A (decentralised) fungus among us
Written by Justin Williams, Content Editor in Customer Success at Luno
There aren’t many people on the planet who have never seen a mushroom. They occur on every continent, yet, we understand little about them. We see them in urban spaces; in backyards, public parks and sometimes in landscaped gardens in mall parking lots.
We’ve spied them after it has rained outside our offices at Luno, and have seen them growing out of logs and tree stumps in the forest. We’re only beginning to understand how elegantly-designed these organic supercomputers are — and the natural source code they run.
In fact, in order for us to understand the true potential of a decentralised economy, we need look no further than right under our noses: To the world of mushrooms and fungi.
When last did you see a mushroom? Think for a moment about where it was growing and what it looked like. What you probably didn’t realise is it was just the fruit of a much larger organism, kind of like an apple on a tree, but in this case, the tree is underground and looks like an interconnected mass of white-grey cobwebs. That mass is called mycelium and the mushroom above the ground is a fruiting body connected to it.
After it rains, moisture seeps into the ground and causes the mycelium to go into reproductive mode — this is when the mushrooms happen. A single mushroom can release countless spores into the air, some of which may travel great distances before settling into the ground where more mycelium will be able to grow.
Biological intelligence
Mycelium is a living decentralised organism. If one part of the network is compromised, the mass will continue to thrive. There is no reliance, nor is there any dependency on centralisation in the mycelium. It learns, feeds and operates collectively as one neural network through its microscopic nodes and highly-sophisticated natural engineering. These nodes can be of varying genders (like us) and it too contains hardwired DNA and chromosomes.
One type of fungus, Schizophyllum commune, may contain over 20,000 genders throughout its network, all of which are compatible to bond and increase the size of the network together to open up new pathways of understanding. Another fungus, Armillaria, is the largest living organism in the world, with that particular instance of mycelium measuring 3.8km across in the Blue Mountains in Oregon, USA. That’s one humongous fungus.
Fungi can form relationships with trees. In forests and wooded areas, the two can form a physical bond through a tree’s roots and share information and nutrients with one another, co-existing symbiotically. Bear in mind, trees and mushrooms are in two entirely separate natural kingdoms, so this encounter is literally the equivalent of us talking to and understanding the language of a tree in the plant kingdom — and it, understanding us.
In the case of fungi, the tree photosynthesises vitamins and nutrients from the sun and feeds the mycelium this nourishment, and in exchange, the mycelium delivers nutrients and sugars digested from the ground, as well as vital information, to the tree.
This vital information is gathered from other trees in the forest and communicated through the fungus, which is acting as a natural network that they’re tapping into — pretty much like the internet.
A global authority on fungi, Paul Stamets, calls it “the wood wide web” and tests have successfully demonstrated the type of information exchanged; the mycelium contains a library of antibiotics which it dispenses to trees through the network if a viral infection attacks part of the forest, and if there’s a new type of infection that strikes, an updated patch will be developed and deployed to the infected area through the network. This is only one example of application the two organisms share in an economy of survival.
In a 2009 study done in Japan, a slime-mould fungus called Physarum polycephalum was introduced to a miniature replica of the busy Tokyo subway system, with each interconnected station represented by a bit of food for the fungus — wet oat flakes. The scientists then observed something intriguing. Within a few hours the fungus had entered survival mode in its new terrain; spreading out cautiously and foraging, and once it had used its naturally programmed machine learning to acquire more information about this new environment, it wasn’t long before the focus was shifted on to the next function: Operation Optimise.
In less than two days the fungus had completely rearranged the entire subway system into a working model of something far more efficient, reimagined from the ground up. More research in this field needs to be done so we can draw inspiration to incorporate this biological intelligence into tech of our own.
Of money and mycelium
Cryptocurrency is still a relatively new technology, but already in our lifetime, we’re witnessing the forward march towards a global, decentralised economy.
With your Luno Wallet you can safely send and receive Bitcoin across the blockchain, a model familiar to mycelium in many ways. Just like how miners are rewarded in BTC for solving complex mathematical equations, so too are parts of the mycelial network rewarded with nutritional and informational uptake. Decisions are made harmoniously across the chain; processing power is decentralised and the collective intelligence is made greater because of it.
What can we learn from this all?
We currently offer certain coins which have the best use cases to scale. At this point the mycelial-like blockchain is still growing and getting better (relatively speaking still in its infancy) similar to when that slime-mould fungus was first introduced to the subway replica.
System improvements like the Lightning Network are direct results of its decentralised success, and we can expect to watch this exciting trend continue into something radically different — and better — than what we could have previously imagined.
Similar to mycelium, we at Luno strive to make the cryptocurrency ecosystem stronger than before. How? By making sure we’re driving mass adoption through education, security and innovation. Getting stronger, better and building a network of wealth for everybody.
Is the secret to the future of finance in fungus?
