Re:The Ramanujan Machine
by inglor on Sunday July 11, 2021 @01:37AM
(#27798686)
Yeah I’m not professional (I have a BSc in mathematics) and all this looks fairly introductory. Moreover there are lots of easy ways to calculate these constants like Pi (like taylor series) not even mentioning e can be easily calculated to whatever precision you need from its definition
Re:The Ramanujan Machine
by Taek on Saturday July 10, 2021 @04:28PM
(#27796203)
The security properties of Proof of Work cryptocurrency are derived from the wastefulness. We want to be confident that everyone has the same cost when producing a block.
If the problems being solved are useful, they are potentially more useful to some parties than others, meaning some parties may have a lower cost to attack the blockchain, because it was computation they needed to spend money on anyway, might as well attack a blockchain while you are at it.
Re:The Ramanujan Machine
by MathYouF on Saturday July 10, 2021 @06:54PM
(#27797055)
Doesn't this ignore the real world realities of economies of scale though with the physical materials being used? I'd enjoy a bit deeper explanation for this if you don't mind. :)
A key component of the hash algorithm used by blockchain is that difficulty can be adjusted, such that the algorithm ensures that the difficulty to mine the next block increases/decreases based on how long it took previous blocks to mine. In this way the network can attempt to maintain a predictable rate of blocks being mined as mining power fluctuates.
So for this to be a good computation for a blockchain to use it would have to have a way to modify difficulty in a predictable way.
Re:The Ramanujan Machine
by positr0n on Sunday July 11, 2021 @01:53AM
(#27798739)
It also has to make the networking part of Bitcoin fit within physics. From eyeballing the difficulty graph it looks like if you fixed the network difficulty in January 2010 then a new block would be mined every few picoseconds at the peak hash rate this year.
In the case of a fork in the chain the network decides the winner based on which fork ends up being longer. If blocks are being mined too quickly then forks become more likely and the state of the chain is more volatile as the current "winner" keeps flipping around.
Blocks being mined too slowly is a more obvious problem: less transaction throughput.
Re:The Ramanujan Machine
by sahil50 on Saturday July 10, 2021 @04:25PM
(#27796186)
Wyler's derivation of the fine structure constant might be the accurate one, and what the Machine will churn out sooner or later. Resembles the Stefan Boltzmann constant in form and function.
But note that it just generate special cases of a well known formula. More details in "The Ramanujan Machine is all hype" https://www.galoisrepresentations.com/2019/07/17/the-ramanuj... (HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26144665 (40 points | 4 months ago | 16 comments))
If the problems being solved are useful, they are potentially more useful to some parties than others, meaning some parties may have a lower cost to attack the blockchain, because it was computation they needed to spend money on anyway, might as well attack a blockchain while you are at it.
I can try to explain further if that's confusing.
So for this to be a good computation for a blockchain to use it would have to have a way to modify difficulty in a predictable way.
What reasons besides predictable inflation are there for desiring that property?
Blocks being mined too slowly is a more obvious problem: less transaction throughput.