Column · what is a data chain

What a data chain is

2026-10-19 · InfoGap

The three links

• Cause. What produced this reading, and under what conditions.
• Time. When it was taken, precisely enough to compare with the next one.
• Consequence. What changed afterwards, and whether the change is attributed or merely adjacent.

Why a pile is not an asset

A pile can be large and worthless. Ten thousand readings with no dates and no conditions cannot answer a single question. Ten readings with all three links can answer several.

Why chains appreciate

Because the value is in the transitions, and transitions require history. A chain accumulates the one thing that cannot be bought later: what happened next, in order.

The test

Take any entry and ask what you would need to reproduce it. If the answer is "I do not remember", the chain has a hole, and the hole is where the next wrong conclusion will come from.

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