Thanks for the thoughtful article Raúl, appreciate your ideas. A couple of comments (from a biologist and crypto enthusiast).
Although the metaphor of a living organism makes sense on some levels, I think we would be better off talking about a broader category of complex systems, of which biological organisms are a subset. Homeostasis is not only a property of living systems — a thermostat is the classic example.
To take it further, many of the attributes that you’re ascribing to blockchains are really attributes of markets in general. What you talk about as homeostasis is really just market mechanics — supply and demand. Your example of algal blooming is the same, in that it’s an example of basic market dynamics, however you’re also suffering from a category error here. This example is not demonstrative of similarities between a blockchain and a living organism — it’s demonstrative of similarities between a market and an ecosystem. The ‘organisms’ in this example are the miners.
On the matter of hormesis, I think you are way off the mark. Hormesis doesn’t just mean there’s an optimum dose of something. It means that something normally considered to be toxic can be beneficial in low doses. The classic example is radiation. Your metaphor would only work here if hashrate was a ‘toxin’ to the blockchain organism, but somehow at low doses was beneficial. We know that’s not the case — hashrate is really more like the hearbeat of the blockchain. Too slow or too fast is not good. That isn’t hormesis, it just means that this system functions optimally within certain parameters.
So yes, markets display behaviours resembling those of other complex systems. You could get any economist and ecologist in the same room they could have a decent conversation. But I don’t think this is at all indicative that blockchains resemble living organisms, except in very superficial ways.
