I got the idea that a SHA256 hash could be rendered into something difficult to forget. The rendering would involve using each of the 256 bits to specify something important about the rendering - important in an instinctive human-memory way.
Let's assume such a rendering is possible, and that at any time, any person can execute the rendering against the SHA256 hash of a consistent representation of the UTXO Set. Sometimes, someone will execute the rendering and discover that it is remarkable in some way (making it even more memorable), and therefore will publish it. The published, memorable rendering now becomes a kind of protection against any possible re-writing of the blockchain from any point prior to that UTXO Set. When everyone involved in Bitcoin recognizes this protection, it relieves us of the need to retain the full blockchain in order to validate the UTXO Set at that point, because enough people will recognize it, and it can be validated without reference to any kind of prior computer record. This does leave open the possibility that an attacker could create a more favorable UTXO Set that happens to have a rendering similar enough to fool people, or one that has exactly the same SHA256-hash, but that possibility is remote enough to ignore (just as we all ignore the possibility that whatever creates the master seed for our HD wallet will create a unique master seed). I've been working on how such a rendering could happen. It could describe music, characters, colors, plot points, memorable elements of characters, etc. Dave Scotese
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