I had thought of another way that mathematicians could contribute to global welfare using mostly math skills.
A lot of newcomers to bitcoin often mentioned that it looked to them that the calculations look wasted. Those who have read about bitcoin know that this is not true as the calculations are used to secure the network. The calculations really don’t have other uses.
The essence of a bitcoin like problem is - tough to crack, but easy to verify once the solution is in. A talented mathematician/chemist team could team up to try to map protein folding or some such problem to a bitcoin-like algorithm where regular increments proceed to solving a bigger problem.
The problem could involve a simple rope like structure and finding out the least energy state. Once cracked, then another segment is added and the next block requires solution with the added segment.
Or a 3d game of life simulation where you have to create von-neumann machines of a certain size. Then once that is cracked, you have to proceed towards creating a bigger von neumann machine.
Hopefully some of the learnings from the random designs that get generated from these networks can be used to crack actual protein folding or nanotechnology and take mankind to the next level.
I had thought of another way that mathematicians could contribute to global welfare using mostly math skills.
A lot of newcomers to bitcoin often mentioned that it looked to them that the calculations look wasted. Those who have read about bitcoin know that this is not true as the calculations are used to secure the network. The calculations really don’t have other uses.
The essence of a bitcoin like problem is - tough to crack, but easy to verify once the solution is in. A talented mathematician/chemist team could team up to try to map protein folding or some such problem to a bitcoin-like algorithm where regular increments proceed to solving a bigger problem.
The problem could involve a simple rope like structure and finding out the least energy state. Once cracked, then another segment is added and the next block requires solution with the added segment.
Or a 3d game of life simulation where you have to create von-neumann machines of a certain size. Then once that is cracked, you have to proceed towards creating a bigger von neumann machine.
Hopefully some of the learnings from the random designs that get generated from these networks can be used to crack actual protein folding or nanotechnology and take mankind to the next level.