptocurrency community busy Sunday as he dropped three lines on X (formerly Twitter) that raised interest among Bitcoiners and crypto watchers.
"Trust the Timechain," the founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy wrote on X Sunday. Many of his followers were quick to agree and responded with tribute posts to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous developer behind Bitcoin.
Trust the Timechain.
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) April 6, 2024
However, several followers asked the question most outside the crypto or Bitcoin community may have been wondering about: what exactly is the timechain?
Crypto mining hardware firm CryptoHub LLC wrote in a LinkedIn post that in his notes that laid out the groundwork for what the world now knows as blockchain technology, "Satoshi never used the term 'blockchain' ... he referred to it as a 'timechain,' emphasizing the chronological sequence of blocks." Bitcoin's creator used the word timechain when referring to the timestamping of each BTC transaction, an approach deemed critical in ensuring the security and integrity of the digital coin's network.
Bitcoin enthusiast Mark Maraia wrote in 2021 that real-deal Bitcoiners who believe the coin's protocol is a "zero-to-one invention" should start using the language its creator actually used.
"It seems to me that Bitcoiners can go a long way toward cementing Bitcoin's one-of-a-kind nature by never referring to the Bitcoin protocol's timechain as a blockchain, and instead always use the term timechain," he reiterated.
Saylor and Maraia aren't the only Bitcoiners who recognized the importance of using the term "timechain" instead of blockchain. Back in 2021, founder of non-custodial BTC exchange and payments service Bull Bitcoin, Francis Pouliot posted screenshots of Satoshi explaining how the timechain works. "Satoshi called it the 'Timechain.' F*** blockchain. It's timechain now b*****s," Pouliot wrote.
Satoshi called it the "Timechain"
— FRANCIS - BULLBITCOIN.COM (@francispouliot_) March 14, 2019
🤣🤯🌪️😵
FUCK BLOCKCHAIN. ITS TIMECHAIN NOW BITCHES.
sorry im very excited pic.twitter.com/3u1cagfGEW
Perhaps coincidentally, Saylor's use of the word timechain came on the day Bitcoin opened at around $68,900 and hit a high of $70,284.43 before closing at $69,362.55. It is worth noting that the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap was only at around $65,000 three days before it climbed to break $70,000 Sunday.
While Bitcoin's three-day rally is still a far cry from when it set a new all-time high of over $73,000 last month, things may be looking up for the world's first decentralized crypto as industry experts believe the digital coin can set new records after the halving event later this month.
Bitcoin is at $69,900 as of writing.
