Many physicist’s today however, take the experiment as a quite literal example of quantum mechanic’s complex nature. Schrödinger, in his correspondence with Einstein about his experiment, acknowledged it was useful in illustrating the absurdity of quantum mechanics. When the system is observed, it collapses into one or another of the possible wave particle states. That theory is called the Copenhagen Interpretation, which states that until a quantum system interacts with, or is observed by the external world, it remains in superposition. There is a related theory, from which the Schrödinger’s cat experiment arose. We often envision and talk about Bitcoin as a token, a particle virtually and in some cases even physically instantiated, yet Bitcoin is also merely the state of a ledger which is expanding. In this metaphor, they would be particles. Bitcoin blocks become more stable, more consigned to dormancy over time.
In another way, Bitcoin exists as both particle and wave. (Bitcoin itself of course knows nothing of the value we imbue it.) In this way Bitcoin are fungible, primed for transaction, yet many are idle, existing solely as stores of value across space and time.
This does nothing, however, to negate the innate ability Bitcoin have to be consigned a new place in the ledger. There are many clever solutions to provide us with greater conviction that our Bitcoin may remain unspent. What does it mean to consign our Bitcoin to cold storage? It means that we have a rational or irrational conviction that our private keys will remain private or at the very least, that our Bitcoin will remain orphaned and dormant. In some ways, our Bitcoin exist as a combination of multiple states, collapsing into either spent or unspent when we check the ledger. The experiment was a result of a conversation Erwin Schrödinger had with Albert Einstein in 1935. In the Schrödinger's cat experiment, a hypothetical cat can be considered both alive and dead at the same time as a result of subatomic events that may or may not occur. In quantum superposition, a quantum system such as an atom or photon can exist as a combination of multiple states, corresponding with different possible outcomes. You could say your Bitcoin are built to be hodled. 714286% of the terminal 21,000,0000 BTC on the network that are moving each day. A generous total transaction value of 150,000 BTC per day is.
However, this is more of a premium on a service, a premium on novelty, an over valuing, a premium on privacy, a handling fee of Bitcoin rather than a premium expressed by the Bitcoin proper. Many would for example certainly pay a bit of a premium for coins moving for the first time directly from a wallet of Satoshi. There is already a premium on some non-know-your-customer Bitcoin, or newly minted Bitcoin. There will be Bitcoin offered at a premium or a discount based on their history. One cannot in good conscience say any coins will never move, even if it is exceedingly unlikely that lost keys will be discovered, even if some coins have never moved. In this way Bitcoin exist in a quantum superposition of states: unspent/spent. But at the same time every unspent Bitcoin is primed to take on several and collective histories in later blocks. Virgin coins from the same block sent to the same address are one and the same. The ledger history of each unspent transaction is unique. Though the probability that lost private keys will be discovered can reach near zero, it is not zero, even though functionally, socially or economically, we can behave as though lost coins are off the table without consequence. Whether or not humans have access to their private keys, Bitcoin do not lose their protocol. (Legacy addresses may be spent in near future blocks, so they too are fungible and have a unique transaction history.) Bitcoin are fungible to the extent that each is interchangeable, meaning 1,000 satoshis of mine and 1,000 satoshis of yours share all the same set of Bitcoin characteristics, and all can be spent. All Bitcoin share all of their attribute set with the rest, but many unspent transactions do not trace the same path through time. In terms of fungibility, Bitcoin is in a quantum state. Quantum superposition states that any two or more quantum states can be added together to form a valid quantum state, while at the same time, every quantum state can be represented as the sum of two or more distinct states. Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment in quantum mechanics that demonstrates a paradox of quantum superposition.