Questions tagged [bitcoins]

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4 votes
0 answers
337 views

Can knot non-equivalence be a proof-of-work for a cryptocurrency?

Regarding a question about proofs-of-work and following up on this answer and the comments therein, I believe we can, at least in theory, come close to having the hashing resources used in ...
Mark S's user avatar
  • 2,143
77 votes
13 answers
8k views

What computational problems would be good proof-of-work problems for cryptocurrency mining?

What computational mathematics problems that could be used as proof-of-work problems for cryptocurrencies? To make this question easier to answer, I want proof-of-work systems that work in ...
Joseph Van Name's user avatar
35 votes
7 answers
4k views

What problem would you base your mathcoin on?

Recently, a variant of electronic currency, based on prime sextuplets, broke the record in generating the largest known set of six primes, packed as closely as possible, that is, a sextuple $(p,p+4,p+...
14 votes
3 answers
3k views

Will quantum computing kill cryptography ? [closed]

I apologize as this question is not really mathematical, and therefore perhaps not well-suited for this site. Please feel free to close it if you think it is not. My reason for asking it here is that ...
Joël's user avatar
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17 votes
3 answers
23k views

Which hard mathematical problems do you have to solve to earn bitcoins ?

A virtual currency called bitcoins has been in the news recently. It is said that in order to "mine" bitcoins, you have to solve hard mathematical problems. Now, there are two kinds of mathematical ...
Chandan Singh Dalawat's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
2k views

Bitcoin Research

I have recently been assigned to advise a student on a senior thesis. She has taken linear algebra, introductory real analysis, and abstract algebra. Her interest is in cryptography. And she has a ...
Joe Johnson's user avatar